TAPEMINUTE SUMMARY OF CONTENTS
Tape 1, side 1
0-3:15 Arsen gives a brief history of his father, Faustino Alzola. He was from Ispaster, Bizkaia. Faustino came to the United States in 1900 at the age of 17. He spent about 10 years in Winnemucca, Nevada working with sheep and ranchers. He heard about opportunities in Mountain Home, Idaho and decided to try his luck there, riding a saddle horse and leading a packhorse across the Owyhee River with all of his belongings. As soon as he arrived he found a job with Hines & Chatton Sheep Company, where he worked until 1914. That year he went into partnership in Bruneau Sheep Company, which was stockholder company of about 12 stockholders. By the time Faustino died the number had fallen to about eight or nine stockholders.
3:15-5:00 Arsen gives a brief history of his mother, Eusebia Elguezabal. She married Faustino in 1915, so Arsen supposes she must have come to the United States around 1912 or 1913. Her father owned a shoe shop in Mountain Home. Gradually, he brought his family to Mountain Home from the Basque country. Arsen’s parents had six children, five boys and a girl.
5:00-7:00 Arsen and Frosty’s father sent them and their other three brothers to the ranch as soon as school was out for the summer. He did not want them wasting time around town. Arsen says that the Alzola family has always had a love affair with the horse, pointing to the myriad photographs of horses on the walls. Their father raised draft horses. Arsen says that to understand his life you have to break it up into two parts. The first part takes place between Mountain Home and their father’s livestock ranch in Grandview, which was sold to JR Simplot after their father’s death. The second part takes place after their father’s death, when the Alzola brothers [indexer’s note: including Martin Alzola, not present for the interview] bought a cattle ranch in the same area that they developed into a larger ranch. They ran the second ranch for about 50 years until their retirement. They sold the second ranch to JR Simplot as well. Bruneau Sheep Company sold in 1945. They bought the second ranch in 1946. Frosty jokes that he and his brothers outlasted the other ranchers, who only made it for 30 years.
7:00-10:00 Arsen describes the Bruneau Sheep Company, a huge sheep outfit running about 15,000 head of sheep out of Hine & Chatton Ranch, where the Simplot feed lot is today. They cultivated 600-800 acres to feed the sheep and cattle. Bruneau Sheep Company was quite diverse, running pigs, chickens, a dairy, orchards, and farming operations in addition to sheep and cattle. It was very well organized. A person couldn’t be a camp tender without having been a sheepherder first. The position of camp tender was a promotion and came with more responsibility, like a foreman. There were about 30 people on the payroll. Arsen says that the company was ahead of its time, cooperating with students at the University of Idaho extension who wanted to observe the operation. Bruneau Sheep Co. sold ewe lambs to other sheep companies at better prices than they could otherwise get.
10:00-11:00 Their father was general manager of the company for about 40 years. Arsen describes his father, who became a hero and mentor for his children. Arsen describes he and his brothers’ childhoods, which were full of horse riding, fishing, hunting, and working. Working alongside the men, Arsen and his brothers were raised to want to work. Hard work was considered a virtue and a source of pride.
11:00-15:30 Arsen and his siblings went to school through high school in Mountain Home. Their father offered them the option of going on to college. In those days, Mountain Home was a small town of about 1,100 people. The early pioneers were from Tennessee. Most were Masons and looked down on Catholics. They controlled much of what went on in town, including how students qualified to pass onto higher grades. Prejudice against Basques, poor people, and African Americans was a part of life. One black man in particular was only allowed to be in town for two hours each Saturday. He had to trade his produce and do his shopping in that span of time. There were lots of fights in school between Basques and non-Basques. During the Great Depression, Arsen and Frosty made extra money by charging $10 to break horses for other people. (Aside: their oldest brother, Eugenio “Jim” Alzola, had health problems as a child that did not allow him to break horses. He eventually went to college and returned to Mountain Home to work at a bank. After three years at the bank, he was well enough to help his family on the ranch).
15:30-17:00 Arsen remembers that when each of his brothers turned 12, their father bought them a bed roll and duffel bag and started sending them out into the desert to fix fences or do other work. They would often be out for weeks at a time. He was careful not to be partial to his sons, sending them to work right along with the men and even having them do work that the men did not want to do (i.e. shoeing horses). Frosty adds that their father would give them a deadline for finishing the project, for example two weeks for a stretch of fencing. Arsen lists his siblings: Eugenio “Jim”, Faustino “Frosty”, Arsenio “Arsen”, Sara, Martin, and Ramon “Raymond.”
