WILLCOX Cowboy Hall of Fame inductees
Guy Hudson (137)
1955-
2024 COWBOY HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE
Guy Hudson was born in 1955 in Prescott, AZ. He has an identical twin brother, two sisters and two other brothers. Although born in Prescott, Guy says he was raised in Wyoming. His family was not a ranching family, as his dad was a school teacher and a coach.
It is important to note that Guy’s dad played college basketball at ASU. What is important about this is that his dad played college basketball on a prosthetic leg, after losing a leg as a young boy. The lesson his dad instilled into Guy was that you can do anything, if you work hard and put your mind to it.
Guy Hudson wanted to be a cowboy. As Guy grew up in rural Wyoming, he spent many weekends working on the area ranches. This started a fire burning deep inside that has never gone out. It did smolder for several years as Guy first worked in an open pit mine driving a 200-ton dump truck, but finally, at age 27, he threw away his hard hat and put on a cowboy hat as he took a ranch job in Idaho.
Guy said, “his finances went from $30,000 per year to $6,000, but he did get to sleep in a bunk house.”
This first cowboy job lasted only a short stint, before he left for his second job that took him to Dillon, Montana, to work on the Matador Ranch. It was here that Guy learned his cowboy etiquette and cowboying skills.
When Guy’s dad passed away in 1985, Guy decided to find a job in Arizona. His soon to be bride, Palma Bergeron, had strong connections in Willcox and it wasn’t long till Guy Hudson was working for Jay Dobson on the Three Links Ranch about 18 miles outside of Willcox. For Palma, it was like coming home. They moved their wedding date up and they tied the knot in November of 1985. Guy said, “He thanked Jay, for the day and half off, but there was no honeymoon.”
In fact, their first vacation was the following year when Guy enrolled in a school in Kansas to learn how to preg check cows. Now, doesn’t that sound like a great vacation; to be fair, it was a school to learn how to preg check and AI as well.
Knowing these soon-to- be- learned skills would benefit the ranch, Jay and Billy Resor surprised Guy with a $500 check the morning he and Palma were about to leave for Kansas. Guy and Palma were on the Links for about four years and added two healthy boys to the family, Guy Taylor and Talbott Mark.
The road this couple traveled gets a little zig-zaggy as Guy took a cow boss job on a ranch in Northern California. Then they came back to Arizona working for Jay Dobson again, then moving to St David to run a small ranch. Then to Prescott on the Yolo Ranch then to Seligman and then finally back to Douglas, Arizona.
Now there were stories and lessons learned on all the ranches. The Dot Ranch in Northern California ran 5,000 mother cows and it was here Guy got his first taste in owning his own cattle. The ranch owner allowed the workers to own 10 cows, as he figured, if they were looking after their own cattle they would be looking after his as well. Palma was cooking for a crew of 8-25 cowboys 7 days a week and that helped to prompt her to go back to school to get her teaching certificate.
Almost two years later and after a very tough winter, with several 30 below days they decided to head back to Arizona. They went back to work for Jay Dobson on the White House Ranch on the San Pedro River. They were there about a year and half when Guy took a job in St David, so Palma could finish her education degree.
With her new teaching degree in hand, Palma got her first job in Seligman and that is why Guy’s ranching career went from the Yolo Ranch in Prescott to the Fort Rock Ranch west of Seligman.
Palma says it is God’s will that we were always drawn back to Cochise County. Hence, in 1995, they received a call from Clayton Vincent, to move back to Douglas to manage his ranches.
The next 12 years, Guy managed Clayton Vincent’s two ranches, the Double E and the Mud Springs Ranch, until Clayton passed away in 2007. Guy said, “I’m now 52 years old and looking for a job.”
The opportunity to become a ranch owner was now a real possibility. With the money from an insurance policy, a down payment was made on the Mud Springs Ranch. Guy Hudson was now a ranch owner.
The old saying that behind every successful rancher there is a wife that has a job in town, is certainly true for this couple. Guy managed other ranches other than just his own. He was a part time livestock inspector for the State of Arizona for 5 years. He shod horses and did preg checks for other ranchers. All these extra jobs just to make ends meet. Now that Guy has a place of his own, he is very grateful for the help of his two boys, who have worked endless weekends and summers.
Over 40 years ago, when Guy threw that hard hat across the top of the dump truck and put on a cowboy hat, the dream began.
It doesn’t matter that Guy was working for Jay Dobson or Clayton Vincent, or that he was doing day-work on nearly every ranch in Cochise County, he was keeping the dream alive. Now for the past 17 years the dream of being a rancher, being a cowboy is no longer a dream. It is a reality.
Tonight, your peers have recognized you, for all the work you did to keep the dream alive. Guy Hudson, job well done.
Please welcome Guy Hudson into the Willcox Cowboy Hall of Fame.