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Ranch roping and riding clinics? What clinics? We don't need no stinkin' clinics...
Here you go. Nate Patterson has jingled in the choices du jour.
And who will YOU pick? Abe? Buttons? Black Bird? Basket Stamp? Slick Fork? Matt? Shu Shu? Headlight? Insomnia? Old Yeller? Dolores? Smokey? Jack? Tapadero? Cottontail?
Don't look now, but the Boss is here....
So how was it? Nevada, that is. Used to be....the home of some of the biggest, roughest horses around. Where you went...to prove yourself. Remount crossbreds, 16-plus hands and 1250 pounds of blowing off, corked, sinewy, unwinding unpredictable. Tom Marvel's sons and daughters, both the real and the adopted ones...cut their teeth on them. Joe Marvel went on to become the Worlds' Champion Saddle Bronc Rider in 1978. Bill Kane...became, under Tom's tuteledge, the consummate cowboss and headed up the Spanish Ranch, where legends were created, egos destroyed, bones broken, and reputations, made and lost...
And another one...bites the dust.....
Span horse with an aversion to packing salt blocks; Jake Cromley: but yet another lad to buy Spanish Ranch Real Estate that he wasn't even shopping for. Below: Another one bites the dust at the Span....
The Poster Child of Nevada, now in Idaho...Ricky Morris (also pictured above in the corner with Hank Brackenbury, and on the right with Sam Redding) exemplified The Tuscarora Look from head to toe and was one of William Albert Allard's favorite subjects to photograph; seen here on the cover of Rocky Mountain Magazine roping out horses at the IL, in the 1980's.
Below: As they say at Mona's: "Line up!". Hmmmmm....let's see. Which one will we pick...? Last year's YP crew...including a self-assured looking chap in red suspenders. But go easy on him now....: the shirt is white......not red.
Left to right: Keagan"kiki",Matt,Jayton,Nick,Lyn,Chase,Clint,Cody,Jake
Nevada has always been a focal stopping point for anyone even half-intent on becoming, let alone calling themselves, a buckaroo. As in the original 1982 guide, we refer here to the “dier Nevada Buckaroo” – not the here today, gone tomorrow hands who drift through then leave – anyone staying over six weeks being “a dier”. No, we speak here of the stay forever’s who will proudly show you their funeral package and plot in the Carlin Cemetery like it was a winning lottery ticket. Unlike Oregon and Idaho, Nevada buckaroos rarely act clannish or inbreed – mostly because of all the new blood coming in and out of Nevada with predictable frequency. In addition to this, most of the predominately Catholic, mobbed up casino owners strictly frown on inbreeding.... Thus, some claim the overall IQ of the Nevada buckaroo is higher than others. This of course is open to heated debate and is a topic best left alone if visiting Jordan Valley Big Loop Rodeo or when passing through certain sections of Idaho.
Larry Schutte in Elko; Tonopah, NV in it's heyday....
Below: Maggie Creek Ranch's Team Penning entry at Elko Fair...many moons ago.
Duane Coombs, Austin NV ride; woolies for the winter by Sacred Heart Saddlery; Matt Plumlee, Battle Mt. NV slick fork...
Arguably the most emulated, hero-worshipped, mega-hyped, photographed, and quite possibly the most popular Buckaroo Type, the Nevada Types are presently in danger of being overshadowed by the Californio Type as the Gwynn Turnbull Weaver Dynasty expands. As the rivalry slowly boils and intensifies, there is talk of a Buckaroo Super Bowl slated for 2010 in Elko that will run concurrent with the Poetry Gathering, and will pit Californios Ernie Morris, Buck Brannaman and Gwenn Turnbull Weaver against Nevada Buckaroos B.J. Wachob, Larry Schutte and Nathan Kelly Jr.,; but this has not been confirmed, as Martin Black, Harli Cota, Jake Brown, Cody Howe, Chase Sligar, Roger “Grandma” Fisher, Mikey Thomas and John Adamson reportedly all want a piece of the action.
Former Nevada Buckaroo, Claude Dallas; possible John Adamson sighting outside of Winnemucca; John Adamson by Adam Jahiel
Former and present haunts include the IL, the C Punch, the PX, the Spanish Ranch, Tomera's, Nevada Vaca, Nevada Garvey, and the 96 Ranch, Twenty Five, Marvel Ranches, the YP, Fillipini's, Nevada Nile, Rafter Diamond, 7C, Soldier Meadows, John Casey's, Wes Cook, Quinn River Ranch, Marvin Casey, Buffalo Ranch, Maggie Creek Ranches (Hunter and Red House), the UC/Gamble/Winecup Ranches, the Petan, Willis Packer, Wilson's, Stanley Ellison, Leroy Horn and the Quarter Circle A.
