Ray C. Fritz of LaBarge is this year’s inductee from Lincoln County for the Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame (WCHF). Fritz is one of 25 members of the WCHF Class of 2023. The WCHF State Board of Directors voted on the nominees from across the state during its annual meeting. The 10th annual induction ceremony will be held in Casper this fall.

Candy Moulton, executive director for the organization, said, “The group formed in 2014 by Wyoming residents that decided the Cowboy State needed a cowboy hall of fame.” The nonprofit organization aims to recognize men and women who represent the cowboy culture and legacy.

“We want to celebrate, perpetuate, recognize and preserve the cowboy lifestyle,” Moulton said.

Nomination requirements set the cowboy bar high.

“The main way someone gets into the Cowboy Hall of Fame is to have worked as a cowboy,” Moulton said. “They must have been on a horse, chasing livestock for at least 45 years.”

Some of the nominees have experience rodeoing, as well as packing people and goods into the backcountry.

Fritz’s daughter, Kendra, said, “He is a hard worker and overcomes obstacles that are thrown his way.” She remembers growing up on ranches and riding the tractor while he was feeding the cows. The Fritz children were born in Kemmerer and grew up near Fontenelle Creek.

Ray Fritz said when Kendra told him he had been nominated for the WCHF he was surprised.

“I’m still living the legacy that I was taught by my grandad,” Fritz said. “I’m living the cowboy legacy, but it is a dying breed. It’s a hard way of life but it’s a good way of life.”

The challenges of cowboying were not new to Fritz. In the winter of ’72 he faced the brutal call to fight in Vietnam.

“The trauma of war stays with you all your life,” he said. “Working with horses after Vietnam was therapeutic for me.”

Fritz tries to stay in touch with other veterans.

“Things from the past have a way of catching up to you,” he said. “We soldiers grew up fast and now we are falling apart. A lot of that we have put behind us, but it is important to let people know about it.”

After the Vietnam war, Fritz went to Hollywood to drive stagecoaches in the movies. Unsuccessful in the film industry, he tried his hand rodeoing rough stock. Feeling fortunate to have traveled to unique places in the world, he knew it was time for him to return to cowboying.

“That is what I’m good at, I guess,” he said.

Upon leaving Hollywood and rodeoing, Fritz decided to return to his hometown in Colorado. “Every place you used to run cows had development and it felt like things started closing in on me.”  Recovering from a rodeo injury, he married his wife, Jackie, in 1976, and they moved to Fontenelle Creek, where they have lived since.

Calling Wyoming his home, he said “There are good people here, and it is a good way of life.”

Challenges of the cowboy life include seasonal elements such as dust, storms and cold winters. And yet amid winter, Fritz recalls the pleasures of pulling a sleigh with a team of horses through the snow.

“There is a feeling there I can’t describe,” he said. “It’s smooth, and you’re just floating along, and you hear the jingle of the chains and the horses trotting along. You’re freezing your butt off, though,” he added with a laugh.

Although the elements take a toll, Fritz said he prefers the different seasons because they bring variety.

“In the winter you feed the cows; in the spring there is calving, fixing fences and running water; Then there is haying,” he said. “The job changes with the seasons. By the time you get tired of something, you move on to do something else.”

Advice Fritz gives to the younger generation is: “Ask questions and learn all you can. Hard work is good for you.”

He said he hopes to see the cowboy legacy continue, but added, “It is hard to find a ranch with multiple generations on it.”

Fritz said working with animals teaches discipline.

“What is good for the inside of a man is the outside of a horse,” he said.

Fritz and his late wife Jackie have two daughters. They lost their son in 2006. Fritz now works about eight miles south of LaBarge. He is 75 years old and is not planning to retire yet, saying that his granddad cowboyed until he was 77.

Fritz plans to attend the Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame ceremony but said it will be hard for him to get away from the cows.

“It is an honor to be nominated for the Hall of Fame,” he said, “and I hope I can live up to the history of it.”

As the Lincoln County inductee, Fritz said he has ridden most of the region on horseback.

“I have broke a lot of horses in this county,” he said. “I love working with horses. There is a connection between man and his horse. You have to work together to gain trust.”

It didn’t always go perfectly, he said.

“I have been bucked off a few times,” Fritz said with a laugh. “I have been beat up. I have had broken arms, broken legs, broken ribs, concussions; my nose has been fixed four times. I had a twisted gut, where they had to open me up. Both knees have been worked on. I’m a roadmap of stitches.”

Yet Fritz still rides.

“It’s just cowboy work, and the elements are against you but, at the end of the day, you can see what you did — fixing fence, saving calves, hauling hay. You can see progress, and it is a good feeling. It is a sense of accomplishment. Every day is an adventure.”