Jackson looks back

by Mark Dykes

Among the residents of The Pioneer Home is Al Jackson, who has spent the majority of his life living in Wyoming.

Jackson was born in Burlington, Wyo. He got one year of high school before moving 15 miles up the south fork of the Shoshone River. "We had no bus up there," he said. "That was back during the Depression days and there was no bus running."

The move, he noted, was because his parents wanted a bigger place. His brother, Edward, already had himself a larger home and his folks followed suit a year later.

The family had a 120-acre farm where they raised cattle and had grazing land, owned by the Arable Land Company, on two sides. "There was a nice big spring on it," Jackson recalled, "that provided plenty of water."

When he was 19 years old, Jackson went to work on the dude ranches, as that's where the money was, taking care of rich people's horses. "Every morning we'd go out and round up horses . . . and we'd catch horses for the dudes. Each one had their own horse." He continued working the dude ranches until he joined the Navy in 1943.

During his time serving, he spent some time in the South Pacific. "When the war was over, we were in Borneo, rich with oil and gas, he said, though the Japanese had set fire to all the wells because they knew they were going to get run out.

After about two years in the Navy, Jackson had enough points to retire. "I was in for the duration plus six months," he said, and he retired as a Torpedoman Third Class (TM3C). As for fond memories of his time in the military, Jackson laughed and recalled one thing they didn't get much of was sleep. They were general quarters, which meant they had to man their battle stations in the middle of the night three or four times a night. That wasn't always the case, but it was for at least three months.

"They weren't after us," Jackson said. "They were after the red and white beach that had the B-24's and B-25's. That's what we were guarding." Additionally, they were part of the communications hub, and tended to the torpedo boats. Jackson noted he never fired any torpedoes at Japanese ships, but got them ready.

After retiring from the military in January 1946, Jackson returned to Wyoming for a short time. His brother had become an instructor at a leather shop in Colorado Springs, Colo., and he went down to learn the business under the GI bill, which paid him $90 per month. The company he was working for paid him $110. Around this time, Jackson started seeing a gal who working for the War Department – Maxine Hoskins – and the two were married on June 14, 1946.

After two years in Colorado, the couple came back to Wyoming and spent their first year together on a dude ranch on the Shoshone River, "about the last ranch on the south fork," Jackson said. He then worked as a carpenter helper through the winter and bought a 164-acre farm on the upper south fork, working cattle, hay and grain. Five years later, he sold the farm and went to work for the Husky Oil Company, testing product at a control lab.

"You even had to test water in the ponds," Jackson explained. "All the water that went through the refinery went into a pond, and we had to make sure that pond was fit to go back to the river." Altogether, he was with the oil company for 14 years, though he did have a few layoffs during the winter months.

Jackson came to Thermopolis in 1995. His wife had passed away while he was working in New Mexico as the field foreman for Consolidated Oil and Gas, and helping to build homes in Hawaii. Jackson further explained the company was using profits from the oil and gas to develop housing.

The draw to Thermopolis, Jackson said, came from his first wife's attending her freshman year of high school here and he had a nephew, Ray DeVries, whom he was close to. DeVries purchased a home for Jackson on Richards Street, though it did need some cleaning – handled by Ray's wife Cindy – as a bachelor had lived there previously. Jackson had remarried in 1995 to Geraldine Moore, though she passed in 2011.

Now a resident of The Pioneer Home, Jackson said he enjoys the staff at the facility, the room he has and especially the activities. He does stretching, league bowling, weight lifting and shuffleboard. As for Thermopolis, he likes the town, particularly the beautiful parks and the hot springs.