Jim & Lee Straley Interview. April 12, 2007.

(Jim has known the Skinner brothers since college days in the early 1950s. He and his wife, Lee {for whom Lee Lake is named}, moved to Pinedale permanently in the late 1950s. Both of them have had many adventures with all of the Skinner family. Jim was the Game & Fish Wildlife Biologist in Pinedale until his retirement in 1987.)

Jim’s MAGGOT SPRINGS Story: The first time I met the Skinners was at UW when Bud was working on his Master’s Degree. Bud and Bob and I were all in wildlife curriculum. I was finishing my freshman year and Bud was starting on his Master’s Degree with a thesis on Thermal Stratification, more commonly known as lake turnover. What he wanted to do was see if these high altitude lakes – he had a camp on Horseshoe Lake – had turnover too. He said, “Why don’t you come with me and see some of the country?” I said that sounded great.

He had to pack everything in and much of it was glass instruments. I said I’d help for a couple of days. This ‘couple of days’ turned into a lifetime association with the Skinners. I was just going to help get him started. The first day I drove in to Burnt Lake with Bud, he had an old Ford car but we couldn’t take it all the way. We had to park it by the big rock at Joe Hicks’ ranch road.

We were packing the horses and getting ready to make the first trip in to Horseshoe Lake. We had to take camp stuff in too. Clem (Skinner) always had an outfitting business and later I worked with Bud and Clem in outfitting before the Boys Camp started. This particular summer Clem & Bud had the Colonel and his wife. They were the only guests and we had to pack in their gear too. We’d saddle up the horses and take them fishing different places after we got all the stuff packed in to Horseshoe Lake. They were there all summer. And, of course, Bud was busy with his experiments. I still have a mental picture of Bud in the middle of Horseshoe Lake in a rubber raft doing water & fish analysis. It was quite an undertaking.

The cabin at Burnt Lake was the only building there at this time. We did all our cooking in that cabin, which had a wood stove. Bud had cooked up this big roast some days before. We were putting in some long days because this was the same year Bud wanted to put in a new trail from Burnt to Horseshoe. Instead of going up through the canyon trail – which is the worst place I have ever had a horse in my life – he wanted a new trail. So, every trip we’d get a little further up the country where we could get the horses through. We’d cut a couple trees or move a rock. We were building the trail that is the one in existence today that’s on the south side of Fall Creek. The old trail came right down through the stream bottom.

I think it is 14 miles from Burnt to Horseshoe and we were trying to round trip it. We were getting some really early starts in the morning. We’d pack up and get out of Burnt as soon as we could. Of course it was dark and Bud took this roast & cut some thick slices. It was probably a couple days old by then. We had gone a ways up country and stopped in a little meadow where there is a nice spring. It’s the best water in the world. Just a little cup full of water comes out. It doesn’t gush. It doesn’t even run very far & goes right back in the ground again. There was a tin cup hanging in a tree there for years.

That’s where we stopped for lunch this day. It was just Court and Bud and I. Bud had cut big slices of bread with the meat in between – no ketchup or anything – and the sandwiches had been in the saddle bags for 3 or 4 hours. Everybody was stretched out. We had our hats pulled down over our eyes and were lying on the ground. Bud had made 2 sandwiches each and they were big sandwiches. After I got on the 2nd one I thought why I’d just save the bread & eat the meat out of it because I was getting full. I’d just finished eating the meat out of my 2nd sandwich when Bud or Court jumped up and started yelling, hollering & screaming, “Look at this! This meat is full of maggots!” I just laid there thinking, ‘these maggots can’t hurt me too much’. It didn’t make a bad taste in my mouth. Bud and Courtney got up and started sticking their fingers down their throats. I didn’t even move. I remember thinking, “There’s nothing I can do and I don’t like to throw up. I’m just going to sit real still and see what happens.” Anyway, that’s how Maggot Springs got its name. Such a terrible name for such a wonderful spring.

‘Little’ Ole & Quentin. JIM: About this same time, Quentin and Ole were just little kids in school. So, every other trip we’d take one of them up with us and they were the dishwashers and camp tenders. One time we took Ole up and he talked Quentin into taking care of his bum lamb back at the ranch. Well, the sheep died. Vi, their mother, said, “Now Quent, when you go up there you tell little Ole that his sheep died and tell him in a nice way.” So we got off the horses up there and were unpacking and talking and pretty soon Quentin says to Ole, “Your g-damned sheep died too!” What a way to break the news to him easy!

Starting the Boys Camp. JIM: Bob had been in the Air Force where he taught wilderness skills. When he got discharged, he had the idea to start a Boys Camp in the Wind River Mountains, using these lessons. To get started he needed to borrow some money, so he and Clem where going to Jackson to talk to the Jackson Bank people. I was in Pinedale for a visit and just rode along. It was a day in April. I can always remember it. It was rainy and snowy and cloudy.

It was Bob who had envisioned this Boys Camp. They had signed up a bunch of boys who were coming in for the summer. He and Monte worked with the first Boys Camp. Courtney joined them later but Bud had gone to New Mexico where he started Cloud Croft Ski Area. I always said that Bob instigated the boys thing and Monte got involved and then Courtney.

