George R. Salisbury, Jr.

George Ralph Salisbury, Jr. (March 7, 1921 – December 25, 2010) was the patriarch of the Ladder Ranch, a cattle and sheep operation in Carbon County in southern Wyoming, and a Democratic member of the Wyoming House of Representatives from 1975 to 1986. He was the House Democratic (minority) Whip in his last term from 1985 to 1986.^[1]

Legislative service

Except for his college years and service as a tank commander under General George S. Patton, Jr., during World War II,^[2] Salisbury spent all of his adult years in the Little Snake River Valley. Prior to his legislative service, which corresponded with the administration of his fellow Democrat, Governor Edgar Herschler, Salisbury served for twenty years on the elected Carbon County Commission, based in Rawlins.^[2]

Representative Salisbury authored legislation creating both the Wyoming Water Development Commission and the Wyoming Permanent Education Fund. A member of the Select Water Committee, Salisbury was instrumental in the construction of the High Savery Dam, which provides needed water to farmers in the Little Snake River Valley. He was president of the Wyoming Board of Agriculture. In 2009, he was inducted into the Wyoming Agriculture Hall of Fame.^[2] In his last term in the House, Salisbury served on the committees of (1) Agriculture, Public Lands & Water Resources, (2) House Travel, Recreation & Wildlife, and (3) House Rules and Procedures. Previously, he was a member of the House Appropriations Committee.^[1]

Ranching patriarch

According to his daughter, rancher Sharon S. O'Toole, Salisbury "lived a fascinating life." The Salisbury and O'Toole families have lived in the Little Snake River Valley for six generations. On their Ladder Ranch property occurred a battle in 1841 between beaver trappers and American Indians. Not far from the Ladder Ranch, the wife and unborn child of the trapper Jeremiah Johnson were slaughtered by Crow Indians. The crime instilled a lifelong vendetta by Johnson against the Crow, the story of which is portrayed in the 1972 film Jermiah Johnson, with the title role played by Robert Redford. Though the film was mostly made in Utah, the slaughter of Johnson's wife and unborn child occurred in Carbon County, Wyoming.^[2]

Salisbury was born on his family ranch to George Salisbury, Sr., and the former Emma Terrill. His grandparents had homesteaded on the same landscape. As a child growing up in the Little Snake River Valley, Salisbury had twenty-one first cousins in the community, where he attended primary school. He graduated in 1937 at the age of sixteen from Rawlins High School. In 1941, Salisbury earned a Bachelor of Science degree in forestry and range management from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. Salisbury's daughter said that his parents sent him to college partly in the expectation that he might find a wife who was not a cousin.^[2]

After graduation, Salisbury married the former Laura Eleanor Kinne (1921–2004)^[3] in Riverton in central Wyoming. Until World War II, he worked for the United States Grazing Service, established by the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934. Salisbury then joined the 8th Armored Division of the United States Army under General Patton, having achieved the rank of major.^[2] He was awarded the Bronze Star and once jumped from his tank to rescue a soldier in his unit.^[2]

Salisbury was a long-term member of the Wyoming Wool Growers Association and one of only four honorary lifetime members of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association. He had also been active in the promotion of 4-H clubs. According to his daughter, Salisbury placed conservation easements on Ladder Ranch to insure that the land remains in agricultural production. O'Toole said that Salisbury was "a man of vision, a pioneer of adaptive land management practices such as rotational grazing way before it became a good way to manage."^[2]

His daughter added: "He was a Wyoming stockman through and through. He was equally knowledgeable about cattle and sheep; he valued land management and took pride in healthy rangelands. Resource management and land management was just as important to him as husbanding the livestock.” ^[2]

Family and death

Salisbury died on Christmas Day, 2010. In addition to his daughter, he is survived by his son-in-law, Patrick F. O'Toole, both of Savery in Carbon County. Patrick O'Toole succeeded his father-in-law in the Wyoming House, having served as a Democrat from 1987-1992.^[1] Salisbury had six grandchildren. He was predeceased by his wife, Laura, a son, George Robert Salisbury; a daughter, Charlotte Emma Salisbury, and a brother, Earl DeVitt Salisbury. Services for Salisbury were held at the Little Snake River Valley School on January 3, 2011, with Fathers Doug Wasinger and Warren Murphy officiating. He was a deacon of St. Paul's Episcopal Parish in Dixon in southern Wyoming. Salisbury's obituary does not mention a place of interment.^[4]

References