News and event information for Williams Lake, BC - as it happens.

By Mark McMillan

The BC Cowboy Hall of Fame was initiated by the BC Cowboy Heritage Society in 1998 to capture the memories of these living legends and share their stories. The Society’s mandate is to promote and preserve cowboy heritage in the Province of British Columbia.

The Museum of the Cariboo Chilcotin in Williams Lake is now proud of the fact that they are the home of the BC Cowboy Hall of Fame, and the BC Cowboy Heritage Society is both pleased and proud to refer people to the Museum. The Museum has done a wonderful job of preserving and displaying the memorabilia of the Cowboys in the Hall of Fame.

(Photo: Local rancher, cowboy poet, humorist and singer/songwriter Frank Gleeson has been entertaining folks with his fast-paced rhymes since the early 1990s when he made his first public appearance at a Williams Lake Fall Fair. Photo courtesy of Museum of the Cariboo Chilcotin .)

(Photo: Antone Boitano attended the first Williams Lake Stampede (1919) and never missed it, also being a rodeo judge for many of those years. He always rode his white horse in the Stampede Parade, wearing a big black hat and a black silk shirt. Photo courtesy of Museum of the Cariboo Chilcotin .)

The Hall of Fame selection committee now consists of seven people: two from the BC Cowboy Heritage Society, two from the Museum of the Cariboo Chilcotin, one from the BC Rodeo Association, one from BC Cattlemen, and one cowboy, Hall of Fame inductee Red Allison. Red was asked to be part of the committee because it seems that he knows everyone that ever rode a horse, as a working cowboy, in BC.

The BC Hall of Fame has seven categories: Working Cowboy, Competitive Achievements, Ranching Pioneer, Horseman, Artistic Achievements, Family, and Century Ranch. Anyone can nominate cowboys but the selection committee has to make the final decision as to who will be inducted - a tough job in any and every given year. The saying around the meeting table is that a cowboy is being selected for a hall of fame not a hall of average, and they are trying to keep the bar set high. To be selected, a cowboy must first and foremost have been a working cowboy in BC, and then they must fit at least one of the categories. The Family category is chosen when more than one member, or generation, fit the other criteria. A Century Ranch is one that has been in the same family for over 100 years.

The 2010 inductees have been selected and will be inducted this year - the first three at the Kamloops Cowboy Festival on Friday night, March 12th, and the second three will be honored Sunday, April 18th, at the Williams Lake Indoor Rodeo. Frank Gleeson, because of the fact that he is Williams Lake’s Official Cowboy Poet, and because of his huge fan club at the Cowboy Festival, will be recognized at both ceremonies.

The 2010 cowboys to be inducted are:

Kamloops Inductees

Clarence Jules Sr. as a Working Cowboy

Frank Gleeson for Artistic Achievements

The Lauder Ranch as a Century Ranch

Williams Lake Inductees

Antone Boitano as a Ranching Pioneer

Frank Gleeson for Artistic Achievements

Maxine Mack for Competitive Achievements and as Working Cowboy

Orville Fletcher as a Working Cowboy and a Ranching Pioneer

(Photo: Orville Fletcher, who, by age 15, Orville was a cowhand on the ranch, often living alone in the upper meadow, feeding, herding and tending cattle. Photo courtesy of Museum of the Cariboo Chilcotin .)

The BC Cowboy Heritage Society web site, www.bcchs.com, has a full list of BC Cowboy Hall of Fame members with a photo and short biography of each. The Museum of the Cariboo Chilcotin receives the nominations and can answer any questions. Their web site is www.cowboy-museum.com.

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