Wyoming Outdoor Hall of Fame

William F. (Buffalo Bill) Cody was born in Scott County, Iowa on February 26, 1846.  In 1857 when his father died, his mother moved to Kansas where Cody worked as a mounted messenger and wrangler.  Over the next few years he tried his luck in the Pike Peaks gold rush, joined the Pony Express, served as a Union scout during the Civil War and then in 1863 enlisted with the Seventh Kansas Cavalry.  In 1867, he took up the trade that gave him his nickname, hunting buffalo to feed the construction crews of the Kansas Pacific Railroad.  In 1868, he returned to his work for the Army as chief of scouts for the Fifth Cavalry.  For his service he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1872.
 
Cody became a national folk hero due to the exploits of his alter ego “Buffalo Bill” in Ned Buntline dime novels.  In 1872, Buntline persuaded Cody to assume this role on stage in his play “The Scouts of the Plains”.  He remained an actor for 11 seasons and between seasons, he escorted rich Easterners and European nobility on western hunting expeditions.  In 1876 he was called back to service as an army scout in the campaign that followed Custer’s defeat at the Little Bighorn.  In 1883, Cody organized the Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, an outdoor extravaganza that dramatized some of the most picturesque elements of Frontier life.  Half circus and half history lesson, the show proved an enormous success, touring the country for three decades and playing to enthusiastic crowds across Europe.  In 1890 he was called back by the army once more during Indian uprisings.

In 1895, Cody was instrumental in the founding of Cody, Wyoming.  In November 1902, Cody opened the Irma Hotel, which he named after his daughter.  He also established the TE Ranch and eventually held around 8,000 acres.  In 1897 and 1899 Cody and his associates acquired from the State of Wyoming the right to take water from the Shoshone River to irrigate about 169,000 acres of land in the Big Horn Basin but were unable to raise sufficient capital to complete their plan
The Shoshone Project became one of the first federal water development projects undertaken by the newly formed Reclamation Service, later to become known as the Bureau of Reclamation.  Construction of the Shoshone Dam started in 1905 and when it was completed in 1910, it was the tallest dam in the world. Almost three decades after its construction, the name of the dam and reservoir was changed to Buffalo Bill Dam by an act of Congress to honor Cody.  He was known for promoting Western culture and the rights of Native Americans.  He was an ardent conservationist and supported the creation of hunting seasons for big game.

Cody and his wife, Louisa, had four children, two of them dying at an early age.  Cody died on January 10, 1917, in Denver, CO and is buried at the summit of Lookout Mountain in Golden, CO.

Jay Lawson is a native of Casper and a Natrona High School graduate.  He attended Casper College before serving an extended tour of duty as a U.S. Combat Medic with the 1^st Air Cavalry Division in Viet Nam where he earned the Purple Heart.  Following honorable discharge from service, he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Range and Wildlife Management from the University of Montana.
 
In April, 2011, Jay retired after thirty-three years with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department including twenty-one years as Wildlife Division Chief.  Jay started his career in 1977 as a temporary biologist and then game warden trainee.  He became a district game warden in 1978.  He was promoted to Regional Wildlife Supervisor in 1985.  In 1989, he was promoted to Chief of the Wildlife Division.  The Wildlife Division contains about one half the agency personnel, utilizes almost one half of the budget and deals with the vast majority of controversial and difficult issues that face the Department.
 
Jay’s outstanding achievements on behalf of the wildlife resource and the field of fish and wildlife management include:  successfully managing Wyoming’s terrestrial wildlife resource during his tenure as wildlife division chief, including the recovery of the grizzly bear, bald eagle, peregrine falcon and black-footed ferret; development of a professional training program for wildlife managers using restitution funds derived from convicted poachers, increased the professionalism of the division work force by instituting a comprehensive employee recruitment and screening process, promoted the public relations aspect of wildlife law enforcement, resulting in survey results showing  91% of residents felt game warden contacts were a positive experience. Jay also teaches at the Colorado State University’s Wildlife Management Short Course and has done so for 22 consecutive years.
 
