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CASUAL COUNTRY 2013 - 13
Stampede Long cattle drives give way to trucking
Continued From Page 12 “We just took the log fences down, pushed
the cattle through, then put the log fences back up again. Felix knew what he was doing. I
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Dave’s mother Mickey Dorsey on the porch of her school house at Rose Lake.
had no idea. We hit the highway just before Riske Creek.” Dave says after that he was content to let the trucks take the cattle to market. “Some of the ranchers drove their cattle part way, as far as Chilanko Forks, then trucked them from there,” Dave says. “After that drive the Old Man (Lester Dorsey) tried to get me to take another drive, but I said no. The trucks can have her. I never bothered with it again.” Dave and Jean say they got “tangled up” together when they were both about 18 years old, and got married at the courthouse in Williams Lake about four years later. Jean says their son, Terry, was about two years old when they decided to tie the knot. “He was wondering what we were doing when we got married,” Jean says. “He don’t
Dave’s dad, Lester Dorsey, was a legendary horseman, guide and rancher in the Anahim Lake country. understand. What you doing Jean? What you doing Dave?” It wasn’t a fancy affair. They were both wearing gumboots. Dave says they went to the courthouse because they heard that a judge had the power to marry. “Jessie Foster was
the judge, so we went to her. I talked to her and she said, yeah, I can marry anyone,” Dave says. “So I turns around and offered to pay her and she wouldn’t take it. I figured it would look better if you paid for it. But no, she would have nothing to
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do with getting paid.” Dave says the rest of the world was upset about it. “Afterwards, close to two years later, the priest jumps on me and said we were living in sin and weren’t really married,” Dave says. “I told him I don’t think it’s going to mat-
ter a hell of a lot to me and Jean. The Catholics were pretty resentful, especially when you’re native. They figure anything native that they own you. What the hell, we’re still together 56 years later.” Dave and Jean Dorsey have had a good life. Their second eldest son, David Jr., arrived five years after Terry. Two years later Laurie (Vaughan) was born. They are now enjoying the sweet pleasures of great grandparent hood. Dave and Jean ranched together, broke horses and guided hunters together. Dave worked 17 years for the Department of Highways. They are both fiercely independent as befits their lineage, and they take special delight in passing on their grains of wisdom to their coming generation.
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