17:00-19:15 Arsen says that his parents came to the United States for economic reasons. His mother’s father wanted to bring his family to the United States but could not convince his wife to come. She went to Venezuela instead, but the Alzola family flew her to Mountain Home in later years so that they could get to know her. Arsen’s father had an older brother in Idaho when he first came, then brought his younger brother and sisters over in later years. Eventually all the Alzola children (Arsen’s father, uncles and aunts) settled in America. They left their parents in the old country. Arsen’s father did not talk about his first reaction upon seeing the United States, but his mother, Eusebia, told the children about her train ride across the country from New York to Mountain Home. She was very hungry on the train but had to point at the bananas and oranges she wanted because she did not speak English. She remembered it as being a very long train ride. She held out a wad of cash in her open hand to pay for the food, letting the vendors take their money. Eusebia’s mother, not wanting to send her daughter to America alone, sent her with another woman, Bob Mendiola’s mother, [who was probably close to Eusebia in age].
19:15-21:00 Arsen remembers his family’s home in Mountain Home. It stood where the US Bank is today. His aunt’s (Felisa Elguezabal Arrien’s) family lived with the Alzolas in that house. Eugenia and Brigida, two more of his mother’s sisters, came to Mountain Home around World War I. They were both afraid of having their ship sunk by German U-boats. Helen Berria’s father joined them in 1920. Arsen’s mother married at 18, so he guesses she must have come at 16 or so. She and Faustino married in Ogden, Utah along with Jose Irazabal, one of Faustino’s partners, and Jose’s bride. The two couples traveled down to Ogden together for the double wedding.
21:00-24:30 Growing up, the Alzola family spoke Spanish at home. His mother, having come from Algorta, spoke much more Spanish as a child than Basque. In those days Algorta was dominated by wealthy Spanish families. Many Basques, including Eusebia, worked for them in their homes. She was educated at a school taught by nuns. They taught her to be a seamstress. Frosty and Arsen remember their mother making baby clothes for other families in Mountain Home. She had a lovely singing and a good sense of humor, and was more vocal with her opinions than Faustino was. Helen Berria adds that although the Elguezabal family spoke mostly Spanish, she remembers her father conversing in Spanish on occasion. On the subject of language, Arsen says that the fact that he and his siblings spoke Spanish instead of Basque was a problem on the ranch. Some of the older Basque workers did not speak much Spanish, so they would avoid conversations with Arsen and his brothers, sometimes referring to them as “maketos”, a Basque pejorative for Spaniards. He attributes the sentiment to hard feelings left over from the Spanish Civil War.
24:30-30:00 Arsen describes the second ranch, the TM Ranch. Children used to come to the ranch to learn about horses and ranch life. A child stricken by polio came to the ranch, so Frosty built a special saddle for him to use. The boy learned to ride little by little, enduring excruciating pain to do so. By the end of his time at the ranch, he was riding along with everyone else, “happy as a lark.” Sadly, he passed away four years later. Frosty shares some memories of the boy. There were about 1,200 head of cattle, 50 horses, and dogs. The brothers bred all three. They bought the ranch from Mr. Rizzi, an Italian. Arsen describes their brand, the “hay hook,” and how they bred and showed steers all over the US. Their older brother, Jim, was very good at picking bulls to buy and breed at the ranch.
Tape 1, side 2
0-1:30 Arsen explains how his brothers Jim, Frosty, and Martin, each had special skills that matched them to certain jobs on the TM Ranch. It made for a good partnership.
1:30-5:00 Going back to his memories of high school, Arsen describes the town’s reaction to learning that the coach and the first string of the school basketball team were all Basque. The town did not like it very much. On the subject of community relations, Arsen remembers that people in the middle or lower classes got along together well, but the upper crust of Tennessee Masons did not mix with the others very well. Fights were often between Basques and the Tennesseans. Frosty remembers how he, Arsen, and several other Basques were cornered by a larger group of Tennesseans who wanted to paint their faces for Homecoming. The group backed off when Frosty offered any one of them to step forward and try it. Arsen tells another story about a conflict between the two groups. The terms “garlic slapper” and “black Basco” could be heard from time to time. Their father told the boys to fight if someone insulted them, but their mother discouraged it. She punished Arsen for fighting at school.