Sunburn Story: LEE : This one time we had a load of kids and we were coming down from Burnt Lake. We made it as far as Doc Smith’s (just south of Pinedale) and had a flat tire. One kid was so sunburned and red and his dad was a doctor. We were standing there and someone asked him what his dad was going to say. He answered, “My dad’s going to put me in the hospital!”

HORSES: JIM: Just about the time the Skinner Brothers were getting started they needed more horses. The bunch they had could be called a ‘rough string’. When the names of your horses are Rip and Raven and Rawhide and Hard Way and Long John Silver you know it is not good. We got a new bunch of horses in. I got on this one and the trip we had to make was up to Surprise Lake. We were carrying some stuff in for Chuck Raper (for G&F). It is not a good trail. It is not a good place to be. When we got back they asked me what I thought of that horse. Would it be a good kid’s horse? I said what I thought about that terrible horse. They started calling it S.O.B. So here’s these little kids saying, “I get to ride S.O.B. today!”

Like I said, they had a bunch of raunchy horses. One day I got on this horse at Burnt Lake and fell off right on top of my head. I had a brand new Fox hat. A Fox hat was what a Stetson is today. They were expensive hats. I think they were $12 - $14. The color was Sand Belly, a light tan. After I got bucked off, I bend over to pick up that hat and the blood just gushed all over it. I was really upset because I’d gotten my new hat bloody. The stains never did come out. So, I was bleeding and Bud came running over. Bud had been a medic in the Navy & always carried this Doctor’s bag. It was a lot bigger than Tom Johnston (local doctor) ever used to carry. Bud said, “That’s a bad cut. Let me look at it”. It was right on the top of my head. He said, “I’d better sew that up.” I’d never seen any of his doctor work and I was thinking, “I don’t know about that.” He said, “Oh, your face is going to sag if we don’t sew that up”. I think he just wanted some practice. I kept saying ‘No’. Finally he convinced me. He said, “Come on in the cabin and sit down.” He pulled out a glass and put whiskey in it and said, “You better drink this.” I said, “I don’t think so. I don’t feel so good anyway.” So Bud drank the whiskey and sewed my head up.

JIM: It was during this time that I got to know Clem. We made pack trips over the divide together. We took on a new horse to try it every day and you never knew what the horse would do. Clem became my friend.

RAFTING: We took kids up to Skinner’s Hole at the Big Bend of the Green River where they set their rafts. We went up on the side hill and cut the timber and had the kids build a raft. We put a big A-frame out in front and there was an oar tied to each end. The front one could be used to steer a little and the back one was for wiggling back and forth like a fish tail. This day we had 2 rafts. Bob took one of the rafts with a few kids while Monte and I took the other with a bunch of kids. After getting started on the rafts, Bob or Monte would take 8mm movies so they could show them at their trade shows and people could see the camp activities. Bob had hung this expensive camera on ‘Monte and Jim’s’ raft.

Well, we never professed to be expert boatmen and we floated from here to that building over there and tipped over. All the kids went splashing into the water. I hate cold water so I just jumped on the upturned raft and rode along. Then I wondered how many of those kids might be stuck under the raft. I had to lean over the raft and stick my whole upper body into the water to look around and see that nobody was underneath. But everyone was safely bobbing down the river. We got them all picked up. Monte and I were laughing and congratulating ourselves when Bob came running up to where we were and dove into that creek! We couldn’t understand why he was so excited. We had not given one thought to that camera. He had to dive down to retrieve it. I think it took quite a bit of doing to get the camera working again.

LEE: Doris (Bob’s wife) and I took all our kids down to the camp on the Green River. (This included Jim & Lee’s 3 boys Monte, Zane and Lat and Bob & Doris’s 3 children Orion, Todd and Holly. Monte & Donna’s 3 daughters Mary, Amy & Ellen and some cousins from Michigan were also there). Holly and Lat were toddlers. I’ll always remember the day because I’d forgotten Lat’s pacifier & bottle and Holly shared her bottle with him. They were always such great buddies. They were too little, but all the other kids were lined up. It was quite a line of kids and they were all going out on the rafts. Courtney stood up and gave his big lecture on these ‘wars’ between the rafts. ‘Get the boats in the water and splash the other raft!’ Well, Court’s out there making this big deal of it and all of a sudden Todd just started sobbing. Someone asked, “What’s the matter, Todd?” He said, “They’re sending me to war and I don’t even have a gun!”

LEE LAKE. JIM: Monte and I were up at Rainbow Lake. We didn’t know if there were any fish in it or not until 4 or 5 fish came swimming by and Monte jumped for his gear and got blacklash. We split up and Monte took the horses back to meet the kids. I went over the top and was in the Middle Fork drainage. There was a beautiful cirque with a lake down below. I caught 5 or 6 brookies all 5 or 6 pounds. Well, I got down and Monte and I got to talking. We named the lake Lee Lake for my wife, Lee. It might still be on some maps.

SKI BALDY. JIM: I think it was Bud who packed skis to the top of Baldy and skied off.

JIM: It took a saint to live with Clem and all those boys.

Interview by Judi & Rollie Myers