Bio: Frank Galey’s Nephew; Staff at the Ranch, 1950’s and 1960’s. Descriptor: Reflections about the ranch and caretaking in the winter.
Fran’s Story: Without going back and doing some research, I will give you my best shot from memory. Frank Galey was my mother’s brother so it seems. I was always at the White Grass, even when he was not there. I was first there when I was 7 months old with my parents and two older brothers. My parents were there to help my Grandmother Marmie take care of the ranch while Frank was in California training as a pilot for the military. That would have been the summer and fall of 1941, just before the war began. My actual memories of being on the WG began in the mid- 50’s when my job was to irrigate the large hay meadow whose prolific dandlions gave the name White Grass to the ranch. I have been told the Shoshone or Bannock gave it the name of White Grass. That first summer I must have been about 14 years old. From that time until 1968 when I took over running the barn, I was on and off the ranch with my family while working as a guide for George Clover and helping when I could at the ranch. Lori, Francis, Matthew and I lived mostly in tent frames but moved about in the small cabins also. Through those same years we were caretakers of the ranch during the winters but I cannot give you the exact dates but it would have been in the 1960s.