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Show SALT FLAT NEWS, SPRING ta - SUMMER, 1973 l - by K, Donoghue Wendover The cougars seem to be increasing because I keep finding the remains of my colts and even deer and fawns, says Gilbert McCauley, the last of the feral hcrse chasers. I say feral since that describes horses better that were once domesticated but have lost their domesticity. Gil lives, shy as a wild bird, in the Morgan Basin. He has brands. on his horses. He says all out the horses on the Goshute his little canm -- cattered around. He sleeps v,t in the open most of the time. Sometimes when it rains I sleep under a tarpaulin (Gil pronounces this to rhyme with Napoleon). Winters he either lives in an abandoned miners shack that he has fixed up on the Nevada side just behind Ferguson Springs or over on the Utah side on the land he has leased from the state of Utah. There he has built for himself a half timber, half earth dugout. But Gilbert, like most of us out here, did not come from this area. He was born in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma in 1903 in a little town named Duncan. Mountain, Dolly Varden, and some of those on the Pequops The McCauleys wandered further and at Tucumcari, New Mexico Gil struck out on his own at the ripe age of 15. He wandered around for some years working as a ranch hand until he came to this area in 1927. He worked on the ranches of the Utah Construction Company at that time. Around 1932 he leased a place near Deep Creek, Utah and started to work horses. Little by little he worked over to the Nevada side in the Morgan Basin area. At that time a ma:. called Wild Horse Green was working horses there. Gilbert worked with Green until Green died. Green wanted to be buried out in the hills he had loved so much but an unsentimental Board of Health forbade it so Wild Green lies in Elko. Gilbert has three registered are his. is Although Gilberts reputation that of a canny business man once after years of using only mules and a wagon Gilbert decided to buy two trucks. He went into Salt Lake and paid cash for them right away he says he hates to sell his horses. After the crop of foals are in, Gil, who has patiently built corrals around the few sources of water in the Morgan Basin, waits for the feral horses to enter the open gates of the corral to drink. He then closes the gates on them. He then can brand the young horses and geld the males. That done he turns them loose again to live on the mountains. From time to time buyers come from Salt Lake. Gil then rounds up a few horses and sells them. But as I have said, he hates to do it. I think the most beautiful thing in the world is to stand quietly watching horses in a corhe says. For years I ral, wouldnt sell mares or colts. The money he earns from sales he uses to buy grain and hay. Although Gil runs his horses on land leased to sheepmen for winter range, he claims his horses graze higher than the sheep so there is no conflict. This winter Gil has slowed down some. Arthritis has kept him close to the stove in the was always active I all through the winter up until about a year ago, he says. Gilbert took me over to see his Utah place. In the dugout dwelling I was fascinated to see what looked like a wooden sink. But there were no faucets or pipes to be seen. Full of wonder I asked what it was for. Oh, he said, Thats a crap table I built for myself. And sometimes when I spend a winter over here I practice on my system through the long nights. NEWS fttoto l)y K Donoghua Those cougars are also on Gils mind. He wishes the gov- Man and horse admire each other. Gilbert McCauley and one of his ernment would do something gentle horses. Out of every herd of feral horses there'll be one or about them. two that want to attach themselves to man, he says. r vfc ft , v- - - ' ( e cabin up behind Ferguson Springs. He is after all 70 years old. Mr. Tom Freeman and Mr. Bill Richey prepared to entpr the newly acquired ambulance (so newly acquired it still has the California plates) of Wendover Fire Chief Melville's Volunteer Fire for people who walk on this earth... -- For men and women nfnflriiamitt shoes, sandals and sabots. in (?) iGsrth rid (i 1 Whole Earth Natural Foods Pr : i U S Patent No 3305947 Walking Shoes MAIL ORDERS: Open until 6 Monday Saturday 250 So. 13th E. S L.C., Utah 84102 582-038- Send outline of both feet & shoe size, and we'll return needed info. MICHAEL G. gdLi KAVANAGH TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR GOOD HEALTH Eat Less & Chew Well Ride Less & Walk Often Have Fewer Clothes and Launder More Worry Less & Work Harder Waste Less T ime & Continue To Learn Talk Less & Listen More Frown Less & Laugh Often Speak Less & Act More Blame Less & Praise others w Take Less 8c Give a Hundred Times Over 4 (Paid Political Advertisement by Williams for City Commissioner) |