Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame Inductees honored
The Sommers Homestead Living History Museum event celebrated the end of its summer season and the upcoming induction of 2022 Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame (WCHF) inductees with a community picnic, great home-cooked food and music by Jared Rogerson on Sept. 4.
The annual event draws together far-flung families and old friends, inquisitive newcomers and usually ranchers who have finished putting up their hay. This year was a little different, with seasonal schedules skewed by frequent, but not totally, unwelcome rainstorms in the past month.
Jonita Sommers, whose generosity with brother Albert Sommers created the Sommers Homestead Living History Museum on the Sommers Ranch, wasn’t worried about whether or not the hay was baled. For weeks before the Sept. 4 event, she set out to bake dozens of pies and work through logistics with the Sublette County Historical Society, which manages the museum.
Museum of the Mountain Man staff and the county’s historic preservation board also worked with the Sublette County Centennial Committee to make it an official event for the county’s 100-year celebration.
The event is also a fundraiser for the Sommers Homestead Living History Museum and the Cowboy Hall of Fame, which includes Lincoln and Teton counties in this region. The homestead house and its renovated buildings were open for people to tour and kids learned how to pump water and punch leather while they and some grownups cooled off in the shady interiors with the sun beating down for another beautiful day.
Matt David slow-roasted two beefs, one a Campbell Ranch steer and another the Sommers’ 4-H steer, along with pork tenderloins, for the annual barbecue open to anyone and everyone. A brilliantly colored coleslaw, funeral potatoes with a tang of green chiles, roasted red potatoes and Dutch ovens filled with cowboy beans added to the meal, created with a lot of cooperation and pitching in throughout the weekend.
WCHF Class of 2022
Region One inductees include Charles L. Reynolds and Rod Smith of Campbell County and Crook County’s Maurice Williams and the Driskill family – this family nomination includes Col. Jesse Lincoln Driskill, Jesse Lincoln “Link” Driskill II, John Wylie “Bud” Driskill, William Walter “Tobe” Driskill, Jesse Loring “Diddy” Driskill, Jesse Belvin “Buz” Driskill, Malcolm Franklin Driskill and Jesse Thomas “Tom” Driskill.
Region Two inductees are Goshen County’s Clyde Omar Stewart and Wayne S. Hunter along with Arthur Samuel “Artie” Joss of Niobrara County.
Region Three inductees include Albany County’s Philetus Rathburn and Laramie County’s Wayne and Francis Peavy “Biddy” Bonham.
Region Four inductees are Dennis Robert Daly of Converse County and Dee Burtch of Natrona County.
Region Five inductees are Robert Borgialli, Neal Rodney Schuman and William Thomas Wagoner of Johnson County, and Sheridan County’s Zane R. Hilman.
Region Six inductees include Joseph S. Bassett of Big Horn County and Chris C. Renner of Park County. There were no county selections for Washakie County.
Region Seven inductees include Lua Burton Kelly and Frank E. Miller of Carbon County, and Sweetwater County’s Bert Lamb, Charles Alfred Stillman-Philbrick and Elroy P. “Bronco Jim” Philbrick.
Region Eight inductees are Fremont County’s Robert William Hamilton, Bob Bessey and Clyde Woolery and Hot Springs County’s Ramul Dvarshkis and Larry Bentley.
Region Nine inductees are John H. Hamilton and Richard H. “Dick” Hamilton of Uinta County.
Region 10 inductees include Sublette County’s Charles Leonard Priebe, Milford Byron “Mike” Steele, Ivan Samuel “Pete” Hoagland, Carl Philip “Red” Mathisen, Thomas Daniel O’Neil Sr. and Kent Snedicor, and Teton County’s Bob Lucas and Jim Maher.
The statewide ceremony will take place Sept. 23-24 in Cheyenne. For future nominations or for more information, visit wyomingcowboyhalloffame.org.
Joy Ufford is a corresponding writer for the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to roundup@wylr.net.
