Joe Back - (1899-1986)
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Campbell County High School, Gillette, WY
I. Personal Biography
Besides leading the role as an old-time roughneck, Joe Back was also a well known artist, writer, and sculptor. His optimistic attitude towards life was so inspiring and changed many lives (Back Horses, Hitches and Rocky Trails 7).
Back was born in Ohio in 1899. Being introduced to a ranch at an early age gave Back a taste of the great agriculture the world had to offer. Inspired, Back moved out to Wyoming for a rustic future ahead.
At the age of 13, Back left home for Wyoming to escape the troubles of his stepfather and school. There, he found his true destiny. The Rocky Mountains were astounding to his virgin eyes; beginning a lifetime intimate connection with the West (Back Horses, Hitches and Rocky Trails 11).
When he turned 17, Back enlisted in the Navy to fight in WWI, but instead served as a machine-gun instructor. Soon after, he spent some time as a cowboy, guide, and packer (Back The Model T and the Lazy Board 1).
His love of art soon took over, and he managed to dedicate four years at the Art Institute of Chicago where he "damn near starved to death" (Back Horses, Hitches and Rocky Trails back jacket).
Although art was a great part of his life, he mostly made a living as a cowboy, homesteader, freighter, guide, and packer. What mattered to him was doing what he loved. Back spent a wonderful 50 years in Dubois, Wyoming, before dying on September 7, 1986, at 87 years old (Back Back Country 2).
II. Influences
The Rocky Mountains were Back's greatest influence, not only in his works, but also in his life. It was love at first sight, which brought him a great passion for the West. Ever since he'd laid eyes upon the gorgeous scenery, there had been an intimate connection. He found the outdoors incredible (Back The Sucker's Teeth back jacket). He also wrote from personal experience that he gathered as a cowboy, packer, and guide.
III. Literary works
B.A.C.K. Country: Two Tales by Joe Back; 1987
-Mooching Moose and Mumbling Men
-The Sucker's Teeth
Horses, Hitches and Rocky Trails; 1959
Mooching Moose and Mumbling Men; 1963
The Model T and the Lazy Board; 1988
The Old Guide Remembers and the Young Guide Finds Out; 1986
The Sucker's Teeth; 1965
IV. Works cited
Back, Joe. Back Country: Two Tales by Joe Back. Boulder: Johnson Publishing Company, 1988.
Back, Joe. Horses, Hitches and Rocky Trails. Boulder: Johnson Publishing Company, 1959.
Back, Joe. The Model T and the Lazy Board. Boulder: Johnson Publishing Company, 1988.
Back, Joe. The Sucker's Teeth. Denver: Sage Books, 1965.
Back, Joe and Vic Lemmon. The Old Guide Remembers and the Young Guide Finds Out. Boulder: Johnson Publishing Company, 1986.
This essay was submitted by a student of Nathel Coca, a teacher at Campbell County High School in Gillette, Wyoming.