Jay developed, proposed and worked with the Wyoming legislature to enact several statutes that enhance the management and protection of Wyoming’s wildlife including laws that substantially increased the penalties for the illegal take of wildlife and the development of more humane snaring laws that substantially reduced non-target mortality.  Jay and others were instrumental in preventing the legalization of private ownership of native and exotic big game and the establishment of a game farm industry in Wyoming.  He implemented enhanced youth hunting and fishing opportunity through NGOs, employee organizations and regulation development.  He personally participates by taking young people hunting and fishing every year.  Under his leadership, the Department developed a pilot hunter access program that was incredibly successful.  The effort, which later became established as the WGFD’s Private Lands, Public Wildlife program currently provides hunter and angler access to 1.6 million acres of private land.  In 2003, Jay served on a three-person team, which developed a proposal to direct funds from Governor-designated licenses to wildlife research and management.  Governor Dave Freudenthal agreed to the proposal, which has more than three million dollars for on-the-ground wildlife projects during the past seven years. 
 
Jay has been active in regional and national wildlife management organizations including the WAFWA Law Enforcement Committee, the Human/Wildlife Conflict Committee, which he created, and the Western Bird Conservation Committee.  From 1990 to 2006, Jay served on the Pacific Flyway Council and was Chair in 1991 and 2006.  Jay also initiated annual coordination meetings with neighboring states. Jay has served on the Department’s Hunting and Fish Exposition Advisory Board since its inception in 1998.  Jay approached the Wildlife Heritage Foundation in 2004 about initiating the Wyoming Outdoor Hall of Fame and has chaired the Nomination Committee from 2004 to 2010. He also received the WGFD’s most prestigious award, the Director’s Award in 1995.
 
In 2007, Jay wrote and published the book, “Men to Match our Mountains,” a collection of short biographies documenting the lives of early Wyoming game wardens, trappers, hunters and cowboys.  He donated all proceeds to the Wildlife Heritage Foundation of Wyoming’s Forensic Fund.  To date, these funds have been used to purchase a new DNA sequencer for the regional forensics lab in Laramie.  This lab conducts forensic analysis for most WAFWA states. For contributing his book sales, he was awarded the Wildlife Heritage Foundation’s Conservation Philanthropist of the Year award in 2008. 
 
Jay Lawson’s long-term commitment to and outstanding achievements on behalf of Wyoming’s fish and wildlife resources and the field of wildlife management earned him the Special Recognition Award from the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies in 2010 and WAFWA Lifetime Member Award in 2011.  He has fostered a vision for the future preservation and conservation of wildlife through innovation and professionalism that will be evident many years into the future through the wildlife professionals and leaders that have developed under his leadership.  His accomplishments have not only affected Wyoming, but have made a positive impact on many wildlife issues regionally and nationally.
 
Jay remains an avid hunter and fisherman and lives in Cheyenne.

George Wrakestraw was born June 16, 1928 in Kansas City, Missouri.  He moved with his parents to Laramie, Wyoming at the age of 10 where he grew up and later earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wyoming. He worked for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department for 31 years from March 1950 to July 1981. George wore many hats for the Department, including Deputy Game Warden, Biologist, Central Flyway Biologist, Supervisor of Waterfowl Management and Migratory Bird Supervisor. George’s early work  involved research, inventory and restoration of big game species. His work with migratory birds from the mid-1950s to retirement was of statewide and regional significance and the department and hunters continue to profit from it to this day.
 
George was promoted to waterfowl biologist for the Central Flyway under the supervision of Game Bird Supervisor Bob Patterson. In April 1953 and 1954, George and his associates collected Canada goose eggs from nests along the Sweetwater River and incubated them at the Sheridan Bird Farm. Goslings produced from these eggs were released into suitable habitat statewide, including the Springer Wildlife Habitat Management Area near Yoder. During this same time period, George participated in coordinated duck and goose banding studies of international scope. George traveled to Canada to assist with the banding of waterfowl in addition to his work in Wyoming.
 
In 1953, 132 (give or take a few) Canada geese wintered in Goshen County. Bagging a Canada goose was like harvesting a bighorn ram in that era and George said lucky hunters would tie the goose on the hood of their vehicle and drive through Torrington to show it off. George established an objective of 10,000 wintering geese and set to work in the early 1960s.  To enhance the nesting success of Canada geese, George and his crews built and installed artificial nesting structures statewide.  In order to encourage more migrant geese to remain in Goshen county, George proposed a very controversial and innovative hunting strategy in 1969: half day hunting.  Approved by the Commission in 1970, half-day hunting continues today in Goshen and Platte counties. His goal of 10,000 wintering geese was first reached in 1978 and today Goshen County enjoys a wintering population of 30-40,000 Canada geese.
 