5:00-9:15 Frosty was born on 15 February 1918. He explains how he got his nickname. Arsen was born 19 July 1920. They give their birthdays to establish a historical context for their stories. Looking back, Arsen says that the economy in those days was not good. At a time when many Basque immigrants were arriving, the economy was good only twice: first, for a short period during the First World War, and second, during the Second World War. Life was very difficult for the older Basque immigrants. When the price of wool went down due to new imports from foreign countries and cuts in federal subsidies during the Roosevelt era, many sheep owners, including Basques, went out of business. The faith that some banks had in Basque sheep owners saved a few of them. Their father was one of them. Banks would often foreclose on one sheep outfit and hand their assets over to another customer to manage. Bruneau Sheep Company started this way. The bank foreclosed on Chatton of Hines & Chatton and made the Bruneau Sheep Co. absorb part of that outfit. Bruneau came to be based at the Hines & Chatton Ranch in Grandview in this way. Many transactions like this were going on at the time.
9:15-10:00 Jim and Arsen ran the Bruneau Sheep Co. for four years after their father died. Frosty was in the service at the time. Labor became scarce and the price of wool fell during World War II, prompting the Alzolas to sell the company.
10:00-12:00 Frosty graduated from high school in 1936 and Arsen in 1938. After high school, Arsen went college at Utah State University for a year and then to the University of Idaho, coming back to the ranch when his father died. Jim graduated from the University of Idaho. All of the brothers were looking forward to having their own cattle operation.
12:00-14:15 Frosty explains how he learned to break horses. Older cowboys, including Mexican horsemen from ranches in northern Nevada, helped teach him and his brothers about horses. Arsen says that Frosty was drafted into the US Army while he was working at a cattle ranch in Battle Mountain, Nevada. He was the first man to be drafted from Lander County because his last name started with an A. He was drafted around 1941. Frosty had already been in the service when his parents died. His mother died in 1942. He explains how he was deferred twice, for 6 months at a time, while working on the ranch in Nevada.
14:15- Frosty details his military service. He served in the 699 Remount Service of the US Army. Part of the Quartermaster Corps, the Remount Service was the division that broke, trained, and sent horses and mules to other divisions. Frosty gives examples of cargo ships full of mules that were bombed by submarines and the German Luftwaffe in Florida and the Mediterranean. He was in the convoy that was bombed in the Mediterranean. The ships were headed for India. Arsen explains how the horses and mules were used on The Hump (a section of mountain range between Burma and India) to bring ammunition and food in, and bring body bags out. The terrain was too rough for automobiles. Frosty explains how artillery were divided into three pieces and brought to hilltops by mules, where the guns were assembled and set to fire on enemy positions. Frosty spent five years in Burma. Remount got its horses from Australia and mules from the United States. He explains the schedule for receiving, breaking, and sending mules out to where they were needed. Frosty also jumped horses and participated in the first rodeos organized in India and Burma. The American Army horsemen played polo against the British Army. Frosty describes the games and equipment they used. He mentions Jack Holtz, who taught Frosty to play polo at Fort Reno, Nevada. Frosty also played polo in Boise. He helped hunt tigers, leopards and elephants in India that were killing people and horses. The elephants would tear through villagers’ huts to get to their rice patties. Villagers asked the US Army to hunt certain elephants for them. Many hunts lasted for weeks. He describes how they hunted for elephants. Frosty was on a hunt when the war ended, returning to find out that the war was over. Villagers cut the ivory out for whoever killed the elephant.
Tape 2, side 1
0-6:00 It took a long time for news of the war to reach Frosty’s division in Burma. When the war was over, Frosty refused to take part in shooting the horses and burying them in Burma. They did not want to take the horses back to the US for fear of spreading disease. He was supposed to fly back to the United States, but was detained for a while. The plane he was supposed to board ended up crashing. Instead, Frosty boarded a ship and sailed back to the United States. He had circumnavigated the globe, from Norfolk, Virginia through the Suez Canal, then from India back to the west coast of the US. He returned in 1945, arriving home in time to help sell Bruneau Sheep Company. Backing up, he explains that he had not left yet to fight in the war when his parents died. He was still stationed in the United States. With the American Red Cross’ help, Arsen was able to locate and get word to Frosty when his father died. When his mother had to be taken to the Mayo Brothers’ Clinic because of a tumor, the Red Cross notified Frosty so that he could meet his family there.