This type is also despised and mocked (in certain parts of Texas and Arizona) but more out of jealousy than anything. Prideful of his horse gear, unlike his richer Californio counterparts, the Nevada boy makes most of it himself and what isn’t a total embarrassment, is usually pretty fine. As far as what he rides, here you’ll find the standard Wade or slick fork tree under a Scott A. Brown, Bill Howe, Jim Hosse, Matt Plumlee, Tip's, Duane Coombs, or a Capriola made saddle; old time martingales, shu-flys, tapaderos, chinks and armitas both short and long in length and in fringe, Griffith Bluchers, Paul Bonds, Whites laceups and on more affluent jigger and cowbosses, maybe some D. W. Frommers. They are – like their Californio counterpart – usually ‘silvered up’ to varying degrees, which is solely dependent upon said buckaroo’s pay scale.
Above: Open Range? No shit, Sherlock. And: some Once-Were-Nevada-Types. Only Mikey Thomas still lives there, now in Elko. John Adamson is down by the Mexican border, but he's not driving....a potato chip truck. Photos by Adam Jahiel. Ricky Morris is back home in American Falls, Idaho; pictured here at the Miners Club in Mt. City, NV, in photos by William Albert Allard from his book, Vanishing Breed. Louie Hawkins, actually glaring at an off-camera Jim Hosse, in a photo by Adam Jahiel.
Cody Howe, californio by birth, Winnemucca based, presently winning accolades for his cowboying skills in Arizona; ace Austin, Nevada saddlemaker Duane Coombs; ex Nevadan, californio John Harrison; Nevada Icon: Bill Maupin of the IL Ranch, now brand inspector in Elko. King Bill holds court in the Stockmen's....
Sometimes eccentric, often surly, stubborn and loners by nature all Nevada types can turn suddenly meek, mild mannered and compliant when in the presence of working girls, a 50% off sale at Capriola’s, or the sheriff .
Their numbers are in danger from a sharp decline of large Nevada outfits. They boast possibly the largest geographic coverage, ranch-wise. Habitats range from the Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering, Capriola’s and Anacabe’s, to a soft bed in the Calico Club, Sue’s or Mona’s; the Elko County Fair, the McDermitt rodeo, Owyhee on the Fourth of July, Denio, the Matys Brothers Buckaroo Recovery Hospice in Gerlach, Tonopah, Pyrmid Lake; Tuscarora, Fallon, Oasis, Battle Mountain, Montello, Tip’s in Winnemucca; and drunk on the floor of the Stockmen’s and Commercial Hotels; they have recently been sighted peering into the locked windows of the Mizpah Hotel in Tonopah; the Nevada Type is the only type known to have a subcategory (see “Cult of White King Type”) which is populated by few, understood by fewer but coveted by many...
Some more Nevada Types....and the places they haunt.
Riley Cleaver; jaybirds on a fence: Mr. Bell and Mr. Howe, who were less than sober at the time this picture was taken.
The ever lovely Ashley Riggs who's portrait graced the cover of the famous National Geographic book, In Focus.
Below: Larry Schutte by Willy Matthews and the Schutte family; 71 Ranch out of Deeth: buckaroo Brian Boland...
Times and places and people and ranches gone. From the original 1982 Buckaroo Guide, The Nevada Type.....
Hours of back breaking sweaty work, trailin' cows, branding, sorting, gathering....punctuated by moments like this. Quarter Circle A out of Paradise Valley, NV. You wonder why Stetson's Open Road is a buckaroo favorite in the hat department...this...is why: it was the u 1982-2008nofficial Coat of Arms of The Morris Brothers, Clark and Brian, two of the most idolized, emulated buckaroos there ever were; Brian passed on a couple of years ago, Clark & his wife are out of Lakeview, OR. Also seen sippin' a cold one, pre Hal Cannon and Elko Poetry gig, a young Waddie Mitchell, when he still went by his real name of Bruce, and early Claude Dallas.
The lair of Green King....the Mizpah Hotel, Tonopah. Country...big country....outside of Lovelock....
Welcome to Hawthorne....Battle Mountain's icon, The Owl Club....Below: The Highly Exalted: Buckaroos of Northern Nevada. The Kim Shelton DVD - the IL Wagon in the 1980's. Dean Tobias, Tim "Scooter" McGinnis, Bill "Blackie" Black, and others. A must-see.
Order from Kim Shelton directly at: shelton@ccountry.net
or Tim at Sacred Heart Saddlery http://sacredheartsaddlery.googlepages.com/
| Forked is...as forked does... |