Bronc Busters and Hay Sloops tells the story of ranching in the West from the beginning of the Great War until 1960. Cowboy soldiers, bronc busters, First Nations, upper-crust Englishmen and the strong, capable women of ranching country . . . theirs are the stories told in this book. Some of these characters are larger than life, such as:

• Joe Coutlee, cow boss of the Douglas Lake Ranch, whose booming voice gave him the nickname “Roaring Bill”;
• Grover Hance, who roped one of his men and tied him to a tree until he sobered up;
• Florence “Bunch” Trudeau, whose pet moose got a little too big for comfort;
• Ollie Matheson, one of the only women to ride in the Williams Lake Stampede’s death-defying Mountain Race;
• Anne Paxton, who tended cattle, guided big-game hunters, ran pack horses and a ranch;
• Bill Arnold, who could ride “anything that wore hide.”

Ken takes readers inside sprawling ranches, which were self-contained communities in themselves, and small family-run homesteads scratched out of the wilderness. Like his first book on ranching history, Buckaroos and Mudpups, this is an engaging look at fascinating times and the people who made them so.

KEN MATHER has been researching western Canadian heritage for over four decades, working in curatorial, management, and research roles at Fort Edmonton Park, Barkerville and the O’Keefe Ranch since the early 1970s. He is the author of several books on pioneer and ranching history. His fifth book, Trail North – The Okanagan Trail of 1858-68, was runner-up for the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Historical Writing. In 2015, he received the Joe Marten Memorial Award for the Preservation of Cowboy Heritage in BC.

Ken Mather's profile page

Bronc Busters and Hay Sloops: Ranching in the West in the Early 20th Century

This is an engaging look at ranching in BC from the “Great War” through to the 1960s. The introduction explains that the unique bunch grasses that are well adapted to the interior plateau were the reason that cattle ranching succeeded in this area. The author takes many of the famous and less famous names of the ranching fraternity and tells personal stories, from ranch owners and First Nations cowboys to bronc busters. There are stories of communities built, social outings and stampedes. Children grew up on a ranch and were often educated at home. This book explores the culture of cattle and horses and the people who lived it until the introduction of modern machinery signified the end of an era.

Bronc Busters and Hay Sloops: Ranching in the West in the Early 20th Century

This is an engaging look at ranching in BC from the “Great War” through to the 1960s. The introduction explains that the unique bunch grasses that are well adapted to the interior plateau were the reason that cattle ranching succeeded in this area. The author takes many of the famous and less famous names of the ranching fraternity and tells personal stories, from ranch owners and First Nations cowboys to bronc busters. There are stories of communities built, social outings and stampedes. Children grew up on a ranch and were often educated at home. This book explores the culture of cattle and horses and the people who lived it until the introduction of modern machinery signified the end of an era.