Soul Food

These lamps have quite a story. My Daddy got them from the ranch house at Gold Butte after Bill Garrett died. When I was just a little kid I helped my Dad run cattle on the Gold Butte range. I always joke that I am my Dad's oldest son. It still amazes me that I was lucky enough to literally and actually be a witness to the last dying breaths of the "Old West". It is in my blood and in my soul. I can taste it all around me and have such a passion for all things cowboy. These old west characters made such an impression on me when I was young, men like Bill Garrett and especially Uncle Cordy Lamb. I can still remember sitting on my haunches and sipping camp coffee (made on a tripod over a camp fire) with Cordy wearing my Levis and a Levi jacket. I couldn't have been over 4 or 5 at the time. I mean I was really really young.
Bill Garrett


"Bill Garrett was a nephew of Pat Garrett, who shot Billy The Kid. Bill never married and came to Gold Butte in 1916 after being acquitted in a second trial for killing a man in Utah. Bill died and is buried here beside his long time partner Arthur Coleman, Garrett died in 1961 at the age of 81. These two old timers are buried at Gold Butte. Bill & Arthur were known far and wide by many. Garrett was a cattleman as well as a Texas cowboy , he was a skilled roper and six-shooter having toured with early Wild West shows. Coleman was a educated man from Chicago who loved to read and was a good miner as well. Their partnership lasted from 1916 till they both died at Gold Butte. Bill was a lanky 6' 1" in contrast to Arthur's 5'1" frame. Nearly everyone referred to them as " the long and short of it". More than 100 people made the trek to The Butte to pay their respects at Bill Garrett's funeral. The funeral was classic in that it was conducted not in a church but at the house where both men had lived and died, and not conducted by ministers, but by men whose prime credentials were those of friendship. Voris Perkins of Moapa conducted and gave a short talk. J. L. Bowler of Mesquite also spoke. But the surprise was that "Red" Adams, an unusual cowboy recluse from Logandale, who had never been to church as far back as anyone remembered, preached an eloquent sermon!"

My Dad was stationed at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas in the early 1950's. He was a cowboy and so when he was not on duty, he looked for a place he could "cowboy" on the weekends. He came out to Moapa and the Virgin Valley and worked on the local ranches. That is where he met my Mom. After they were married he took a job as a ranch Foreman working for Frank Taylor. The Gold Butte range was one of their ranges for running cattle and so the story was lived out. I remember gathering cattle at Gold Butte one year, I was maybe 7 or8 at the time. The horse I was riding stepped down off a small embankment and almost stepped right on a nest of rattle snakes. When the horse heard the snakes, it started to buck. Dad hollered " hold on to that saddle horn and stay on that horse or I'll whip your butt." I was way more afraid of Dad than those snakes and I managed to stay on the horse. Dad knew that we were so far out in the desert and far from a doctor that if I had gotten bucked off and had gotten snake bit, we may not have made it to town in time. A great example of why kids should learn to mind without all the arguing and nonsense.

The fact that my Dad gave me these lamps is so special to me. Mom and Dad brought them to me a week or so ago when they visited from Idaho. I promise you Dad that I will treasure them just like you did along with all the wonderful childhood memories you gave me right here is the beautiful desert west!!