Three honored at WCHF induction

Sunday in Casper, 49 men and four women from across the state were inducted into the Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame. Among them were three men from Hot Springs County, two of whom were honored posthumously.

Joe Campbell

Joe Campbell said he wasn't really aware of the Cowboy Hall of Fame awards until last year, noting this is the third year for it. Though nominated by his family last year, unbeknownst to him, he wasn't selected. His wife, Barbara, noted the nomination carries over to the following year, though one of his daughters added to it a bit. Joe didn't find out he'd been nominated until he read about it in a magazine article.

He noted his daughter Carolyn was the contact person during this process, and kept track of everything.

Though he initially thought the Cowboy Hall of Fame was for rodeo cowboys, Joe has since found out it is more about trying to preserve the heritage of the ranching industry, though rodeo cowboys certainly are not exempt. Among the requirements for nomination is at least 45 years in the saddle, and he pointed out with a laugh that for a lot of people that's very minimal; Joe's been riding since before he was eight.

Joe's grandfather, Joe Sneider, came alone to Wyoming from Germany when he was a teenager. He homesteaded west of Casper, and had a ranch with some cattle. He later left the ranch, selling the cattle and horses, and moved to Thermopolis in 1909, where he opened a livery stable, the Stonefront Barn. Some might recognize Joe Sneider's name from the marker in the buffalo pasture, though Sneider was also friends with Chief Washakie, who gave him a buckskin tobacco pouch.

Joe said his mother, Hazel, was the one who had a love of horses and ranching, and she came horseback from Casper, over Bird's Eye Pass, when she was nine. In 1947, she and his father, Ralph, bought the Whetstone Ranch 30 miles west of Thermopolis. Joe was a freshman in high school that year, and outside of his time at school and serving in the U.S. Army from 1956-58, he lived at the ranch.

His high school years saw Joe in a variety of activities, including, FFA, Boy Scouts, Honor Society, class president, basketball, band, rodeo, calf roping and football.

During those years in the Army, he served as a Tank Recovery Instructor, and was stationed at Fort Knox, Ky. While in that state, he met and married Barbara Jean Alvey, and they returned to the family ranch in 1958, where they raised five children: Carolyn, Chris, Kathy, Connie and Belinda.

Barbara recalled when she came out this way she wondered what they would feed the cows, as she was used to the green of Kentucky.

In addition to his time working the ranch, Joe has served the community on the Hot Springs County Farm Bureau, Northwest District Farm Bureau, school boards at Thermopolis, Hamilton Dome and Middleton, the Owl Creek Irrigation District and the Big Horn Basin Range Board.

As to why he's been on so many boards, Joe said it must be something in his genes, as his grandmother was on City Council, his grandfather was a County Commissioner, his mother was active in the PTA and his dad was a member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Masons, a County Commission and chaired the Rodeo Committee when Thermopolis had one of the top 10 rodeos.

The Campbells' ranch somewhat blends the old and the new, as Joe began using artificial insemination in the 1970's and a computer for bookkeeping in the 1980's, and he's also a private pilot. He uses his plane to locate cows and he hopes it disperses some of the wolves and bears. He has also helped locate predator kills on his own property and neighbors', so they can be reported to and confirmed by Game and Fish.

Joe said the generations who came before him are what he considers the cowboys. He knew the other inductees - Lee Martinez and Dub McQueen - as well as Durward Jones, whom he spent many summers with, and they were excellent mentors. Barbara added Joe still rides, and has not retired by any means.

Dub McQueen

The McQueen family came to the United States from Scotland. Dub was born March 18, 1902, in Dudley, S.D. After his mother passed, Dubs' father Charlie raised their seven children. In 1906, they left South Dakota and came to Thermopolis, and shortly after bought a farm on Owl Creek. Charlie bought a band of sheep, and Dub began herding them.

In 1924, Dub and Lillian Freudenthal were married, and lived in a sheep wagon. They moved to Cottonwood Creek and bought the ranch there, named the McQueen Ranch. The couple had two children - Ruby was born around 1929, Arley around 1931 - and they raised sheep on the McQueen Ranch until 1945, when they sold the sheep and purchased and raised Brahma cattle and Appaloosa horses.

McQueen's daughter-in-law Beverly noted people came clear from California to buy horses. The family also supplied bucking horses and Brahma bulls for the Meeteetse, Thermopolis and Ten Sleep rodeos. They raised enough hay in the summer to feed the cattle and horses in the winter.

In 1955, as they were taking the cattle to the summer range in South Fork Basin on Owl Creek, they were hit by a storm, and Dub and his horse were struck and killed by lightning. Ross Rhodes, who was riding close to Dub, was knocked off his horse.

A year later, the ranch was sold and Arley, Beverly's husband, went to college to become a petroleum engineer for Marathon Oil Company.

Beverly said her father-in-law was very pleasant and easy to get along with, and she cared for him deeply in the time that she knew him.

Lee Martinez

Born in 1912 and raised on a ranch outside Ocate, N.M., Leondro "Lee" Martinez left school at age 15, after finishing the eighth grade, and set out to be a cowboy. Lee's son, Lee Jr., said his grandmother once tried to get his dad to go to school in Albuquerque, but Lee said he wouldn't go, as he already made up his mind to be a cowboy. He hired on for big outfits as a horse breaker around Springer and Cimarron, N.M., including the Diamond A, the CS and the Moreno Ranches.

Lee Jr. said many said Lee was part horse and part cow, because he was so good with the animals.

Lee and his wife, Esther, moved their family to Thermopolis in 1954. Lee Jr. pointed out his dad had previously cowboyed in Wyoming in the 1930's and really enjoyed it out here. He cowboyed for the Sanford Ranches and the Arapahoe Ranch until he retired in 1980. Lee Jr. said his dad never really retired, as he would continue to help neighbors brand, ship and gather cattle. Lee often said "he never had a job in his whole life, he enjoyed cattle and horses so much he never considered it a job."

Lee took pride in his cowboying and taught many young men the art of handling horses and cattle. He had pride in gathering and corralling wild cattle. "He was cowboy all the way," Lee Jr. said, "from the first until the end."

In addition to being a cowboy, and occasionally driving truck between jobs, Lee Jr. noted his dad was also a leather worker, and spent winter months repairing saddles, chaps and other items in his shop

Lee Jr. described his father as gentle and soft-spoken, and a man who was rarely heard to cuss, unless it was at a cow or horse. He was a man who would always tell you how to do something, he said, and you'd better listen because he was only going to tell you once. He never had to fire anyone from the ranch either, Lee Jr. said. Instead he kept a few wild horses, and if any employees gave him trouble he would tell them they'd be riding one of the wild ones the next day; they wound up quitting rather than trying their luck.

Lee had a way of bringing out the best in people, Lee Jr. said, and he had a lot of charisma. Though he passed away in 1985, Lee Jr. has plenty to remember his father by, including his bedroll, which the son has never felt the need to untie. Lee Jr. added he won a buckle for bull riding and gave it to his father; that buckle was what Lee wore to the grave and Lee Jr. "can't think of a better place for it to be."