3:10 to Yuma

[Marshal Will Wingam]

Howdy, Will. Glad to see you around again. That mountain man stuff looks like a bit much for me. They didn't even have motorhomes back then. It's tough when family is having physical problems. Hope the pack gets better soon. My thoughts and prayers are with you all.

[Ace Lungger]

MW,
I am going to agree with you on this one!! That okay for those young pups, but us old broken down Pards need all the comfort we can get! One night sleeping on the ground and someone would have to call 911 I admir Will spirit, and wished my old body would take it, but it won't!
Later ACE

[will ghormley]

I gott'a agree with both of ya'.  But, I like the old fart's quote from "It's a Wonderful Life" when he says, "Awww!  Youth is wasted on the young!"  That's the truth of it.  I wish I knew then what I know now.  I'd'a made a lot better use a' my youth.  However, now that I'm 50 and over half of my life is behind me, I find I gott'a step things up a bit to get everything I ever wanted to do done!  Life's too short to waste it bein' comfortable.  I'd rather suffer a little bit and have some adventures before this life is over.  I have the added advantage of leavin' my youngest sons with some great memories to shape their lives.

My older kids knew the dashing cowboy and daring soldier that I was in my youth.  We had many grand adventures.  I'm older, slower, not dashing at all, and seldom take risks.  However, that don't mean I can't leave my little boys with some adventures to stoke their imaginations before I'm gone.  So, hang comfort, I'm off for an adventure!

Will

[outrider]

Howdy Will,

Good to see you in here again.  By the way what is your schedule like the last week of May or first of June?  I am coming Iowa way and at least this time I know it won't snow or ice up....or will it??

[cowboywc]

Howdy Outrider
Of course this year I'm not in Iowa in May and June like normal. I won't be there til 2nd weekend of Oct.
WC

[outrider]

WC, For the past year and a half I have been trying to hook up with Will.  My step son lives about an hour or so  away from him.  Every time we set up a meet it either snows (8") the first time or they have an ice storm.  Hopefully, I will be able to hook up with him this upcoming trip.  If you remember...the (around x-mas) last trip is when I got that great buy on that stitching horse.

[cowboywc]

Howdy Pal
I know what you mean.
My folks live 35 miles from him. I met him in '07 at the John Wayne 100th Birthday in Winterset. I tried to hook up with him last year but he had company the whole time I was there. I'm normally in Winterset in late May and early June after the Sheridan Leather Show. This year I'm going to another show in Texas and then on to Winterset. I will be doing leather carving demos at their Covered Bridge Festival.
WC

[outrider]

WC

My wife is from Keosaqua (near Fairfield)

[will ghormley]

Well Gents,

You're all welcome to stop by when you are in the territory, just call first so I can shovel a path to the door.  I should be around in May and June, unless I take a short campout or canoe trip with the little boys.  I'm not leavin' for prospectin' till the middle of July when the runoff starts to slow down, (if I can sell enough stuff to pay for gas).

I'll just warn ya', you'll be dissapointed.  I don't have a lot of tools and work out of a little 12'x12' room in the back of my house.  But, we can chew the fat and have a good time while you're here.

Will

[Gun Butcher]

  Will, someone once said "a thousand tools are to no avail against a man who is master of one".  Or else I just made it up, but it does sound good.
\

[Ace Lungger]

I like that GB! That is a good statement!
Later ACE

[Curley Cole]

Will

Dang wish I was closer to yer neighbor hood, I would love to shoot that breeze with ya. I retired in Jan of this year. and I have started doin a bit of gold pannin up on the East Fork here in SoCal. I have quite a bit of compition, there are 2 dredges workin the area. I am currently just doin some pannin, but have found a good little bit of color. If you go to my web page (sdough.smugmug.com) you can see a gallery for my attempts. I can't work too long or serious do to the arthritis, but I hope to at least match the gold I already have stuck away in my vial.

Johnnie
nice lookin rig.

Curley

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Hi All,

I was surfing around and found this You Tube with out takes and some edited over with good music....

[santee]

  Will, someone once said "a thousand tools are to no avail against a man who is master of one".  Or else I just made it up, but it does sound good.
\

Slick, man. Slick.

[will ghormley]

Hey Curley Cole,

You won't find much gold in my territory, (unless you're a corn farmer), since I moved to Iowa to marry a former girl's basketball star, (two year state champion team, senior year named as guard on Iowa All-State Girl's Basketball Team).  But, I'm goin' back home to southwest Colorado to prospect.  The pickin's there 'aint like they are in The Golden State, but then, the competition isn't either.  I suspect I will have been the first guy to work this section in the last 100 years.  It's far enough back into the back country that recreational prospecters don't go that far.  I don't expect to find much color, but then again, one prospector chunked a rock at a pesky mule, missed, and opened up a shinin' surface vein in the cliff behind the critter.  So...

Will

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

  Will, you're a lucky man, you're living the dream, If I was younger and had more energy, I'd love to do what you're doing, aia'll be thinking of you, be safe and enjoy the heck out of it.


                              tEN wOLVES 

[Marshal Will Wingam]

Will, be sure to take pics for us to ejnoy when you get working that river.

[Curley Cole]

Here is a mighty poor pix of the color I found the last trip up.  I have found a couple of good places to dig under some large rocks on the edge of the river. If I can get down a bit deeper I expect to find some larger pickers.

Will you are a lucky man like the man said. keep us posted and for sure we need pictures..

good prospectin

curley

PS Colorado has always been my dream home, and I only have gotten there once...

[will ghormley]

Now that's some pretty good color for an expedition Curley Cole.  I was goin' ta look at your link, but I couldn't just click on it and go there.  Then, I had to get back to work and get Skip's holster done and in the mail, so I forgot.  I'm glad you posted the pic!

I'm goin' to be prospectin' 1830s and 1880s style, (two different outfits, same tools).  I made my rocker box as a replica of the ones used in the northern Georgia Gold Rush of 1829, but the style didn't change through the '80s.

One outfit will be of a Rocky Mountain fur trapper who prospected the southwest in the warm season lookin' for the Spanish gold in them hills.  The 1880s outfit will be of the type worn after the land was taken from the Utes and open up to settlers.  I'll take plenty of still shots and build a page at my website.  I've been encouraged to take moving pictures and pich 'em to a production company for a history series on frontier livin'.

The series would depict how pioneers in differnt jobs lived and worked, called, "How Did They Live?"  Perhaps it would inspire some of the American "can-do" Spirit and self-reliance that seems to be lacking in our nation today.  Prospecters, cowboys, riverboat crews, teamsters, curcuit ridin' preachers, miners, blacksmiths, variouse Native Tribes, mountain men, all would have their lives examined and how they lived their day-to-day lives and got their jobs done; would all be lived out for people to experience.  I can't imagine enough material for it to last more than a season, but it would still be a valuable tool for illustrating our nation's history to folks who think hamburger is grown in stores.  Anyway, I'll post what I get on my website and let ya' know when it's there.

Will

[Dalton Masterson]

I can imagine the news story when some tourists spot Will hiking thru the mountains after week 1.

Have a great trip Will!
DM