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Show Page 2 September 2004 Farm & Ranch Spanish Fork Press Paul Bliss: portrait of a cowboy By STEVE HARDMAN For many people, a cowboy is simply someone some-one who wears Wrangler jeans and heeled boots. For others, a cowboy is defined by the music he listens to or the fact that he rides, just for fun, an animal intent on hurting him. A cowboy is all of this, and yet, none of it. The very nature of a cowboy defies such labels. Boots and such are aspects of him, not he of them. When a person meets Paul Bliss for the first time, they can't help but notice his Conagher mustache, broadbrimmed hat and powerful South County twang. But if they're not careful, that's all of him that they'll get. Much more than clothes and a quaint accent, he is an icon of a bygone era. Many people act like a cowboy. Paul Bliss is one. "I got horse s on my feet when I was a kid, and I've never been able to wipe 'em clean," he said. Bliss spent his early years at Moody's Ranch, where his father was a foreman. There he learned lessons about honesty; work and integrity. Now he lives in Salem, and runs Bliss Cattle Co. with the help of his wife, Stacy, and his two children. "When you work with animals and you work with nature, you know you can't cheat any one of them," he said. "That's why a handshake will do for most livestock men. What they do everyday teaches them about things like honesty. Working with animals and nature also teaches you to be prepared. If something bad happens, you go back out you deal with it." And according to Bliss, society is losing these values. With the sale of pasture and cropland, each subsequent generation misses miss-es out on the opportunities to learn and grow. "There's not a lot of money on our end. We don't get a lot for what we do. We stay in business for the lifestyle," he said. "But my kids get to come to work with me every day, and they're learning how to work and to how to get along." Because of this belief in the traditions of times past, Bliss started the Western Heritage Foundation, which "exists to preserve pre-serve the unique Western culture of this intermoUntain area." In addition to working horses, running pack strings or organizing wagon trains, Bliss can be found lecturing at schools and universities across the state on the importance of preserving our heritage, her-itage, particularly oral tradition. See COWBOY, Page 3 V IFw sjir a irsiu 1320 South 200 West, Springville (Southwest Frontage Road) 798-0066 Featuring: Featherlite, Paiute and Trails West mil mimm 00 orse Stock, and Utility TFalle Call or come by today! 0m 'mrmi |