James "Sandy" Laidlaw, Jr. Oral History

Laidlaw, James "Sandy", Jr.

OH 0001 LAI

The Oral History Collection consists of taped interviews of long-time residents. This Oral History is the first oral history in the series maintained by the Regional History Department of the Community Library and was conducted by Marian Breckenridge, who interviewed James "Sandy" Laidlaw in the winter of 1977; the oral history was edited by Miram Breckenridge and Judith G. Johnson, and transcribed by Bill Robertson and Claudia Walsworth.

Discussion of the beginning of sheep ranching in southern Idaho; discussion of open grazing land and winter and summer pastures; passing mention of hostility between cattle ranchers and sheep ranchers; discussion of the problem of maintaining the sheep herding homstead while sending the wife and kids to a city or town for much of the year on account of schooling; discussion of having to haul water for the sheep during the occassional drought; selling lambs at the end of the season as "fat lambs"; raising Panama sheep and brief discussion of cross breeding Suffolk and other breeds of sheep; mention of Jack Lane, and Ed and Tom Gooding, and Martin Curran; discussion concerning wether Ketchum or Hill City was the largest shipping piont for sheep in the US (Ketchum was before the development of Hill City); discussion of shipping sheep by rail and the requirement to off-load the sheep every 36 hours for feeding and watering; discussion of travel to sheep destination points of Omaha, NE or Kirkland, Ill near Chicago; discussion of trucking outfits taking over the sheep shipping business from the railroads and shipping directly from the ranch to markets in Ogden or Twin Falls; discussion about eating old ewes and saving the lambs for market; discussion of 4th of July celebrations and fall sagehen hunting at his father's ranch; discussion of Mrs. Yurian and Mary Peavey Brooks as the only women in the sheep business at the time; discussion of the sale of Flat Top Sheep Company to the Peaveys; discussion of old-time sheep ranchers not making provision for inheritance law; discussion of poplar trees as wind breaks and the need for regular trimming of the poplars; discussion of live-stock raisers worrying more about weather than market conditions; discussion of a historical pamphlet Sandy Laidlaw had prepared and the somewhat negative response he received from some locals.

The OH transcript is indexed as follows: Bell, Bob, 21; Bellevue, 12, 18; Breckenridge, John, 4, 19-20; Breckenridge, L.L., 19, 23; Brockie, Robert, 2; Brooks, Mary Peavey, 21-23; Bureau of land management (BLM), 3, 6-7, 23, 29; Burks, Dennis, 21-22; Carey, 12, 17; Cattle, 1, 22, 27; Commission Men, 14, 20; Curran, Martin, 10, 16; Darrah, Ben, 9; Family Life, 3-4, 16-18; Farming, 1, 18; Flat Top Sheep Compant, 8, 21-23; Forest service, 3, 23, 29; Gooding, Frank, 3; Hailey, 12; Hill City, 11-12; Holidays, 16; Ketchum, 11; Laidlaw, Florence, 6, 9; Laidlaw, Fred, 7, 23, 32-33; Laidlaw, James, Sr., 2-4, 8-10, 12, 15-17, 22-25, 29; Lane, Jack, 9; Muldoon, 8, 19, 22; Newman, Grover, 31; Peavey, John, 22; Pettit Lake, 22; Picabo, 12; Railroad, 11-14, 16; Roundey, Ken, 26-27; Rupert, 17; Schools, 4-5; Scotland, 2, 19; Sheep breeding, 8-10; Sheep grazing, 3, 6-7; Sheep history, 3; Sheep shearing, 4, Sheep shipping, 10-16, 18, 20, 28; Trees, 27; Twin Falls, 3, 25-26; Twombley, Gertrude, 32; Weather, 28-29; Wool, 7-8; Yurian, Mrs., 21.

Historians Idaho; Sun Valley.

Sheep ranchers Biography. Idaho

Interviewer: Breckenridge, Miriam.

1977.

The Community Library,

audio/mpeg

Oral history sound recording Transcription available; Indexed.

Ketchum (Idaho)

Wood River Valley.

1977.

No restrictions. Copyright laws and fair use laws apply.