Rounding up the Western family

BONANZA, Ore. – All things need nurturing, even ranch lands of the American West.

In their upcoming book, writer Linda Hussa and photographer Madeline Graham Blake hope to show why ranch lands of the American West require a lot of mothering.

With the help of Carole Fisher of Bonanza, who’s serving as project manager, Blake and Hussa are combining efforts to create “Mothering in the West: A Literary and Photographic Study of Ranch Families.”

The large format book is scheduled to be published by the University of Nevada Press in early 2008. Photo exhibits will be held in conjunction with the book’s release.

“It’s not going to be just a picture book about the West,” says Hussa, who lives and works with her husband John on a third generation cattle ranch in Modoc County’s Surprise Valley. “It’s talking to the real blood and guts issues, and why we need to pay attention to them.”

“The time is right to have a book about the West and how people in the West preserve its history and culture,” says Fisher, who raises sheep near Bonanza with her husband, a retired large-animal veterinarian.

“It was troubling to see how land was being taken away. We’ve come around to ranching,” Fisher adds.

She moved to the Bonanza area from California’s Marin County and has a background in publishing and marketing.

Fisher and Hussa believe families who own, live and work on small ranches are “nearly a tracing of the old ways of their grandparents.” More than just maintaining a lifestyle, they believe ranch families are a stabilizing force that prevent lands from being developed for mining or recreational subdivisions.

“The ranching families of the West are the ones who keep the West alive for us,” Hussa says. “Without them we don’t have the West. We’re losing our national identity as Western people. The families are the ones who keep us alive.”

To tell and illustrate their theme, Hussa and Blake will focus on six ranching families with different stories.

They’ve already spent time with Joe and Joyce McKay of Juntura in Eastern Oregon.

Over the years, the McKays have adopted six children from Haiti and introduced them to a way of life that revolves around horses, cattle and roping. A story by Hussa and photography by Blake, who lives part of the year near Tulelake, appeared in the March 2005 issue of Western Horseman magazine.

Also expected to be featured will be Dave and Tami Stoddard of Surprise Valley. It’s traditional in the Stoddard family for their babies to ride horseback while strapped to Tami’s chest until they turn 3 years old.

“It’s an opportunity to explore my world differently,” says Hussa, a cowboy poet who regularly appears at readings and has written books and magazine stories about ranchers and ranch life. “To sort out why I live and love this life. To put it into context for people who don’t see or experience this land and life physically. To make more friends for ranching in the West.

“I think,” Hussa says, “you have to take responsibility for the things you love, just as you do for your children.”

Hussa and Fisher believe people raised on ranches, whether they remain or leave, gain strength from the experience.

“They grow up knowing where their father works. They know his work, his workplace. It’s an apprenticeship. They’re learning constantly about their place in rhythm with the landscape. They understand the seasons, the weather.

“I think,” Hussa says, “they grew up strong and responsible because they have to. It’s spending all day on horseback and knowing the work they do, that job, has a reason.”

“It’s a unity of purpose,” echoes Fisher. “You’re responsible for your work, for what you do.”