Max Orgill

Published in Rendezvous Pointe Newsletter, March, 2007

(Pinedale WY Senior Center)

Max Orgill was born February 22, 1920, in Egin, Idaho. He grew up in a musical family & is a classical violinist. He does not ‘fiddle’. In Kemmerer, Wyoming, he met his wife, and lifetime sweetheart, Dorothy. He pointed to her picture & said, “We were married in 1940 & came to Kendall after 1942. Just me and my partner there.” Max was a cowboy for the Green River Cattle Association. He said, “Sourdough biscuits and meat were the staples. The heads of the association told us no more luxuries and stopped letting us buy jam.”

Max and Dorothy started out living in a tent. Max said, “When the snow storms came, the tent caved in. We brought one of Dick Dew’s cabins down to Rock Creek. That saved all the worry about caving in.” The cabin was located at the cow camp on the Bend of the Green River. They owned a car, but “the roads were terrible,” said Max. “They were worse than a trail. The Green River Lakes had a million dollar campground and no way to get to it!”

Max remembered bears. He said, “One night a bear came down. He knew where our meat was. I barged out just like everything was all right and he went off towards the creek. I shot. The next morning we found him dead. I skinned him and gave the hide to my father-in-law. Well, it was a bear we didn’t have to worry about anymore. Another time I saw a bear with a trap and clog following it. I was gonna rope it, but I could not get my horse in any closer. It was a good thing because what would I have done if I would have caught it? Later the government trapper came and found it hung up in a lot of windfall and shot it. The head would have took a Boone & Crockett. Hunters was always trying to beat that record but they never did.”

When asked about coyotes, Max replied, “I picked ‘em off whenever I could, but I didn’t save the hides. Them coyotes had lice and if you handled them, you had to wash and wash. So, I wouldn’t monkey with ‘em.”

Max also encountered moose. He said, “You never went anywhere without running into them. One winter I was snowshoeing with my dog. This moose got after me and I went up this tree with snowshoes and glad to do it. That moose held me there for hours! Finally the dog worried him off.” Max also recalled snowshoeing across a creek. “As I got to the other bank my foot caved the ice in. The current took the webbing. I grabbed a green willow the size of my little finger and I pulled myself out. I was lucky to get out of that situation. I was two miles from the cabin.” Another interesting fact is that Max has been struck by lightning three times!

In 1955 Max was working for the Game & Fish. He went up to the Jack Alexander ranch to run off some elk that were getting into their stacks. He said, “I got a couple of bulls and a few days later the game warden came by. He saw the teeth were gone & wanted them. I told him I didn’t know nothing about that.” When asked if he did, Max laughed and said, “Yes, I did! But, I wasn’t gonna give them to him for nothing!” Another time Max worked for the Forest Service counting sheep at Big Sandy. He said, “I counted every one of them. There were thousands! I knew I’d forget, so I had to tie a knot in a rope for each thousand.”

Max & Dorothy had a house in town so their three children, Norma, Jeanene (Esterholt) and Rex, could attend school. Max said, “I come down and worked for Sulenta, & thought that was the last of cowboying, but I kept going back when I got a little time. Rex Wardell would always put me back on. Always. I appreciated that. It was a way of life and I really enjoyed the freedom of it.” Max’s advice to the young is “Put out your best. Be honest.” By Judi Myers