Quiet humility
with intense underlying pride and dedication, without excuse or
complaint, applied to his chosen endeavors of rancher, loving
husband, father and unyielding friendship for those privileged
to know him.
The following brief examples, from many thousand-fold, of his
special abilities assist to partially fill out the portrait of
this unique man.
Aaron's
superb athletic ability was evidence by the fact that he was
a two-time National Collegiate Athletic Association Wrestling
Champion while attending the University of Wyoming. His athletic
skills were further often demonstrated by his exercise of an
iron cross on flagpoles or any other available pole.
While at
the University of Wyoming, his friends sponsored his entrance
fee of $1 to stay in the ring for three minutes with a professional
wrestler to win $10. Aaron not only stayed in the ring for the
three minutes, he threw the professional wrestler out of the
ring. This prompted the professional to invite Aaron to go on
a professional tour, stating that he thought Aaron would be
quite successful.
Aaron's
exercises included the use of a two hundred pound anvil. He
rigged and wore a head/chinstrap which he hooked to the anvil.
He would then do a handstand on chairs on either side of the
anvil and proceed to do vertical body presses, lifting the anvil
off of the floor by the strap.
Aaron, a skilled
bronc rider, loved to break horses. Memories of his sister Marjorie
include Aaron, while breaking horses at the Dry Piney Ranch, riding
out a big blue roan bronc who bucked from the top to the bottom
of Mount Darby, which inspired Aaron to name the bronc Darby.
She also recalls his riding out a bronc named Foxy (due to his
snaky disposition) bucking on a freshly oiled highway. Aaron tried
to dismount from this bucking horse when approaching the oiled
highway, but could not because his chaps caught on the saddlehorn
which prevented his dismount. According to Aunt Margie, it was
quite a sight to see Aaron riding out Foxy bucking hard while
keeping his feet and skating on a newly oiled road. Foxy did not
fall, but Aaron took quite a beating on this occasion. This may
be the reason why Aaron rarely wore chaps after this incident.
Aaron was
a powerful man, as evidenced by his athletic body including
muscular forearms and thick fingers which looked like bananas
and which suggested he could play the role of "Popeye the
Cowboy Man". Fellow riders witnessed him, while mounted
on one of his favorite horses, Slim, ride down a horse that
had slipped a hackamore or bridle, grab the horse by the mane
near the top of the head with one hand, and pull him into Slim
and to a stop for re-bridling.
One time,
he played out Slim trying to herd a cow on the prod through
a gate. Having his patience exhausted, he jumped off of Slim,
wrestled the cow to the ground and gave her a stern physical
lecture. when he let her up, the now educated cow with an adjusted
attitude quickly staggered through the gate.
Aaron, a quiet
and patient man of few words, became super formidable when his
patience was severely tested, at which time he became an excellent
attitude adjuster. My cousin Butch Brunski and myself, during
what is euphemistically called our precocious age on the Diamond
H Ranch, regularly tested his patience. One example is when Aaron
caught Butch and myself experimenting with cigar smoking at an
early age, striking matches and putting out cigars on top of his
50 gallon drums of aviation fuel in the Ranch's plane hanger.
Butch maintains that he has never smoked to this day because Aaron
truly impresses upon him that smoking could be hazardous to our
health.
Aaron also
employed psychology by directing us to cut the appropriate willow
switch or find the board which would further our education on
such occasions. One time, Aaron told Butch to select an appropriate
stick from a woodpile behind the house. While doing so, Butch
slid down the back of his pants and the selected a very stout
stick knowing that I would be first in line. After my education,
somewhat cushioned by Levi pants, Aaron inspected Butch and
said, "I think you better take your pants down".
Aaron could
pick us up by the heels with one hand and administer our chosen
switch with the other. After a few such times, we decided upon
a psychological counter attack. When we next saw him advancing
with his attitude adjuster stomp, we presented him with an already
cut stout willow switch, hoping humor would avoid education.
It did not work.
