The little boy who loved horses, cowboys and the West

 

Once there was a little boy who was born during the middle of World War II.

In the earliest years of his life, between 1942 and 1949, major world events included the continuation of World War II, the development of nuclear weapons, the beginnings of the Cold War, and the emergence of new nations and ideologies. 

The war ended in 1945, followed by the Berlin blockade and the Berlin airlift, the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany, the first Soviet atomic bomb test, and the formation of the People's Republic of China. 

During those early years of his life, Americans primarily obtained news of world events through radio, newspapers, magazines, and film newsreels shown at movie theaters.

Youngsters attending elementary school between 1948 and 1955, enjoyed a better disciplined learning experience with a stronger focus on reading, writing, mathematics and science than today.

In Woodland Hills California, between 1949 and 1957, life for this boy was a mix of rural country charm and the growing influence of post-war suburbanization. It was a period of expansion and change, as the area transitioned from a rural community to a more developed one. 

The post-war economic boom provided more disposable income for families, who could afford new homes, cars, and other consumer goods. 

But, the Soviet Union's 1949 nuclear test and the ensuing Cold War climate instilled a pervasive fear of nuclear annihilation in American society, especially for children. This fear led to widespread initiatives to prepare for a potential nuclear attack, such as "Duck and Cover" drills in schools. 

Children were actively involved in Cold War propaganda, with schools emphasizing American patriotism and anti-communism.

The precariousness of the Cold War times was simultaneously counteracted in the early 1950s, when numerous cowboy stars transitioned from the silver screen to the small screen with successful television westerns.

Cowboy heroes, like Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy and the Lone Ranger, significantly impacted American culture between 1949 and 1957, particularly through their presence in television and film. 

Their narratives, often focused on simple plots with good triumphing over evil, resonating with viewers, especially children, and contributed to the popularity of the Western genre. 

The cowboy hero resonated with American values of individualism, courage, and the pursuit of justice, particularly in the context of the American frontier myth. 

This myth, which often portrays the cowboy as a lone hero confronting challenges with personal strength, continued to shape the nation's cultural landscape. 

This particular little boy had an advantage over many of his playmates. His family actually had been pioneers who had carved a living out of the American frontier. 

And, when he was just seven years old he was introduced to horses on an uncle’s real Montana ranch.

He became the little boy who loved horses, cowboys and the American West.

In 1953 his dad built a new home on a dirt road adjacent to an 1100 acre open space that had been the long abandoned Platt Ranch, and before that a Mexican Land Grant known as Rancho El Escorpión. 

So in 1954, his dad bought him his first horse, and the boy now had a freedom to roam very few youngsters ever experience.

The little boy’s father was a general contractor who built custom homes for a living, and in 1957, his family moved to the High Sierra hamlet of Oakhurst California. 

The little village was located just 13 miles south of Yosemite National Park; it had a population of 357 people, and its economy was based on employment at a small saw mill, and tourism.

The surrounding national forest was home to an extraordinary variety of wildlife, so for a young teenager with a horse it was a place of constant adventure -- hunting, fishing and trapping.

During his youth and early adult years the little boy had learned, from his father, the skills necessary to become a home builder.

The little boy, now a young man and a patriot, volunteered for the U. S. Army in 1962. He became a paratrooper and served as a Green Beret at Fort Bragg North Carolina. 

In 1965, after his service was completed, he returned to Southern California where he was engaged in residential home building until 1992.

He was now an older, wiser man who still had a passion for the history, culture, and traditions associated with the American West, particularly its cowboys and their connection to horses. 

He became a ‘cowboy folk artist’ creating Old West-inspired furniture.

His work won accolades from publications, such as Southwest Art, Sunset, The Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine, Home Magazine, and WEST Magazine whose cover featured his home in 1994. Then in 2002, he was featured on HGTV's Carol Duvall Show to demonstrate his woodcarving technique. 

See Rancho Deluxe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oelGU8VHYY0

In 1995, he bought a horse and kept him at a friend’s ranch in Wyoming. A year later in 1996, he brought the horse to Chatsworth California. Then a few years later, in 2000, he and his wife Joyce bought horse property in Chatsworth.

When the San Fernando Valley attempted to secede from the City of Los Angeles in 2002, He ran for office as a Valley City Councilman, and a reporter described him as a "renaissance man" and an "expert on all things Valley."

The "Valley Secession Fever web log" wrote that "his close association with the old pastoral Valley gives the media the drama they need because contradiction is dramatic; how the Valley would become the country's sixth-largest city yet its most influential citizen is a cowboy."  

From then on, his efforts as a cowboy activist seeking to protect horse-keeping and a movie historian in the Valley have become legendary.

As a Western movie historian, he researched and collected memorabilia associated with Santa Susana Mountain movie location ranches for more than two decades; and after making a guest appearance on a ReelzChannel Dailies program titled, “Hollywood Was Here - The Iverson Movie Ranch,” he decided to share his research and knowledge by writing two books: “Reel Cowboys of the Santa Susanas" (2008) and "Rendezvous at Boulder Pass -- Hollywood's Fantasyland" (2010).

For a quarter of a century he was known as an avid horseman whose cowboy legacy and pioneer heritage could be back-trailed for over twelve generations across the forests and prairies of North America.

His name is Jerry England, who describes himself… as an artist, writer and horseman who has been a champion of “everything horses in Chatsworth." 

He founded the Day of the Horse, a community event held every spring for the last 20 years. He wrote two books documenting all the Westerns filmed on movie ranches that used to be in the hills of Chatsworth. And he was instrumental in getting a plaque installed at the entrance of the Garden of the Gods Park to honor yesteryear’s Silver Screen Heroes and their Horses.

And as a Fur Trade Historian, Jerry explains… 

"I've always known I had some distant relatives that were French-Canadian, but until recently I didn't know anything about them.

Yet, somehow deep within my DNA, I've always carried a burning desire to learn about North America's fur trade, and her mystical forest dwellers.

More than that, I've had a love affair with canoes and canoeing for over 60 years. 

When I was a teenager, in the late 1950s, I rented canoes at Bass Lake, near Yosemite.

In 1974, I bought my first canoe, and promptly made two float trips down the Owens River in California's Eastern Sierras. Since then I have paddled hundreds of lakes and rivers across North America.

Some of my most cherished memories are of canoe trips to the Minnesota Boundary Waters Canoe Area, Ontario's Algonquin Park, Wyoming's Snake River, and the upper Missouri River in Montana.

In a 2011 breakthrough, I discovered my French-Canadian roots, and learned that I share DNA with more than a hundred French-Canadians that were involved in the fur trade between 1620 and 1820.

I guess it explains my love of canoeing, and those magical silent places that can only be reached by paddle and portage."

Beginning of the end…

So, in the end, life for the little boy who loved horses has been pretty darn good. It has been a life filled with adventure and a passion for horses, cowboys and the American West.

Jerry adds... except for my last horse Kasidy, who lives with a good friend in Montana, all my horses have crossed over the Great Divide and are fond memories.

I still write a few blog posts now and then, but mostly I’m just happy to visit with my grandsons occasionally, and to reflect on past adventures and a life well lived.

Adios and happy trails…

See the accompanying 2 minute video here... https://youtu.be/gSbBuulyQn0