6:00-11:45 Arsen explains what it was like to assume responsibility of the ranch when his father died 1942, then when his mother died five months later. His younger siblings, Martin, Raymond and Sara, were still in school. Sara was just finishing college. He says that was the saddest part of their lives. Hospital bills were an added burden, making Arsen a wreck by the end of it. He says that Basilio and Brigida Iriondo, his uncle and aunt, were working for the company at the time but were getting ready to retire. They stayed on the ranch after they retired to help take care of the younger Alzola siblings. Arsen says that without their help, he would not have been able to manage. The poor economy, the war effort, death in the family, rationing of automobile tires and other items, and struggle between stockholders at Bruneau Sheep Co. combined to make the war years extremely difficult. Helen Berria lists other items rationed during this period. Arsen mentions that Domingo Aguirre Sr. lost his oldest son, Richard Aguirre, in the war.
11:45-18:45 Arsen describes Mountain Home during the war. Most able-bodied men were sent to fight. That, coupled with rationing, made it very difficult to run a ranch during those years. He remembers how bad synthetic tires were. In the 100-mile stretch of road between the ranch and the summer ground for the sheep, Arsen says you could count on changing a tire at least twice because they would blow out. Women in Mountain Home organized to help roll bandages for the Red Cross. Sulfa drugs were just being developed. Arsen used to serve as the doctor for the operation, going up to sheep camps to distribute medicine to sheepherders. He tells the story of how his father fell ill and passed away. He tells the story of how his mother fell ill and passed away and how difficult it was for Sara.
18:45-20:00 Their situation improved after the war, except for Raymond being sent to fight in the Korean War. Raymond did not recover from his experience for a long time.
20:00- The transaction started in 1945, but the Simplot Company took control of the ranch in 1946. Arsen says that he was glad to be out on the new ranch, away from the pressures he had been dealing with for so long. He refers to the saying, “the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man.” The price of cattle went up so that the Alzola brothers were able to pay off the ranch in only three years. A French Basque, Bernard Iribarne, sold his land and grazing permit to them. Arsen explains how they mortgaged the land to pay Rizzi, paid off the mortgage in three years, and financed themselves without government assistance or funding from banks. They did everything they could to stay out of debt. The TM Ranch was right over the border in Nevada, 100 miles from Mountain Home and 100 miles from Elko, Nevada. They controlled over 20 miles of the Bruneau River Canyon, which they used to winter their cows without buying hay. They had to ride many, many miles to manage the canyon that way. Simplot bought the ranch but has been unable to manage the canyon the way they did. Working the canyon was difficult and dangerous – Arsen tells of an instance where Frosty almost drowned when his horse tumbled into the river. Laughing about it now, Frosty says that he never lost his hat. The canyon proved to be treacherous. They give a few more examples of how dangerous it was.
Tape 2, side 2
0-10:45 Bruneau Canyon is now a popular place for kayakers, rafters, and hunters. It is about 140 miles long. Frosty shares a story about Arsen. They used two ropes to make it safer to cross the river. One year, a kayaker drowned. Arsen helped find the girl’s body. She was buried close to the river. The canyon has quite a history of drowning. According to legend, Butch Cassidy’s crew robbed the bank in Winnemucca, Nevada, and hid his treasure in the canyon. Treasure hunters have searched the area for hidden gold ever since.
10:45-12:15 Arsen explains how he and his brothers got out of the cattle business and retired. They had worked in the business for almost 75 years.
12:15-14:45 Arsen has considered taking a trip to the Basque country, but traveling has become difficult for him. Aside from their brother Raymond’s daughter, Michelle, and her husband Jose Luis, they don’t have any family in the Basque country that they know of. The closest that Frosty has come to Spain was a brief stop in Portugal to fix a leak in one of the ships in his convoy toward the Mediterranean and eventually Burma. Frosty and Arsen’s aunts, uncles and cousins live mostly in the United States and Venezuela.
14:45-19:45 Their mother told them a little about the Basque country. Her father, Saturnino Elguezabal, owned a shoe shop in Algorta before he came to Mountain Home, and also worked as a fisherman. He opened another shoe shop when he came to Mountain Home. He also worked in Hammett, Idaho. Even though he did not speak much English, he learned just enough to say “No money, no shoes.” A unique person, he decided to move back to the Basque country without telling anyone, including his wife, who was living there. His wife was shocked. Trying to remember the year he went back to the Basque country, Arsen guesses it was around 1921 or 1922. By remembering some common family history, Helen confirms the year.