George’s work was not limited to game species.  In addition to aerial waterfowl surveys to determine species distribution and make population estimates, George organized and directed the first statewide eagle census in the state in the early 1970s at the request of his good friend and Governor, Stan Hathaway. George also was a key player in the department’s acquisition of the Table Mountain Wildlife Habitat Area in 1964 and segments of the Springer Habitat Area. Table Mountain is probably the most intensively used public waterfowl hunting area in the state.
 
In terms of wildlife law enforcement, George was unique. Hired as a Deputy Game Warden George was one of two biologists that were allowed to keep their law enforcement commission until their retirement. Due to all the time he spent doing surveys from a plane, George also learned how to fly, which proved beneficial in about 1952. One night as he was flying as a passenger from Rawlins to Cheyenne, the pilot became critically ill and George had to take the controls and pilot the craft safely to Cheyenne.
 
Many present day hunters knew George and remember his dedicated work to enhance migratory bird populations and hunting opportunities in Wyoming and consider him the father of modern waterfowl management in Wyoming.
 
George passed away on February 6, 2010 and is survived by his wife, Alma Wrakestraw, a daughter, Kay and her husband Richard Rose and a daughter, Marsha and her husband Gary Dolan.

Dave Freudenthal was born on  October 12, 1950 in Thermopolis, Wyoming.  He earned a BA in economics at Amherst College in 1973 and a JD degree from the University of Wyoming in 1980.  He was elected Governor of Wyoming in 2002; and was re-elected in 2006. Prior to being elected Governor, Dave Freudenthal was:  United States Attorney, United States Department of Justice, 1994-2001, Lawyer, Herschler, Freudenthal, Solghug & Bonds, 1980-1994, Administrative Aide, Wyoming Governor's Office, 1977-1980, State Planning Coordinator, Wyoming Governor's Office, 1975-1977, Economist, Wyoming Department of Economic Planning and Development, 1973-1975 Tank Builder, National Brotherhood of Boilermakers and Blacksmiths Union Oil Rig Worker.

As Governor, one of Dave Freudenthal’s main goals was to establish and secure funding for a Wildlife and Natural Resources Trust Fund which would provide millions of dollars for habitat protection and improvement over many years to come. Today, the Wildlife Trust Fund currently has almost $100 million of a $200 million goal.

Two of the most critical wildlife issues facing Wyoming while he was Governor include the Endangered Species Act (ESA) listing of the Grey Wolf, which had been re-introduced to Yellowstone National Park before the administration took office, and the Greater Sage Grouse possible ESA listing, which had and still has the potential of shutting down energy development in much of the state, and would bring Wyoming’s income stream to a trickle. The sage grouse issue is an example of the balance that must be maintained. Governor Freudenthal, in 2003, formed a Sage Grouse team, and whose work resulted in a 2010 federal decision to not list the bird, but to put it on a “watch list,” meaning it could be listed at some time in the future.  In 2007, with a lawsuit pending over the U.S. Fish and Wildlife's decision not to list the greater sage grouse as endangered, the administration began to map the bird's habitat. Within those mapped "core areas," the state has tightly restricted oil, gas and wind development, all thought to disrupt grouse breeding. Listing of the Greater Sage Grouse as an Endangered Species would have subjected 83 percent of gas producers to new regulations.

Wyoming state government is funded primarily by energy production revenues, much of which is produced from public lands. About half the land in Wyoming is publicly owned. That necessitates a working relationship with the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service and others.  Additionally, many Wyomingites are users of outdoor recreation and hunting and fishing.  Because of the importance of energy development and public use of public lands, the administration formed relationships with key federal personnel and continually worked on those relationships. Wyoming Bureau of Land Management Director Don Simpson said this state is now in the enviable position of having other states look to it as to how federal-state relationships can work to facilitate a broad range of public lands challenges. No other state had established as close a working relationship with the BLM, he said.

The administration also worked with federal managers to allow the state to use what is called “off-site” mitigation for wildlife species.  Due to the efforts of the Governor, companies involved in energy development in Sublette County provided millions of dollars in mitigation to address impacts to wildlife and their habitat that occurred as a result of oil and gas development.  These dollars are held in an escrow account administered by Wyoming Wildlife – The Foundation and dispersed as requested by the coalition of energy companies, various state agencies, and the Bureau of Land Management known as the Pinedale Anticline Project Administration (PAPA). 

