WILLCOX Cowboy Hall of Fame inductees
Michael (Mike) Dudley Wear
1958 –
2026 COWBOY HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE
Mike Wear is a 5th generation Wear cowboy/cowman. He was born in 1958 in Willcox, AZ. His parents were Robert (Bob) and Marie Wear and his grandparents were WD and Peggy Wear.
When Mike was three years old tragedy stuck when his dad was killed and subsequently his mom moved the family to Las Cruces, NM, to be closer to her family. I'm not sure when the idea of being a rancher actually takes hold and becomes his passion, but the move to Las Cruces away from the Wear ranching legacy could have put Mike on a completely different path. It did not.
All through his school years Mike was constantly making his way to Willcox just so he could help his grandad. Back in Las Cruces Mike was always missing family events.
The family members were asking, "Where's Mike?" The answer, "He's in Willcox at the ranch."
At first, he caught a Greyhound bus to make the trip, but when the Greyhound experience grew old, he convinced WD (Gramps) to pick him up in Lordsburg. When Mike turned 16, a driver's license changed the game again, as now Mike could drive his own Dodge Power Wagon back to the ranch.
When you are 16 years old, your future plans are usually pretty fuzzy at best, but for Mike the pull into this lifestyle was getting stronger and stronger. It was more than just loving cattle, horses and mountains. It was the bond that he had with his granddad. Gramps was a rancher and THAT is was Mike wanted to be as well.
WD paid for Mike's tuition to attend college and Mike felt he owed Gramps his help. Mike wanted to quit school and go back to the ranch and help, but WD said, "No, you can't come home till you get your education."
Mike first started drawing a paycheck back in 1981, as a dayworker for all the neighboring ranchers. He lived 18 years on the Bonita ranch while working for his granddad WD Wear.
In 1986, Mike was married and he and Leona raised three boys. There was Robert aka Bleu, William the 3rd aka. Dee and Michael, Jr., aka Mike.
With a marriage and a family, Mike needed insurance so he took a job with the State Livestock Inspection, but he was stationed in Camp Verde. Now the trip to Willcox to help Gramps was much longer was he was coming from the Verde Valley. The side jobs morphed into several titles, Livestock Officer II, Livestock Investigator, Graham County Deputy Sherriff. But, by 1990, Mike was back living and working on the ranch in Bonita.
In 2009, the home ranch was sold to the Martins and Mike began a 5-6 year stint in NM. From 2009- 2015, Mike was ranching in Hillsboro, New Mexico, a rough mountain ranch.
That bond with his granddad is part of reason Mike is back ranching in the Willcox area. He was not unhappy ranching in NM, but a Wear ranching in Willcox, that was a legacy he wanted to continue.
In 2015, Mike returned to Willcox buying a ranch in the Riggs Settlement, where he is still an active rancher today. Mike said this is a great ranch for an old man. It is open country with rolling draws and no mountains. Checking waters on a side-by-side not many horse tracks. He calls it his EZ Ranch.
Mike has spent 35 years working all phases of the cattle industry. He has gathered wild cattle, like 5-year-old maverick bulls that would eat your lunch. He has doctored snake bit horses and has put sign in a gate to get cattle through it.
Mike said, "The ranching business has changed in the way you market your calves. You used to pull the calves off the cows and they were shipped. Now you hold them for 45 days with very specific vaccine protocols. Checking water meant going directly to the tank but now I can look at my phone and know if every float on the ranch is working."
Even with the changes he knows a ranch still has to be managed and it is a learned skill.
Mike was a past president of the Cochise-Graham Cattle Growers Association (2010-2012) and is currently serving on their board of directors.
Mike would like to be remembered as a native Willcox cowboy that kept his word to keep the Wear ranch legacy alive in the Willcox area, in honor of his grandad, WD Wear Jr. I told you they had a strong bond.
WD (Gramps) was inducted into the Willcox Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1991. Now 35 years later Michael Dudley Wear, Sr. (Mike) joins his granddad in the Willcox Cowboy Hall of Fame.
Michael Dudley Wear