19:45-20:30 Arsen remembers that Zoilo Echeverria owned a Basque boarding house in Bruneau.
20:30-26:30 Arsen and his brothers are not members of the Basque club in Mountain Home. When they were in Mountain Home, the club did not exist. When the new club started about five years ago, they were in Nevada. They could not afford to take the time off from working on the ranch. They hired Basques and some Native Americans as cowboys and ranch hands. Relatives (i.e. the Larrondo family) and the children who came to the ranch helped with much of the work. They refer to a family photograph on the wall. Frosty used to make lunches for the children; making them the sandwiches they didn’t like to teach them to appreciate what they got. He remembers tying string on to the children’s hats to keep them from flying off.
26:30-30:00 Arsen does not give it too much thought, but he considers himself to be American first, although he is proud of his Basque heritage. Frosty feels the same way. They do not have any desire to move to the Basque country. Arsen gives an instance of meeting a Basque trust officer, an Aguirre, in San Francisco who bent over backwards to help him when he realized that Arsen was Basque. Helen shares a similar experience with a prospective employer. They are both grateful to their parents’ generation for earning such a good reputation. Arsen adds that during the Depression, banks treated many Basque sheep owners more leniently than cattle owners because they had a good reputation.
Tape 3, side 1
0-3:45 Arsen gives some history of the Hines & Chatton company. Hines was a German immigrant; Chatton was one of the Tennesseans who helped settle the area. In the latter’s opinion it was all right for Basques to be sheepherders. Aside from that he did not have much use for them. Bruneau Sheep Company and Hines & Chatton merged in the 1920s because the bank took control of the latter’s assets and merged them with the former. It was customary for banks to restructure sheep companies in those days by foreclosing and transferring assets to another company. Bruneau paid the mortgage for Hines & Chatton. (Aside: Frank Berria, Helen Berria’s husband, tells about his father’s sheep company to give an example).
3:45-8:15 During the Dust Bowl crisis, many migrant families came from the east in search of work in Idaho. Some came out to Bruneau Sheep Company’s ranch to beg for work and food. Even though the company was suffering and one of Faustino Alzola’s associates pressed him not to feed those people or pay his sheepherders, Faustino decided to feed them and pay his herders anyway. Helen Berria remembers people coming to her family’s ranch in Gooding looking for work and food as well. Her mother fed them and put them to work to make them feel as though they had earned the meal. Arsen tells a story about meeting a young man who worked for the Works Projects Administration (WPA). Arsen’s father had helped the man’s family during the Depression, and the man expressed his gratitude. Very few Basques worked for the WPA, preferring to make their own living without receiving government assistance. Others in the Basque community regarded the few who did with shame. Arsen and Helen give modern day examples.
8:15-15:00 Arsen discusses Jose Bengoechea. Although the man owned a bank, a hotel [the Bengoechea Hotel] and 100,000 sheep, he could not sign his own name. Arsen says that Jose has not been given the credit he deserves for his accomplishments. Pete Gandiaga and others got their start with Bengoechea. Jose was the first man to own an automobile in Mountain Home. He could not drive it, so he got a blacksmith’s son to chauffer him around. When asked what the best kind of car was, Bengoechea would answer “a new one.” When automobiles became more commonplace, he used to say that although everyone knew how to drive, nobody knew how to fix a car. Arsen talks about the Bengoechea family. He explains how the Bengoechea sheep company broke down into the Bill Smith Sheep Company and the Wood Creek Sheep Company. The Aldecoas, Pete Gandiaga, Jose Urquidi Sr. and others are mentioned in the discussion. Wood Creek eventually sold to Bill Smith. Arsen compares the sizes of several sheep companies, including the Gandiaga, Andrew Little, Archabal (Achabal), and Bengoechea sheep outfits. Gandiaga ran his sheep in Oregon, Idaho, Nevada and Wyoming.
15:00-21:00 Arsen has written three books and a number of other pieces. He describes his work. Arsen would like to write essays about the Bruneau River Canyon and other subjects. One of his books is entitled The Basque Experience from the Pyrenees to the Owyhees.
21:00-21:45 Everyone in the room gives their name and relation to the Alzola brothers.
NAMES AND PLACES
NAMES:
Aguirre – Arsen met an Aguirre in San Francisco.
Alzola, Eugenio “Jim” – older brother.
Alzola, Faustino – father.