By statute, the governor can receive up to 20 complimentary big game licenses each year. At the beginning of his term as Governor, he turned his big game licenses over to the Wyoming Governor's Big Game License Coalition and Wyoming Wildlife – The Foundation to administer on behalf of the Governor's Office. The Foundation and Coalition has continued to administer the licenses for the last  9 years. Proceeds from the sales of the licenses goes toward Wyoming wildlife and habitat projects. Proceeds from the sale of Governor Dave Freudenthal’s big game licenses recently topped $3 million.

In addition to the myriad of accomplishments made by Dave Freudenthal while he was governor, he was always an advocate and ambassador for the wild things and wild places that make Wyoming such a special place.  Dave now works for Crowell & Moring, LLP and is on the Board for Arch Coal.  He is also an arming faculty member teaching at the University of Wyoming.  Nancy is a Federal District Court Judge.  Dave and Nancy have four children – Don, Hillary, Bret and Katie.

The earliest record of the Eastman family out West dates back to the 1800’s. Since then six generations of Eastman families have called this home. Gordon Eastman grew up hunting and living in the wilderness outdoors. The Eastman family knows the outdoors as closely as a layperson would know his backyard.
 
Gordon Eastman is today considered not only a pioneer in the outdoors filming industry but also in big game hunting. Gordon created a new genre of films as early as 1957, while guiding in Alaska. In those early years he produced a landmark documentary “Hunting Alaska Today”. For many years from his base in Jackson, Wyoming, Gordon personally toured the West and Midwest with his outdoors movies and lectured to packed auditoriums wherever he went.
 
Gordon showed the general public the wonders of far off lands like Alaska, Canada and Wyoming and their unique big game animals. During this time the Canada government invited him to be the first to document the opening of the Northwest Territory to white man hunting. This film is a classic revealing the untapped vast big game resource of the north. This endeavor caught the eye of Walt Disney and he hired Gordon to help film Disney productions like Run Appaloosa Run, One Day in Teton Marsh and several other wildlife films. But longing for the wilds of the north, in 1966 he again struck out on his own to film in the backcountry of British Columbia and the Yukon. This produced several features for the big screen, “High, Wild, and Free” and the wolf epic “Savage Wild.” Gordon, himself, directed these films, wrote the scripts, photographed, edited and also narrated them for the theater audiences. In 1969 “Savage Wild” was in the running for the best documentary of that year.
 
Gordon Eastman was a strong believer in ethical hunting practices and he set the highest standards of fair chase hunting for the Eastman generations who are following in his footsteps.  
 
In the 80’s Gordon transferred all this 16mm films to the video format. During the 80s and 90s, he filmed and produced over 30 more western big game hunting and western fly-fishing titles for the next generation of hunters. In those years Gordon had sales of over 20,000 videos per year making him the biggest producer of hunting videos of this time.
 
Today hunters consider Gordon’s son, Mike Eastman, to be a living hunting legend. Mike spent half a century big game hunting, guiding and filming not only in Wyoming but up in the northern providences of Canada and Northern Tanzania, Africa. In 1987 Mike created and published Eastmans’ Hunting Journal and Eastmans’ Bowhunting Journal magazines. Today the magazines have over 100,000 subscribers and they aspire to practice the ethical fair chase hunting that Gordon had instilled into Mike.
 
Then in 1999 using Gordon’s outdoors hunting documentary style, Mike began producing a long running TV series on trophy big game hunting. Today this popular Outdoor Channel TV series continues to promote Gordon’s strong ethics of fair chase and ranks among the top ten outdoors shows on TV-a great tribute to Gordon’s love and respect of the outdoors, which continues to influence the younger generations today.
 
Gordon pass away March 13 1997 survived by his wife Mary Lou Eastman, three sons Mike, Brad, and Rod Eastman and a daughter Maria Eastman. 

Hubert (Hugh) J. Vogel was born in Sigourney, Iowa on April 18, I928 to Carl and Bernice Vogel. He is the identical twin brother of Herbert Vogel. Hugh moved to Casper, WY in 1952 where he met his wife of 50 years. Marge passed away in 2004.