Another example
involved an upstream neighbor, whose name will not be mentioned,
attempting to deny Aaron acces to the Diamond H Ranch water
rights. While Aaron was working on the ditch headgate on Fontenelle
Creek on the neighbor's land, the neighbor pulled a gun on Aaron
and asked him to leave. Aaron took the gun away from the neighbor,
and repeatedly baptized him by complete submersions in the ditch
until the neighbor agreed that Aaron indeed could exercise access
to his water rights.
On occasion,
Aaron would adjust his own attitude when his patience was exhausted
by circumstances during summer, at which times he always wore
a straw hat. He would throw his straw hat on the ground and
jump up and down on it until he felt better. This always resulted
in the straw hat's crown being broken out; nevertheless Aaron
would wear the straw hat for the rest of the summer which resulted
in sunburning the top of his head.
One of Aaron's
great loves was flying. He soloed as a pilot in only six weeks
in 1945 at the Robert Devine Flight School in California while
working as a carpenter to pay his way. His instructor, Pappy Childers,
maintained that Aaron treated him to the best tailspin of any
student. Aaron's good friend, Clarence Anderson, known in his
youth as Dizzy Anderson due to his love of flying and aerial stunts,
sold and instructed Aaron to fly his beloved BT-13, a Navy-based
trainer, shortly after Aaron soloed. During his first single-handed
flight in that plane, Aaron made several landing passes at the
Diamond H Ranch airstrip, which prompted Mom to tell Clarence
that they might have to shoot the plane down in order to get Aaron
out of the the plane.
Clarence,
an Air Force pilot, flew the hump in World War II and, afterwards
served as the personal pilot of General Curtis LeMay, the Commanding
Officer of the Strategic Air Command (SAC). On several cross-country
plane shuttle flights for SAC, Clarence took great delight in
buzzing the Ranch with fighter jets a couple hundred feet off
the ground, and, on the time which I witnessed, in a B-52. It
was a most impressive sight to see a B-52 flying overhead only
a few hundred feet off the deck. Clarence always tipped the wings
of his plane of the day over the BT-13 hanger and Aaron's and
Mom's ranch house.
Besides
using his BT-13 for business, Aaron became a member of the Civil
Air Patrol, participating in many search and rescue missions.
Also, Aaron took his grandmother, Mary McGinnis, for her first
airplane ride on her 92nd birthday, of which mary and Aaron
were quite proud. Aaron found every excuse to be airborne in
his BT-13 for over 45 years. I think he even manufactured a
few excuses.
Aaron's
close attention to his cattle and horses and skill as a "cattle
doctor" contributed greatly to the success and growth of
the Diamond H Ranch. Every year, during calving season in March
and April when the weather can be cold, he placed his first
calf heifers and/or calves over more than sixty years. He also
successfully treated major health problems such as cancer eyes,
prolapses and major cuts, saving animals for further service
or market. His constant attention to and working of his cattle
made the Diamond H herd easy to handle. His eye for selection
of heifers for mother cows and purebred bulls developed a commercial
hereford mother herd whose steers and culled heifers consistently
topped the market at sale every year.
Aaron was
also an avid traveler, adventurer and explorer when he had the
time away from his ranching responsibilities. Besides exploring
every nook and cranny of the Green River Watershed and other
parts of Wyoming by horse and plane, Aaron loved to travel abroad
when he could. Among his travels, he and Clarence Browley, Aunt
Marjorie's husband, traveled twice to Belize and Guatemala,
once during civil strife involving Sandinistas. This required
"purchasing" the services of a pilot with a somewhat
dilapidated airplane, in order to leave the country, when the
use of airplanes were restricted only to top politicians and
army officers. The ploy worked, as they did safely arrive in
Florida aboard this rickety plane. On one trip, Aaron and Clarence
drove the length of Mexico to Guatemala.
Reportedly
Aaron and Clarence were searching, unsuccessfully, to find and
buy an island which had no government and therefore no taxes.
Aaron also
immensely enjoyed traveling through Argentina and visiting many
ranches as a representative of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association.
Aaron made many trips to Canada to purchase hereford bulls and
to explore parts of that country allowed by his available time.
Aaron attended
many National Rodeo Finals, first in Oklahoma City with Clarence
Anderson and, on one occasion, with Marvin Stone, and then in
Las Vegas for over 13 years with his good friend Alan Walker.
