“Who do you think you are?” they ask. I reply: I am the sum of the trail.
For over eighty years, the spirit of the frontier has defined my path. The simple question, “Should’ve Been a Cowboy,” is not an expression of regret, but an acknowledgement of a genetic and geographic destiny—a heritage forged by twelve generations of ancestors tied to the North American land.
The Ancestral Forge
My family tree is a great river drawing from many sources: Scotland, France, Sweden, and Ireland, spanning nearly every major religious tradition. Yet, regardless of where they worshipped, their hands were shaped by the same work.
Their titles were the backbone of the expanding republic: voyageurs and canoemen who opened the interior; blacksmiths and saddle-makers who built the tools of civilization; farmers and ranchers who tamed the soil; cavalrymen and soldiers who defended the path.
This vast collection of trades—the fur trade and cowboy heritage—was the rough-hewn legacy passed down, an urge to build, to move, and to ride.
The Montana Awakening
The spark that ignited this inheritance was struck in 1950 on a trip that became the foundation of a lifetime. I was seven years old when my mother introduced me to the family homestead near Kalispell, Montana—Uncle Lon and Aunt Olive’s "stump ranch."
That ranch was a rugged classroom. It was a place where life was carved out by hand, combining farming, logging, hunting, and ranching. It was there I learned to ride, met my first true partner, the horse Brownie, and heard the enthralling tales of Lewis and Clark, cowboys, and trappers. I was a city boy, but Montana gave me a saddle, and I was instantly hooked.
From that day forward, the question was not if I would pursue that life, but how I would embody it.
The Embodied Heritage
I have never been just one thing, a reflection of ancestors who were forced to be generalists to survive. Over 80 years, the ancestral trades manifested in new forms:
- The Soldier & Builder: The disciplines of the cavalryman and the carpenter met when I served as a soldier, then built a career as a home builder and carpenter.
- The Horseman & Historian: The love of the horse became a lifelong dedication, leading me to Cowboy Mounted Shooting with my mare, Kasidy, and connecting that passion to my work as an Old West antique dealer and a movie historian. My books, Reel Cowboys of the Santa Susanas and Rendezvous at Boulder Pass, are dedicated to preserving the very history I vowed to explore in 1950.
- The Artisan: The blacksmith’s and saddle-maker’s urge to create useful beauty found its expression in my work as a cowboy folk artist, crafting furniture marketed under the fitting name, Lure of the Dim Trails.
I may not have spent my whole life on a working cattle drive, but I have been a craftsman, a traveler, a student, and a horseman—the core occupations of the frontier. The question, Should’ve Been A Cowboy? is answered by a life spent honoring that bloodline.
I didn't miss the calling. I lived it.
See the video: https://youtu.be/R-TgH3DpdlI
Memories of Rancho Deluxe --Jerry's Cowboy Folk Art
https://youtu.be/oelGU8VHYY0
Jerry's 'Cowboy Chic Furniture' was marketed under the name of Lure of the Dim Trails between 1989 and 2002: https://a-drifting-cowboy.blogspot.com/2021/04/cowboy-chic-funiture-by-lure-of-dim.html
Cowboy Mounted Shooting with Kasidy May, 2008
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtk-XTvAHDo&t=53s
Jerry's books:
"Reel Cowboys of the Santa Susanas"
Published 2008, Echo Press
ISBN: 978-0-615-21499-3
AND
"Rendezvous at Boulder Pass - Hollywood's Fantasyland"
Published 2010, Echo Press
ISBN: 978-0-615-21522-8 (Out-of-print)
“Hollywood was Here - Iverson Movie Ranch”
from the ReelzChannel's Hollywood Dailies...
Scott Conley, Host
Jerry England, Guest Movie Historian and Scott Conley, Host
Chris Meagher, Producer
Tracy Birdsell Photographer
https://youtu.be/eOS5IpngZKw
Video for his grandsons:
Jerry England, whose ancestry can be back-trailed for 12 generations across the mountains and prairies of North America, has been a soldier, craftsman, home builder, Old West antique dealer, cowboy folk artist, writer and above all a horseman for most of his 80 years on planet earth. This is his story...
