Rounding up Mustangs or Bust

Grandpa winning a race at BYU

My grandfather Arthur Dee McAllister was both a cowboy and a track star.   But he was first and foremost a cowboy, because even though he supposedly held the world's record in 1904 for the 100 and 200 yard dashes (and would try out for the 1908 Olympics), he reminisced and recounted many more stories about his cowboy days.  

  

Elizabeth "D" Hatch

He started as a "horse wrangler" when he was only 15 years old.  His job was to herd and care for approximately 200 saddle horses from early in the morning until evening for 30 cowboys.  At night the cowboys would take turns watching and caring for their horses.  That was just the beginning of many years of being a cowboy, often working and sleeping out on the range for many months at a time; including during the winter in the snow.  

In the fall of 1902 his parents sent him to Beaver, Utah to attend the Beaver Branch of Brigham Young University where he met his future wife, Elizabeth "D" McAllister.  During the next 5 years Arthur would attend school starting in the fall, run track in the spring, and then get any work he could find that had something to do with riding a horse; including carrying mail by horseback 120 miles round trip three times a week between Kanab, Fredonia and Rockville.

Grandpa with my mother as a little girl

I love all my grandfather's stories, but there is one that is particularly meaningful to me - the summer (possibly 1907) he spent rounding up wild mustangs.  Evidently a Mr. Danks from Eureka came to Kanab and purchased the brands of Walt Hamblin, Frank Farnsworth and others, and hired a group of wranglers (including my grandfather) to gather all the horses with the brands he now owned and along with all unbranded wild mustangs they could catch.  Each of the hired wranglers had to furnish their own saddle horses (6 to 10 each) and Mr. Danks was to feed their horses oats twice a day, provide board, and $5 a day in compensation.  Grandfather wrote, "Of course we furnished our own saddles and outfit including our bed.  What a wonderful wage and how happy we were and how hard we worked."  They employed a number of tricks to capture these wild horses; including driving them into box canyons or corral traps, and watching water holes and then chasing them after they had drunk all they could.  According to grandfather the last method was the best because it was easy to drive the mustangs hard when they were full of water for about a half mile and then lasso whichever horse you wanted.

Arthur Dee McAllister

After four months of hard work they had rounded up more than 200 horses and Mr. Danks said he was going to Eureka to take his family to Salt Lake City for school.  Grandfather told Mr. Danks that he had to leave and get back to the L.D.S University in Salt Lake City.  Mr. Danks said, "All right, Art.  I will give you a check for $60.00 that will get you to Salt Lake, then you come to the White House Hotel and I will be there and settle with you."  After working for him for four months, grandfather had no reason to doubt him, but the check bounced and Mr. Danks was never to be seen or heard from again.  My grandfather got nothing for a full summer of hard work and ended up having to cover the bounced check to boot.  The other wranglers branded the captured horses for themselves and turned them back on the range.  They also divided up the camp equipment, pack saddles, tents, etc. among themselves, but got almost nothing for all their hard work.

Why do I appreciate this terrible story so much?  Well, in 1978 I left my position as a junior high school math teacher in Nampa, Idaho and with my brother-in-law Erik Neilson purchased a car battery recycling franchise in the Willamette Valley of Oregon that quickly went belly up.  We invested what little money we had in the franchise, purchased and installed equipment (including significant electrical wiring), and worked all summer; but it was obvious after three months that with the additional royalties that were being imposed we would never make a profit.  To say that I was feeling very discouraged and depressed about our economic situation would be an understatement.  We were not in the position where I had the luxury of making no money for 3 months.  Just to make ends meet, I got a job scooping green beans at a food processing plant with a kid who had just graduated from high school.

Grandpa trying out at Stanford for the 1908 Olympics

As this was all unfolding I happened to read my grandfathers "Pleasant Memories" with his story about the dream of making big money that summer rounding up wild mustangs, and how it turned out to be a bust for him.  This gave me real pause and a different perspective as I considered the Arthur McAllister that I knew.  I have a great love and regard for my grandfather.  He was a very kind, funny, interesting man who made it special whenever I was with him.  He was respected and greatly loved by his family and those in his community.  Somehow just knowing that he also lost an entire summer's hard work without any compensation, gave me hope.  I guess it was just the thought or possibility that even though my summer had been a bust, maybe in time I might be able to turn out to be like him.  When you are down and feeling like a failure, it just helps to know that someone you respect and look up to went through something similar and they turned out okay. Thanks Grandpa for being who you were/are and for your cowboy stories that would help me get through a hard time many years after you had passed away.