Together Alan and Aaron enjoyed over 130 performances of the
NRF, always sitting in the first row above the chutes. Those
seats provided the best view and also often allowed one to wear
home deposits from the arena floor. During the first few NRF
performances at Las Vegas, Aaron impresses a T.V. cameraman
as a true and genuine example of an elderly cowboy. On continuous
years, the T.V. cameraman would film Aaron enjoying the rodeo
for broadcast on T.V. coverage of the NRF, including CNN. Thus,
Aaron became somwhat of a T.V. personality.
Aaron also
enjoyed occasional shorter travels. As an example, once a year
on New Year's Eve, Aaron would travel to town to celebrate closing
out the old and welcoming in the new. A good New Year's Eve story
involves Aaron and Butch staying one bar ahead of Mom who was
looking for them in order to take Aaron home, but I won't go there
with any particulars - enough said.
Aaron was
a self-made architect, builder and mechanical engineer. He was
an artist with his welder and cutting torch, as evidenced by
the gates on the Diamond H Ranch bearing the Diamond H brand
design in iron, demonstrating Aaron's skill. The design and
functionality of the hanger for his BT-13 and other buildings
on the Ranch, which he built from the ground up, attesting to
his skill as an architect, builder and carpenter. The redesign
of machinery for better operation was one of his hobbies. He
purchased a 21 foot buck rake pulled by an Allis Chalmers tractor
and was disappointed in its faulty performance. Out came his
torch and welder, and he rebuilt this brand new 21 foot buck
rake to operate properly. That piece of machinery operated for
many years threafter without problem. His attention to maintaining
and repairing the Ranch's machinery consistently resulted in
the machinery lasting far beyond the usual life expectancy.
Once, when
Aaron was hand cranking his BT-13 to start it - he had to stand
on a wing with one foot and on a cowling foot rest with the other
- the motor caught and the brakes did not hold. The BT-13 proceeded
through two fences which tore up both wings before Aaron could
climb into the plane's cockpit and set the brakes. Aaron then
found two BT-3 wings at a Navy surplus outlet in Salt Lake City,
Utah, brought them back to the Ranch together with the plane's
building plans, and, in his usual quiet way, proceeded to replace
the damaged wings with the new wings. I asked him if he didn't
think he should have an airplane mechanic do that job because
Aaron had to fly the plane to Salt Lake City for re-licensing,
including expert inspection to determine if the winds were properly
attached. Aaron's reply was that if he was the one to fly it then
he was the one to put the wings on, evidencing his confidence
in his own abilities. Upon arrival in Salt Lake City, his plane
passeds the inspection and was relicensed.
Aaron's
many accomplishments and recognitions include his appointment
as an alternate Water Commissioner on the Upper Colorado River
Commission in 1972 by Wyoming Governor Edgar Hershler; Aaron
held that position through this year. He was also recognized
and honored, together with Mom, as lifetime members of the Green
River Valley Cattlemens Association in 1991.
There were
good friends who thought enough of Aaron to name a son after
him which made him quite proud. Geoge and Fran DuVall did so.
Also their sons Dewit, Kenneth, Aaron and Cody, each worked
on the Ranch on different summers. Marvin and Vera Stone also
named their son after Aaron.
I
cannot find the words, because words are inadequate, to describe
the full portrait of the scope and depth of this remarkable
and extraordinary man. I therefore close with a farewell to
Aaron written by my cousin Butch
Aaron
-
As you make your journey through heaven
We hope you find and ride the fast horse
Walk through tall green grass
Drink from a spring of cold clear water
And sit and rest in the shade of
A tall cottonwood tree.
Rest in peace Cowboy
About
Us 
A
third generation Green River Valley rancher of Irish decent,
Aaron was born on July 6, 1909 to Mime and William McGinnis
at the Midway Ranch located halfway between Opal and Cora, Wyoming.
He attended schools in Olathe, Colorado and spent summers working
on the family ranch on Dry Piney Creek, Wyoming, with his sisters
and brothers: William John (Bill), Victor Samuel (Vic), Esther
Marjorie (Marjorie) and Mary Retronella (Mary Nell).