Alzola, Martin – brother.
Alzola, Michelle – niece.
Alzola, Ramon “Raymond” – younger brother.
American Red Cross – helped Arsen locate his brother, Frosty, during WWII.
Archabal (Achabal) – mentioned in a discussion of sheep owners.
Arrien, Felisa Elguezabal – aunt.
Ascuena, Sara – sister.
Bengoechea, Jose – Arsen discusses his accomplishments.
Bill Smith Sheep Company – Arsen discusses this company in relation to others in the area.
Wood Creek Sheep Company – Arsen discusses this company in relation to others in the area.
Cassidy, Butch – legendary outlaw.
Echeverria, Zoilo – owned a boarding house in Bruneau.
Elguezabal, Brigida – aunt.
Elguezabal, Eusebia – mother.
Elguezabal, Saturnino – mother’s father.
Gandiaga – mentioned in context of other sheep owners.
Holtz, Jack – mentioned in context of Frosty’s service during the Second World War.
Irazabal, Jose – he and his bride went to Ogden to be married along with Faustino and Eusebia.
Iribarne, Bernard – sold land and his grazing permit to the Alzola brothers.
Jose Luis – Michelle Alzola’s husband.
Larrondo family – relatives.
Little, Andrew – mentioned in a discussion of sheep owners.
Mendiola, Bob – his mother accompanied Eusebia Elguezabal to the United States.
Rizzi – the Alzolas bought the TM Ranch from Mr. Rizzi.
Simplot, JR – bought Bruneau Sheep Company and the TM Ranch.
Urquidi, Jose Sr. – mentioned in a discussion of sheep owners.
Works Projects Administration (WPA) – Arsen remembers this agency from the Depression. From 1935 to
1939, it was called the Works Progress Administration. Changed to Works Projects Administration in 1939.
Disbanded 1943.
PLACES:
Algorta, Bizkaia – mother’s hometown.
Australia – mentioned in context of Frosty’s service during the Second World War.
Bruneau River Canyon – winter ground for the TM Ranch.
Bruneau Sheep Company, Grandview, Idaho – the Alzola family managed this company until 1945.
Burma – mentioned in context of Frosty’s service during the Second World War.
Florida – mentioned in context of Frosty’s service during the Second World War.
Fort Reno, Nevada – mentioned in context of Frosty’s service during the Second World War.
Gooding, Idaho – Helen Berria remembers people coming through Gooding during the Depression.
Hammett, Idaho – Saturnino Elguezabal worked here.
Hines & Chatton Sheep Company, Mountain Home, Idaho – eventually the Bruneau Sheep Company.
India – mentioned in context of Frosty’s service during the Second World War.
Ispaster, Bizkaia – father’s hometown.
Mayo Brothers’ Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota – their mother was treated here.
Mediterranean Sea – mentioned in context of Frosty’s service during the Second World War.
Mountain Home, Idaho – mentioned in several contexts.
New York, New York – their parents took the train from New York to Mountain Home as part of their
immigration journey.
Norfolk, Virginia – mentioned in context of Frosty’s service during the Second World War.
Ogden, Utah – parents married here.
Oregon
Owyhee River
Portugal – mentioned in context of Frosty’s service during the Second World War.
Spain – mentioned in context of Frosty’s service during the Second World War.
Suez Canal – mentioned in context of Frosty’s service during the Second World War.
Tennessee – the Alzolas discuss relations between Tennessee Masons and other people in Mountain Home.
The Hump – mentioned in context of Frosty’s service during the Second World War.
TM Ranch, Nevada – the Alzola brothers’ ranch from 1945 to about 1995.
University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho – mentioned in several contexts.
Utah State University, Logan, Utah – Arsen studied here.
Battle Mountain, Nevada – Frosty was drafted into the US Army while working on a ranch here.
Venezuela – their mother’s mother immigrated to Venezuela.
Winnemucca, Nevada – father spent first 10 years in Winnemucca.
Wyoming
THEMES:
Banks
Basque clubs and organizations
Boarding houses
Cattle herding
Chickens
Community relations
Death
Dogs
Dust Bowl
Economy
Family
Farming
First World War
Great Depression
Horses
Kayakers
Korean War
Language
Masons
Non-Boise Basque communities
Oral History
Orchards
Other ethnic groups
Outlaws
Pigs
Rafters
Ranching
Second World War
Sheep companies
Sheep herding
Writing (books and essays)