Hugh's career has stretched over 50 years in the oilfield  business. He started his career with "Cotton" Wigley with K&W Sales in 1958. With K&W being an agent for Drilco, a division  of Smith International for 15 years, they brought Hugh on board as the District Manager. In 1972  Hugh was  promoted to Rocky Mountain Area Manager. Hugh left Drilco in 1980 and operated Alaskan Oilfield Sales for many years. He has spent the last 20 years working with his longtime friend and partner, Steve Nickson at Supply Company in Casper.

Hugh Vogel's volunteer work, particularly with the Wyoming Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation, provided some of the best examples of what one  man with a vision and a mission can accomplish. He has served as the 1st WY State Vice President and the State Treasurer for the NWTF and organized the Big Horn Chapter of the NWTF in Casper.

Hugh was the 2nd  person in NWTF national history to receive the Wild Turkey Rare Breed Award. This award is presented to an outstanding conservationist who pulls service and duty ahead of personal gain from their efforts. Due to his guidance the Big Horn Chapter in Casper is constantly the number two chapter in the nation for raising money for the NWTF.

In September each year, Hugh assists between 7,000 and 10,000  young people who participate in the NWTF JAKES (Juniors Acquiring Knowledge Ethics and Sportsmanship) field days and also provides a hands-on learning experience at the Hunting and Fishing Expo. In addition he hired a person with his own money to go into schools with an education box and other tools to educate students about wild turkeys and conservation.

An avid turkey hunter himself, he has harvested all five major subspecies of turkey throughout the US and Mexico. On his 80th birthday, he harvested the Ocellated Turkey in the Yucatan to complete his Royal Slam.

Robert "Bob" Mode l was born in Greenwich, Connecticut in 1942 to Faith  Rockefeller Model and  Belgian Jean Model. Model attended The Browning  School in  New York and then graduated from Elon  College in Elon, North Carolina in 1967. Bob and his wife, Mona, now live in Cody, Wyoming where he is a  rancher, outfitter, and businessman; as well as a hunter, conservationist, philanthropist, and active participant in wildlife conservation.

Bob has long been a champion of the importance of private lands in sustaining our public wildlife resources and of the need to improve sportsman /landowner relations. On his Mooncrest Ranch, Bob has actively worked to revise and improve grazing systems and to  utilize prescribed burns to enhance wildlife habitat on both private and public lands. In an ongoing partnership with Game and Fish and the Shoshone National Forest, Bob has successfully grown a non-migratory elk herd  in the Rattlesnake Mountain and Trout Creek Basin area from 250 elk to well over 2,000 since the mid  l970's.  The herd is maintaining their population in very difficult circumstances, including  predators and drought. In  addition, the Mooncrest Ranch provides several hundred days annually of free public access for big game hunting.

While Bob is an excellent steward of the land, his most noteworthy contributions to wildlife conservation in Wyoming and throughout the country arc in the public policy arena at the national level. Bob is a member, past president, and chairman of the Boone and Crockett Club. During Bob's tenure as president he was a leader in re-establishing the Club's historic role as one of the premiere conservation organizations promoting hunter ethics and advancing national policy on wildlife conservation and hunting heritage. As a well- read historian, Bob understands, believes, practices, and even preaches the conservation philosophy of Theodore Roosevelt And George Bird Grinnell who were founders of the Boone and Crockett Club. As a Boone and Crockett  member, Bob has personally provided major support for Boone and Crockett endowed professorships at the  University of Montana, Oregon State University, and Texas A&M. He was a founder and past chairman of  the American Wildlife Conservation Partners (AWCP) which is a coalition of over forty of America's most respected hunter/conservation organizations that meet to discuss and take action on the most important  conservation issues. The AWCP has developed and forwarded a conservation vision to the Bush and Obama Administrations and works actively with administration officials to implement the necessary policy revisions.

During the Bush Administration, Bob was a member and chairman of the Sporting Conservation Council, and was just recently appointed by the Obama Administration to the newly formed Wildlife and Hunting Heritage Conservation Council. Bob was also a founder and board member of  the National Conservation Leadership Institute in Shepherdstown, WV, a  joint endeavor between state and federal wildlife agencies, private  conservation organizations, and  natural resource industry to  provide world-class leadership training to the  next generation of conservation executives.

Bob was the person most responsible for working with then Secretary of Interior Norton to convene the National Conference on Cooperative Conservation, and for working with CEQ Chairman Connaughton and Secretary of Interior Kempthorne to convene the White House Conference on Hunting Heritage and Wildlife Conservation which resulted  in a 10-year national action plan for maintaining wildlife resources and our  hunting heritage.

