Ivan Samuel “Pete” Hoagland was born March 3, 1910, in Benkelman, Nebraska, on the family farm. He and his family moved to Springfield, Missouri, when he was very young, but Pete never did like it there. He and his father did not get along so he stayed away from home as much as possible. He made friends with the neighbors and others who did not influence him the way that most young people were influenced. He learned and liked the taste of hard liquor at a young age. This was something that stayed with him all of his life.
Pete had one brother that he liked. His name was Marvin. From what I understand Marvin was more of a father figure than a brother. Anyway, Marvin was the person who helped Pete to leave the family and Missouri at the age of eleven. He put Pete on the train for Benkelman and gave him some money. Pete did not see any of his family again until he was about 70 years old. A nephew looked Pete up and he and Pete became good friends.
When Pete got to Nebraska, he went to work on a hog farm where he stayed for about a year. He then went to work for a wheat farmer, where he took care of the work horses that were used to pull the farm machinery. Even though he was small, he not only took care of the horses at the barn, but he also harnessed and un-harnessed them. During this time, he met an old fellow who worked as a carpenter. They worked together at different jobs around the country. One of which was running whiskey during prohibition. They decided to go to Wyoming and wound up in Pinedale. Here the older guy decided to go to Jackson to carpenter, but Pete wanted to stay in Sublette County and cowboy.
Pete wound up in the Big Piney area where he first went to work for Bob Springman. He later moved down the creek and worked for Charlie Noble. While working for Noble he trailed cows to the Hoback Basin where they summered. He did work for a couple summers as the association rider in the Basin.
When Pete returned to Big Piney, he went to work for Al and Sadie Osterout. He spent the rest of his life working on this ranch, (which would later become the Guio Ranch). It was while working on this ranch that he met and married Edna Whitman Pope, on December 27, 1943. She had two children by a previous marriage, Donnie and Neva. Pete raised them like they were his own. Pete and Edna had one child, her name was Andrea, but everyone called her Andy.
Pete was an excellent horseman, not only working with saddle horses, but horses in the harness as well. His saddle horse could dodge out from under you while turning a cow. His big work horses knew how to get in the collar to start a heavy load. His cutter or chariot horses not only could run, but they could stop like a calf horse and back in figure eights. When he first started running cutter horses he used his saddle horses, but as races got more competitive, he and Ken Guio acquired quarter horses that were bred to run. Most of these horses were used as saddle horses on the ranch. It finally got so competitive that Pete had two horses that did nothing but run hooked to a chariot. He had several trophies from running his chariot horses.
Pete also picked up at rodeos and later flagged at rodeos. Always on horses that could do most any job. One time while going out to gather some cows his horse started to buck. He just went off with his arm around her neck, talked to her for a minute, then got back on her like nothing ever happened.
During haying when they were putting up hay with horses, Pete would go out to the hayfield on a saddle horse. He would rope run away rake teams settle them down, and they would go back to work. On thing Pete like to do during haying was get on top of a sweep load of hay and ride it over the beaver slide. He would be sitting on the load of hay, and all of a sudden, the hay was gone and you were 15 feet in the air plunging onto the loose stacked hay.
One thing Pete always liked to talk about was the cattle drive to Opal. He and three or four other cowboys would take 600 to 800 head of cattle from Big Piney to Opal, a distance of roughly 60 miles, staying at ranches along the way. When they got to Opal, Al Osterout would buy Pete a fifth of whiskey and he would trail the horses back to Big Piney. Al would drive the other cowboys back to Big Piney where they would gather another bunch of cattle. When Pete would get back with the horses, they would make another trip to Opal with the cattle. Pete would make four or five trips to Opal each year.
Pete always said, “In order to be a good cowboy you have to be able to think like a cow.”
Cynde Guio who married Cotton Guio one of the owners of the Guio Ranch wrote the following piece about Pete Hoagland: “Darkie—I married into the Guio Family in 1974, I was new to the ranching way of life, as I experienced, calving, working chutes, moving cattle and haying it was Pete (Darkie as we called him) that showed me the ropes. Pete was so patient when he taught me about working cattle, where to be, where not to be and especially what to watch out for. He said, ‘If you’re smart you don’t have to get hurt, but believe me cattle will call your bluff.’ Whether it was a hot day or a cold windy day, long cattle drives were always more fun when Pete was amongst the cowboys. It was never work to him just a way of life that he loved. As we started a family and had two little cowgirls running around, I feel that’s when Pete shined. He loved my daughters. He never missed a horse show or rodeo where my girls were competing. He’d have his truck parked over at the fairgrounds early in the morning to assure he had the best seat. Pete was a true cowboy with a heart of gold, patience of saint especially with animals and children but mostly he was the kindest man I’ve ever known.”