UPPER VALLEY WRANGLERS: Souvenir Edition
Rexburg: Upper Valley Wranglers, 1947. q. First Edition. Soft cover. Good. Item #2507025
1st and apparently only printing. Stapled powder blue wrappers. (100 glossy pp). Illustrated abundantly with b/w photos and portraits. In 1947, residents of Rexburg and the surrounding country of Madison, Fremont, and Teton counties in SE Idaho "held a meeting and decided to form a riding club for the upper valley." This book presents in photographs the roster of members. Uniformly composed with members photographed on their horses, which are named, portraits were taken of the forty-five (45) members including two (2) flagbearers. All of the members were men, but the two flagbearers were women. There is a separate portrait of the Announcer, Eldred Stephensen. There are two group shots of the horsemen in formation, several area scenery photos, a bird's eye photos of the city, and three Rexburg Hereford Ranch photos featuring a Morgan mare, a Morgan yearling, and a Hereford bull (Noble Lamplighter from Straight Anxiety Strain) with their owners. Each wrangler portrait occupies the recto of a page and on the facing verso are the advertisers (some illustrated). Some advertisers are the wranglers themselves on the facing page. We found particularly noteworthy and poignant the one-half page ad, "Success to the wranglers" sponsored by the Japanese-American Citizen League. It shows the organization's parade float, which appears to present the famous hill on Iwo Jima with an American flag planted on top. On the side of the float is written, "FOR BETTER AMERICANS IN A GREATER AMERICA." Japanese-American's were interned / relocated in at least two camps in Idaho during the last half of WWII. The wranglers are still competing today. Rexburg at the time was the home of ". Ricks College, maintained by the Mormon Church." The city was also home to a "Mormon Tabernacle and grounds, ." BYU / Idaho is currently located in Rexburg. Noted as to condition is that the glossy covers are slightly chipped and have cracks in the sizing. The visual information (cover illustrations and text) is partially worn off. Text block very good. We have located no other copies of this book, thus truly an Idaho rarity. We locate no other copies anywhere although surely some family descendants must have a copy. Not in Adams Herd.
Price: $500.00