Jake Clark was born the eldest of seven children to John and Geneva Clark in 1950. He was raised to age 12 on the Whitt Ranch in Meeteetse, Wyoming and calving seasons. He started the Powell High School Rodeo Club in 1976 and served on the Wyoming High School Rodeo Association Board in 1995. He was a founding member of the Northwest Rodeo Council and served from 1998 to 2003.

In 1979, Jake purchased his first outfitting business from his great uncle, Ed Larson, of Meeteetse and named it Wyoming Wilderness Outfitters. He worked to develop the business, expanding it to include summer trips into Yellowstone National Park.

In 1985 Jake began his membership with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and he became Life Member #494 in March I989. He served as Ringman and managed the  National Convention Auction Crew from 1986- 2007. He also served as RMEF Board Member from 1993-1998 and as Liaison to the Outfitter Industry. Jack received the  RMEF's Outfitter Advisory Committee Service Award for 1996-97 and in 2004 Jake received the RMEF's Wallace Fennel Pate Award, the highest award bestowed to a volunteer. Jake Clark's Wyoming Wilderness Outfitters, as a member of Business Partners in Conservation, has raised $459,336  in donations for the RMEF.

Jake was one of seven outfitters on the Wyoming Centennial Wagon Train in 1990, serving as many as 70-100 guests a day on the 30-day trip. In 1998 he began Jake Clark's Mule Days, which is a nationally recognized five-day event consisting of seminars, mounted shooting, team sorting, a trail course, dinner, dance and an all mule rodeo, highlighted by a Select Saddle Mule Auction offering 110 of "America's Finest" saddle mules. Since 2006, donations collected through activities during Mule Days total $75,000 and have included endowments to Wyoming's 4-H Foundation, Wyoming FFA Foundation and the Arkansas FFA Foundation, as well as the American Cancer Society. Jake served on the Board of Directors of the Wyoming 4-H Foundation from 1999-2002.

Jake purchased the  Little Sunlight Basin Camp in 1995, the West Dunoir Camp northwest of Dubois in 2003 and the Wiggins Fork and Emerald Creek Camps north of Dubois in 2008 with son, Travis James Clark. Jake prides himself on making both summer trips and hunting experiences enjoyable for his clients, as well as any other outdoor adventurers he encounters along the trail. The Wyoming way of life and the basic cowboy creed are embedded in his every demeanor.

William D. Pickett was born October 2, 1827 near Huntsville, Alabama. He moved to Kentucky as a child and received an education that prepared him for a career in engineering. He served in the Mexican War, though his duties were fighting Comanche in Texas rather than in Mexico itself. After his discharge he returned to Kentucky where he helped with the design and construction of several railroads.

At the beginning of the Civil War, he joined the Confederate Army, rising to the rank of colonel and serving until the surrender. After the war, he returned to engineering with the Memphis and Ohio Railroad, and in 1876, he came west to hunt and explore. In 1883, he bought land along the Greybull River in north central Wyoming and took up  ranching. He stayed until 1904, serving three terms in the Wyoming Legislature before returning to Kentucky where he died in 1917.

Pickett was one of the earliest members of the Boone and Crockett Club, the group Theodore  Roosevelt created in 1887 "to work for the  preservation of large game in this country" and  "to promote inquiry into, and to record observations on, the habits and natural  history of various wild animals." Pickett served as the organization's vice  president in 1897, contributed to several of its  early books, and was the primary author of Hunting at High Altitudes, a Boone and Crockett volume published in 1913. No less an authority that George Bird Grinnell wrote that Pickett "has had an experience hunting grizzly bear greater probably than that of any man who ever lived. A keen sportsman, a lover of outdoor life, and a Southern gentleman, Colonel Pickett represents the ideals of the Boone and Crockett Club."

Olin D. Sims was born September 1, 1960 in Riverton, Wyoming and raised  in the Rock Creek Valley at Mcfadden, Wyoming. He spent his entire life in agriculture, working on his family's ranch with his father Don, his brother Scott, and  their families.

Olin was known as one of the most progressive, conservation-orientated ranchers in Wyoming. The Sims family has received numerous state and national awards for their land stewardship practices. Olin planned many of the ranch's conservation projects including reservoir/wetland dam reconstruction, fencing and cross fencing pastures, developing water sources for livestock and wildlife, and adopting state-of-the-art approaches to grazing management. The ranch developed an intensive range-monitoring program to  better track changes in forage due to the ir management practices.

