SUBLETTE COUNTY — The Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame (WCHF) selected 23 inductees for the Class of 2024. Among them are four cowboys from Sublette County — Kevin W. Campbell, Bondurant; John C. Budd, Big Piney; Gary Lozier, Big Piney; and Steven C. James, Daniel. The Pinedale Roundup will highlight one recipient each week. A special thanks goes out to Jonita Sommers for her assistance with each cowboy’s profile.
The public is invited to an Open House and Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame Celebration at the Sommers Homestead Living History Museum on Sunday, Sept. 1 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. A free lunch will be served at 11:30 a.m. with beef, homemade bread, salad, potatoes, beans, homemade desserts and pies. The Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame program will start around noon. Free admission. Everyone is welcome.

The WCHF State Board of Directors voted on the nominees from across the state during its annual meeting on April 27. The 11th Annual induction ceremony will be at the Ramkota Hotel in Casper on Oct. 11-12. It is open to the public.  

Regional committees in ten different areas of Wyoming researched and scored over 50 nominations and sent the top picks to the WCHF State Board of Directors. The State Board also selected several nominees.  

Formed for historical, cultural, literary, and educational purposes, WCHF’s chief goal is “To preserve, promote, perpetuate, publish and document Wyoming’s working cowboy and ranching history through researching, profiling and honoring individuals who broke the first trails and introduced that culture to this state. WCHF plans to collect, display and preserve the stories, photos and artifacts of such individuals and anything else that will honor and highlight their contributions to our history.” 

The WCHF Board is comprised of one member from each of the state’s ten regions. To learn more about the WCHF visit www.wyomingcowboyhalloffame.org.

Steven C. James, Daniel
Steven C. James was born on March 20, 1950, in Jackson Hole, Teton County, Wyo., and has been riding in a saddle, on a horse, ever since. At this time, his parents and extended family owned a ranch just south of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Steve is the oldest son of Carrol and Hazel James with two sisters, Carloyn and Anna, and a younger brother, Kenny. While ranching near Jackson, Steve started cowboying at a very young age. He would help his parents and his aunts and uncles move about fifteen hundred pairs of momma cows, horseback, through the town of Jackson Hole to and from a forest permit in Moran, Wyo.  

When Steve was 7 years old, the family moved to Sublette County, near Daniel, Wyo., where they purchased a ranch up Horse Creek. Growing up, he worked for his Dad, Carroll James. His main job was breaking colts and moving cows to and from the Hoback Basin, on horseback. After high school, Steve continued to break colts and cowboy and ranch for his father and the neighbors. He rode many horses and doctored calves and yearlings by roping them out in the pasture. As a young man, Steve loved to rope calves in the branding pen each spring, and still to this day, he continues to rope calves all over Sublette County. 

Always interested in the breaking of colts, he soon became interested in learning how to break colts and help horses extend their cow sense through cattle cutting, sorting, and roping. He used the ranch job as a way to perfect his cowboying skills and horsemanship. 

He loved working with his workhorse team to pull the hay sled and feed cows too. Steve generally used a 4-horse team. When the snow got really deep, he would use a 6-up team. Steve was also a teamster. 

The ranch ran cattle on Rye Grass in the spring after calving, before going to summer pasture. Clay Price was in charge of the cattle. Steve and Gene used to go up and help with the sorting before they moved to summer pasture. They stayed there for a few days with Clay and he offered them inspiration, if they lacked any.  

When Steve’s family moved to Daniel in the spring of 1957, they acquired a grazing permit in the Hoback Basin. They gathered cattle off the allotment the fall of 1957. The James Koch Ranch grazed cattle in other areas besides the Basin. Steve's Uncle George was the one from the ranch that went to the Basin to help the association riders situate the cattle in the summer and gather the cattle on the fall roundup. By the time Steve was 12 he was helping his Uncle George work cattle in the Basin. The James’s and Jewett’s moved their cattle out over the rim towards Daniel via the Noble trail once they were gathered. Recently, Saunders Ranch acquired a large grazing permit on the Hoback allotment and began running yearlings on it. In the fall, Steve began to come to the Basin and help out with their shipping and part of the Roundup. To this day, he is still cowboying at the family ranch in Daniel. Come branding season you can find him on a horse roping those calves, doing what he loves! 

As Steve started to take over his part of the family ranch, he continued to ride lots of horses and cowboy. He eventually developed an interest in working cow horses, leading into cutting horses which became his primary business as a trainer for himself and the public, nationwide. His horsemanship developed over time and he took it upon himself to go work for Les Voght to learn more about horsemanship and connecting with a horse. He used his cowboy skills within the cutting world by knowing how to read a cow and use it to his advantage in the cutting pen. He has taken these talents and passed them on to his children who have become nationally recognized in the horse and cutting industry.

Midlife, Steve was diagnosed with skin cancer and went under many treatments in Salt Lake City but that didn’t stop him from riding his horses and continuing his horse training business. He took a few horses with him and rode when he felt like he could. 

Steve has been married to Mavis James for 35 years. They continue to live on the ranch and live the cowboy way. His children are Christie Frear, Carie James, Jen James Givens, Andrea James and Jake James.