WINNEMUCCA - Larry Hill was honored March 3 as the 2012 "Ranch Hand of the Year" by the Agricultural District No. 3.
The award is sponsored by the Agricultural District No. 3 as a way to recognize those men and women who make their living as ranch hands, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Past recipients include Frank Loveland, Loui Cerri, Harold Chapin, John and Tim DeLong, Buster Dufurrena and Jane Angus.
"We wished to recognize the outstanding ranch hands who have contributed so much, not only to the ranching community, but to cowboy heritage itself," said Kim Petersen, director of the Agricultural District No. 3.
Humboldt County Commissioner and longtime Ag 3 member Garley Amos presented Hill with a plaque Saturday before the kickoff the 23rd annual Ranch Hand Rodeo in the Winnemucca Event Center.
Reading a short history of Hill's life, Amos honored the longtime buckaroo for his "lifelong dedication to the legacy and lifestyle of the working cowboy."
It's a fitting honor for a man who's called Humboldt County home since his dad bought the Clear Creek Ranch in 1946.
"Well, I mostly just like Humboldt County," said Hill several years ago upon being named the 2003 Labor Day Parade Grand Marshall, "and I always thought Winnemucca was my home."
One reason for Hill's dedication to Humboldt County is that there has always seemed to be work here; another is that Humboldt County has seemed to offer a simplicity of life that appeals to Hill. Perhaps it runs in his blood.
His dad, a California rancher, came to Humboldt County on a fishing trip and fell in love with the idea of ranching with water. To hear Hill tell it, the California ranch on which the family lived prior to their move to Nevada didn't have much water.
And so they moved. The rest, at least for Hill, is history. He lived at Clear Creek until 1952, followed by five years working at a couple of cow outfits in Elko County. He returned to Orovada to the Flat Creek Ranch in 1957 where he worked until January 1960.
It was then that Hill made his move to McDermitt to work for the U.C. Ranch and Frank McCleary for two years. When Nevada Garvey Ranches bought the U.C. in 1962, Hill stayed with the outfit until 1983, even after its change to Nevada First Corporation. In 1983, he went to work for Ken Earp for two years.
But in 1985, Hill's life took a dramatic turn. That was the year he decided to leave ranching to become co-proprietor of the Boondocks Bar, located on Bridge Street in downtown Winnemucca.
The Boondocks was something of a Winnemucca icon at the time. It was operated by Virgil Olsen and Erle Simpson for many years. In addition to being a social draw for locals, the bar also had some interesting historical features, including a beautifully carved, one-of-a-kind back bar that was shipped from Europe around the Horn to San Francisco and then transported by land to Winnemucca.
Hill and his wife Marilyn and Phil Gabica and his then-wife Pam Gabica joined forces as the new owners. Hill says now that all in all it was a good experience, but at the time, he must have felt something akin to shell shock as he moved from days in the sun to nights behind a bar.
"Oh yeah, naturally it was a change," said Hill. But he said the two couples alternated weeks in the bar "so we had a chance to get away pretty good."
"Getting away" is something that Hill says both he and Marilyn love to do; even after being officially "retired" for about 15 years, though, they're still not very good at it.
"Oh, we kind of like to travel around a little bit." He laughs, "At least we want to." They do get to load up the trailer and make a few trips each year to California or Arizona to visit relatives, but the real travel will have to wait for grandkids and gardens and the like.
Plus, Hill now spends a good deal of his time helping out daughter Donna Rae and her husband, Leo Harrer, with their place in Orovada as well as spreading his time among other neighbors' operations as well.
He admits, however, that he should probably be "back at the ranch" - his own place - dealing with the mess of land he has.
He and Marilyn own 20 acres on Valley Road in Orovada. "I don't have it all in," he explains, "it's just brush but I just as well have a farm with the yard I have." He laughs, "It's all just grass and shrubbery."
He'll have plenty of years to wield a hoe, though. He says he'll stay right on that spot on Valley Road "probably until I die" - which his family feared he might actually do when he found out he had been named the "Ranch Hand of the Year."
By his own admission, Hill is not one for the spotlight.
Still, even Hill had to admit it was a pretty special honor.
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