In the third week of September 1957, about twenty riders spent six days bringing cattle in off the summer range on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation along Bannock Creek, north of the reservation line at Arbon Valley's north end. The roundup was run by the Bannock Creek Cattlemen's Association, whose members were both Indian and white stockmen. One of the riders, Merle Meyers, wrote an account and took photographs, which the Idaho Sunday Journal printed on September 29.
The writer and the riders
The paper introduced Meyers as a Pocatello real estate man who had grown up at Crystal. He was very probably the Merle Meyers of Arbon named as a son in the 1953 obituary of John H. Meyers, the Crystal rancher and stockman, though the 1957 article does not name his parents. By 1957 Meyers, his wife Dorothy and their children Jerry, Jay and Judy had moved onto the reservation along Bannock Creek, where they rented the former home of an Indian extension agent. All five of them rode, and the family had seven horses.
Besides Meyers, the article names Sherm Swim, Laris and Edgar Ellison, Sod Williams, Averal McNeil, Orval and Norman Davis, Vern Munn and Turner Wood. Sherm Swim, who according to the paper likewise kept a house on the reservation, was almost certainly Sherman Swim, whose father Bob had rented a ranch on Bannock Creek at the reservation line from the early 1930s (the Swim family). Sod Williams was almost certainly the Arbon cattleman whose quarter horses the Utah papers followed in those years, and his small son Brad rode along. Meyers's caption called Brad "the littlest cowboy on the roundup." Orval and Norman Davis were probably Orval Davis, a son of Ed and Esther Davis of Arbon, and his own son Norman (the Davis family), but the article does not say so. The Ellisons, Averal McNeil, Vern Munn and Turner Wood are not identified here. The article says only that the white people using the range lived on Bannock Creek or at Rockland.
Snow, then dust
The riders set out on Wednesday, September 18, and made camp on a creek the article calls Squaw Creek, at the foot of Bannock Peak. Jim and Stella Simitsy had gone ahead and set the camp up. Stella, whom Meyers describes as a full-blood Indian, did the cooking, and he praised the pies and biscuits that came off her old camp stove. Along with a daughter of their own, the Simitsys had brought up seven orphans.
The crew was up at half past three on Thursday morning in cold and falling snow. From town, Meyers told his readers, the Bannock range had shown only a dusting that morning; on the west side, where the crew was, a real storm was blowing. Some twenty riders, Indian riders among them, left camp before daylight and spent the whole morning in the snow. Without overshoes, Meyers found that chaps and a raincoat could not keep his feet dry or warm. The noon meal was eaten back at camp, and then came a second ride after cattle. The Indian riders took their rifles along as they worked, watching for deer, and several deer were taken on a ride that carried the party over what Meyers called the Rocky range, to a point where Rockland could be seen.
Friday brought more snow, and the water had frozen in the night. Leonard Mosho, the Simitsys' teenage stepson, got two deer; he put the first on his horse and then returned for the second. On one of those days, the article does not say which, the riders came close to the summit of Bannock Peak and had a view across miles of country.
By Saturday the storm was over. The day turned hot, and the dust was thick as they drove the cattle out of the west fork of Bannock Creek. Sunday's work was at the mouth of Starlight Creek, where the main road passes. There the riders gathered about 1,200 head and spent the afternoon cutting out each owner's cattle, while so many passersby pulled over to watch that Meyers likened the roadside to a parking lot. Night came with cattle still unsorted, so the work ran over into Monday.
How the range worked
Meyers closed with a few lines on the arrangement. The range was Indian land, but the roughly 500 head the Indian owners ran there were fewer than it could carry, so about 700 head belonging to seven white users were let onto it as well; by our own count, those numbers together match the roughly 1,200 gathered that Sunday. Cattle could be on it from April 15 until about October 1, with the Fort Hall Agency in charge, over country lying between 4,500 and 8,600 feet. Hunting and fishing there were open to the Indians year-round, he noted. It was, he wrote, "a very delightful way to pass a week."
No other report of this roundup has turned up. The article does not name the seven white stockmen or say how long the association had been riding together; only the headline calls the roundup annual.
On this site: Pauline and West Fork, the valley's north end at the reservation line; Sherm Swim's death in 2011; the Williams family in the arena; when Bannock Valley was cattle range; and the reservation's range units today, in names on Bannock Creek.
The story as reported
Idaho Sunday Journal, September 29, 1957, page 18. The original article is under copyright; this is our own report of what it said.
Indian and white cattlemen of the Bannock Creek Cattlemen's Association brought in about 1,200 head from the Fort Hall reservation range in a fall roundup that ran from Wednesday, September 18, into Monday, September 23, with snow on Thursday and Friday.
Merle Meyers, a Pocatello real estate man, rode with the crew, took the pictures and wrote the account. Meyers grew up at Crystal. He had since moved onto the reservation along Bannock Creek with his wife, Dorothy, and their three children, renting what had been an Indian extension agent's home. All five could ride, and they kept seven horses.
Others on the roundup included Sherm Swim, Laris and Edgar Ellison, Sod Williams, Averal McNeil, Orval and Norman Davis, Vern Munn and Turner Wood. Sod Williams's young son, Brad, was the smallest rider in the outfit.
The riders moved to camp near Bannock Peak on Wednesday, September 18. Jim and Stella Simitsy had pitched the camp ahead of them, and Mrs. Simitsy cooked for the crew.
The riders were up at 3:30 a.m. Thursday in falling snow. About 20 riders, Indians among them, left camp before daylight, rode in snow through the morning and went out again after the noon meal. The Indian riders carried rifles, and several deer were killed on a ride over what Meyers called the Rocky range, far enough to bring Rockland into view. Snow fell again Friday after a freezing night. Leonard Mosho, the Simitsys' stepson, shot two deer.
The weather cleared by Saturday, which was hot and dusty as the cattle were moved out of the west fork of Bannock Creek. On Sunday the herd was held at the mouth of Starlight Creek, beside the main road, and sorted by owner while passing motorists stopped to watch. The sorting was not done by nightfall and resumed Monday.
Meyers explained that the reservation range carried about 500 head of Indian-owned cattle, too few to use all the grass, and about 700 head from seven white range users living on Bannock Creek or at Rockland. The Fort Hall Agency oversaw the grazing, which lasted from April 15 to about October 1 on land rising from 4,500 to 8,600 feet. He added that the Indians were free to hunt and fish there in any season.