Kevin W. Campbell is a third-generation cowboy/rancher of the Campbell Cattle Company, Bondurant, Wyoming. He was born August 27,1954, the oldest son of Walden and Pat Campbell. He married Tammy Hill in 1977. He has a daughter, Heidi, and a granddaughter, Daviel. Kevin , his Mother, two siblings and a nephew ( Lennie, Katherine, and Walden ) live and work on the ranch in Bondurant. He also has another sister, Colleen, a granddaughter, Jenny, and a niece, Anna, who teaches Vocational Agriculture and is a FAA Advisor in Sublette County.
Kevin’s grandfather, Lennie Campbell, came to the Hoback Basin ( then called the Fall River Basin) and homesteaded in 1910. He was granted ownership in 1913, and bought the Bondurant place in 1943. Kevin’s parents bought the home ranch in 1953. During the early years there were approximately 70 homesteaders in the basin — not all were ranchers, as some were loggers, trappers, and outfitters. The Campbells and the Pfisters are the two original remaining ranches. The Campbells always fed and hayed using work horses until 1995. They still feed with a team in the winter and use horses to mow hay.
Kevin worked hard from a young age on, learning all aspects of cowboying and ranch life, while attending a one room school house in Bondurant. At a young age he started breaking horses for ranchers including Fears, Millers, and whoever else needed a horse trained. Kevin is highly respected as a cowboy who could get the job done on about any kind of horse, either trainable or unruly. He had the highest selling ranch gelding in the Wyoming Gelding Sale for eight years. He trains his horses on the job, calving, trailing cattle, roping, and cutting.
One year Kevin was breaking a mustang mare during the Hoback Basin round-up. The mare blew up and Kevin did a Snowy River slide down a steep mountain, with the mare bucking blind for over 100 yards. When she came out of the trees Kevin was still with her, hatless, and both horse and cowboy were scraped and peeled up pretty badly. Another time he had a big sorrel horse that bucked him off. When he healed, he got on the horse again, but this time he got him covered and rode him to a standstill. He told his sister afterwards, “I rode the S.O.B., now put him up for sale.”
Kevin was taught to trail cattle by his father and Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame member , Harve Stone. He always emphasized keeping your position, staying out of the herd, and knowing that a cow can travel so fast. Kevin learned that trailing cattle in the high mountains becomes an art. If you have to get in the herd for any reason, get in and get out as soon as possible, so as not to break the lead.
Kevin has run cattle in every corner of Sublette County — South Cottonwood Creek, Boulder, Horse Creek, Big Piney, Beaver Creek, the Rim, and Antelope Run. Ge also had cattle in the Hoback, Dell Creek and Jack Creek Associations. He always thought he would have liked to go to Nevada and cowboy on some of the big outfits, but from a very early age, his responsibility was the Campbell Ranch. Kevin is still breaking colts, alongside his nephew Walden. He has been a working cowboy his entire life.