In 2003, the Sims family helped the Wyoming Game and Fish Department manage the irrigated hay meadows on the Wick Wildlife Habitat Management Area, located near the Sims ranch by using their livestock to execute a short duration, high intensity grazing  program designed to improve forage for wintering elk. Olin was largely responsible for launching this program, and it continues today, an example that has been followed by other land managers.

Olin served as President of the National Association of Conservation . He was instrumental in providing information to Congress that was used to develop the 2007 Farm Bill's conservation programs.

He was an avid outdoorsman and felt strongly that it is everyone's responsibility to conserve our natural resource s for generations to come. Olin passed away on December 7, 2007.

Terry was born to Lee Francis and Mary Ellen Cleveland on November 16, 1946, in Carbon County, Wyoming. At an early age he developed a keen interest in the outdoors, and spent much of his youth hunting and fishing in southern Carbon County. After graduation from Rawlins High School, he attended Colorado State University where he graduated in 1969 with a B.S. with honors in Wildlife Biology. That same year he commenced employment with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department as a Special Deputy Game Warden in Elk Mountain. Following a six month stint on active duty with the Wyoming National Guard, he returned to work for the Game and Fish Department in April 1970 as the Game Warden in Jeffrey City. He subsequently served as a game warden in Greybull and Saratoga before becoming the Regional Wildlife Supervisor in Casper and in 1996, was promoted to the Assistant Chief of the Wildlife Division in Casper. In 2003, he was named Director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department retiring in 2008 following a 39 year career. As Director, he was active in addressing brucellosis is in elk and wild bison, enhancing landowner relationships with the Department, and working with the Wyoming Legislature to address legislative and monetary needs of the  agency. Gray wolves and grizzly bears were delisted during his tenure though wolves were subsequently re-listed following his retirement.

Terry is a charter member of the Wyoming Chapter of the Wildlife Society and a charter member and past president of the Wyoming Game Wardens' Association. He is a certified wildlife biologist with the Wildlife Society. During his career, he received the Director's Award and the Peer Recognition Award from the Department and was named the Wildlife Officer of the Year from Wyoming by Shikar Safari International in 1984. He has received the Phillip W. Schneider Lifetime Achievement Award, the  highest recognition bestowed on an individual by the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. Terry was very active in the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, as well as the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, chairing and serving on various regional and national committees.

Following his retirement from the Department, Terry served as the interim executive director of the Wildlife Heritage Foundation of Wyoming as the Foundation sought a new permanent President and Chief Executive Officer. He remains on the Board of the Foundation and Chairs of the Advisory Committee for the Building the Wyoming We Want initiative.

George William " Bill" Grunkemeyer was born July 27, 1942 to George and Prudence Grunkemeyer. He attended Sheridan schools and graduated from the University of Wyoming with a BS in microbiology. He was an avid outdoorsman who loved fishing, hiking, camping and skiing. It was these interests that led him into the field of film.

In the late 1960s,  Bill had the opportunity to work with Jim Simon, a  previous Outdoor  Hall of Fame inductee, a noted  biologist  and filmmake r who was working with the Wyoming Travel Commission after several years of filming with the True -Life Adventure series  produced by Walt Disney. During that summer Bill realized his passion was film production with an emphasis on wildlife and the outdoor subjects.

In the mid-l 980s Bill formed a company he called Grunko Films, producing videos featuring hunting, fishing and wildlife. He produced over 40 outdoor and wildlife videos as well as 35 episodes for his television series, Experience the Wild. His career took him from the top of the Arctic to the tip of South America.

Bill worked for all major television networks and won numerous awards for his own productions as well as his camera work for other companies. The National Wildlife Federation And the Wyoming Wildlife Federation twice named him "Communicator of the Year" for Wyoming.

Bill passed away in 2003, a victim of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-Lou Gehrig's Disease.  However, his work has been archived with the state of Wyoming, which includes more than 1000 hours of wildlife, hunting, fishing, and outdoor adventure.

Jim Bridger was born in Virginia. In 1804, he moved to Missouri with his parents. After an apprenticeship as a blacksmith, he hired on with William Ashley in 1822 and headed to the Rocky Mountains after fur.

Jim was an accomplished trapper and mountain man who became an expert scout for the Army. He was one of the first Americans to see the wonders of Yellowstone. In  1824, he followed the Bear River south into the Great Basin  where he discovered the Great Salt  Lake. In 1843, he established a fort and trading post (Fort. Bridger) on the Black's Fork of the Green River in Wyoming Territory. In 1859, he guided the Raynolds expedition into Montana  and in 1861, showed army engineer E.L. Berthoud into Colorado. He assisted  with the surveys for the transcontinental railroad and the campaign against Red Cloud. As much as any other man, he opened the American West and many places in Wyoming and the West are named after him.

He lived long enough to see the Yellowstone region set aside as a national park and must have been pleased to know that a corner of the wilderness he knew had been protected from development. In 1867, with failing eyesight, he returned to Missouri, and in 1881 he died penniless and forgotten by all but a few old friends.

William Barlow was born to Marion and Lewis Barlow on October 1, 1936 in Sheridan, Wyoming. He graduated from Campbell County High School in 1954 and went on to earn a degree in Agriculture at the University of Wyoming in 1958. After graduation he was a delegate for an International Farm Youth Exchange program and spent six months in Burma. In 1960, he joined the International Voluntary Services and spent the next two years in Cambodia, where he met his future wife, Bernadette, who was attending law school. When he returned to the US, Bill got his teaching certificate and taught Vocational Agriculture and Social Studies in high school before returning to the family ranch where he continued the tradition of conserving grassland for livestock and wildlife alike.

In the early 1970s, the huge coal deposits under the Powder River basin became a valuable commodity. He and his neighbors watched with growing concern as strip mines opened across the landscape, and proposals for coal-fired power plants emerged. In 1973, this group of landholders organized and began calling itself the Powder River Basin Resource Council.

Over the decades, Barlow and the council spoke upon spectrum of issues affecting land and landholders in the region. It pressed for passage of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, opposed the construction of coal-fired power plants in Wyoming, and was instrumental in passing the state's Industrial Siting Act. One of Bill's most significant contributions was his role in the Cow Creek-60 Bar Land Exchange with the BLM that eventually formed the 20,000-acre Burnt Hollow a rea for public use. The whole process took almost five years, and BLM has described it as one of the biggest, most complicated land exchanges in Wyoming. Bill didn't see this project come to fruition as it was dedicated in March, 2002 one year after his death in March, 2001.

Fred was born to Fred and Anna Wise man in Pearl River, New York on  October 24, 1923. After graduation from Pearl River High School he joined the armed forces during World War II. After service in the  European and Pacific theaters and subsequent discharge, he went on to  receive his degree in wildlife management with  a specialty in fisheries at Utah State University in 1950. That same year he began his career as a  fisheries biologist with the Wyoming Game and  Fish Department and eventually was promoted to the positions of district fisheries supervisor and fisheries management coordinator over a career that lasted 28 years.

Fred was instrumental in developing the first stages of inventorying and surveying fish habitat. He served as a member of the Wyoming Legislative Interim Committee for stream preservation, chaired the first "Instream Flow Needs and Specialty Conference" and participated in the development of Wyoming's Stream Classification map. Before DEQ and EPA, he worked with the State Sanitation Engineer to remove wastewater from streams and had a major responsibility for the 400 mile chemical treatment of the Green River prim to the flooding of Flaming Gorge Reservoir.

He served as President of the Western Division of the American Fisheries Society. In  1969, was named to the Hall of Excellence by the Society in 1977 and was recognized as the outstanding worker for 1976 by the Colorado/Wyoming Chapter of the American Fisheries Society. He also receive d the Wildlife Conservation Award from the Wyoming Wildlife Federation  and the Sears Roebuck Foundation. He has been a member of the American Fisheries  Society since 1950, a member of the American Institute of Fisheries Research Biologists since 1970, was a founding member of the Great Plains Fisheries Workers Association and has been registered with the American  Fisheries Society as a fisheries  scientist since l 970.

After leaving the Department, Fred was employed by industry as an environmental compliance person working in Alaska. Mo re recently he is serving as an aid at the Casper College Werner Wildlife Museum and as a recorder a t the Western History Archives. He is also an active participant in the Library of Congress veteran's interview program and has served for more than 20 years on the Platte River Parkway Board of Trustees. Fred has also written several publications dealing with fisheries and environmental issues.