2 – C. A. (BUD) KRAMER – 2015 LAST REVISED 01/04/16
MCHF & WHC HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE:
C. A. (BUD) KRAMER (1913-1979)
YEAR OF INDUCTION: 2015
DISTRICT OF INDUCTION: 2
C. A. “Bud” Kramer had horses and Garfield County stamped in him before he
was born. His father, Charles A. “Charlie”, and his uncles, Lou and Frank trailed cattle
from Colorado to Montana in 1892. All of the brothers settled around Snow Creek, but
Bud’s father was the only one that stayed.
Bud’s mother, Katherine, ran the Jordan Hotel while Charlie was deputy sheriff
for Dawson County, which then included the town of Jordan and what is now Garfield
County. Bud was born February 22, 1913 in Jordan and named Corwin Allen Kramer.
Charlie died in 1935.
Bud grew up and attended elementary schools in Garfield County. He spent
most of his time around horses. Horse teams then were used for constructing roads,
dams, and digging basements, and young horses were always needed to be broke to
saddle. C.A. “Bud” started going to the Big Dry Creek area — known to locals as ‘The
Dry” — to the Harbaugh Ranch to break and ride the rough string before high school,
which he didn’t attend very often. If anyone had a horse to break, Bud would take it
with a soft voice and a big smile.
By the time he was 18 he had grown to be nearly 6’ 7” and weighed 190 pounds
with hands that possessed a soft, but strong touch.
For the next 10 years Bud broke and managed horses, entered rodeos, and
worked on cattle ranches. He always had a job. One was lambing for area ranches in
the spring of the year. He appreciated that line of work because it paid the best and
the food was good. Bud was a regular at the Garfield County dances.
Bud started his first stud bunch with a horse called Sand Creek. Soon after, he
started producing rodeos by gathering and trailing Sand Creek and other horses to
local events. He also competed in the saddle bronc riding and wild horse races.
In March of 1942, Bud was drafted into the United States Army and stationed
in Fort Riley, Kansas with the Calvary division as a horseshoer, eventually becoming
a sergeant. What he learned there about a horse’s feet and how to care for them, he’d
never forget.
While home on leave in July 1943, he married Bobby Brooks and this was their
start of an unbelievable partnership in the horse business. Upon Bud’s discharge, they
settled into ranching at the heads of Little Dry, Basin, and Acorn Creeks in Garfield
County. From there they could ride to Miles City and never open a gate. They had
other livestock besides horses, including cattle, sheep, and hogs, but horses were the
backbone of their operation through good years and bad.
Bud always said timing was everything. When a sheep man named Ted
Birkham passed away, Bud and Bobby decided to try to buy his property. Bobby made
the deal and wrote the check on a near- empty bank account for nearly 30 sections of
land. The following morning, they were at the bank in Miles City and borrowed the
money. They put up 1000 horses and a few sheep and cattle as collateral. The federal
auditor later told the banker to get rid of that loan as horses weren’t good collateral.
PAGE 1
2 – C. A. (BUD) KRAMER – 2015 LAST REVISED 01/04/16
The banker told the auditor to just stick to auditing and he’d worry about the Kramer
loan. Bud and Bobby already had a few scattered sections of land, but this acquisition
was the start of a ranch that grew to over 100 sections.
Bud’s horse program was formed by acquiring horses in an area that ran
between the Missouri, Musselshell, and Yellowstone rivers.
From the horses Bud had seen in the army, Bud and Bobby realized range
saddle stock needed to be improved, so they bought well-bred quarter horse stallions
— including Little Texas E, Thirsty Jr. and Side Twist — and bred to mares they
thought had good dispositions.
They were soon holding horse sales where their horses sold from $500 and
up. One Thirsty Jr. colt that was trained for calf roping brought $10,000.
Bud sold many bucking horses over the years to Jake, Elra, and Lynn Beutler,
known as the Butler Brothers, whom he’d met while in the army. After Beutler
Brothers sold to Harry Vold and Mike Cervi, he delivered horses to them at Belle
Fourche, South Dakota, Butte, Montana and Sheridan, Wyoming. It was with great
pleasure that Bud once accepted an invitation from Harry Vold to attend the entire
production of the Calgary Stampede.
Bud was always helpful to stock contractors or rodeo committees short on
bucking stock by getting the animals they needed to them on time and generous in
helping people and events get started. He helped Sonny Linger (Linger Rodeo
Company) when he first came to Montana and assisted Judd Twitchell in getting the
Jordan Matched Bronc Ride started. It was first held in Cohagen, Montana and then
moved to Jordan.
Bud bought horses all over the country, but he got a lot of bucking horses close
to home because he knew where the good ones were located. Bud was proud that
many Kramer broncs had long rodeo careers.
When he was asked which horse was his favorite bucking horse, Bud would
say, “All of them, in different ways.” He always had a little smile if a cowboy got bucked
off and a big smile if someone rode an especially rank horse. High on that list were
Descent and Little Dan.
The worst memory Bud recalled was the spring of 1969 when a late April
snowstorm hit with three days of heavy, wet snow. Because it had been a mild until
then, and horses had shed their winter hair, the Kramer’s lost over 250 horses. He
envisioned there would have been many great prospects in those horses.
Bud could never say for certain, but at any time there were 1500 to 2000
horses on the ranch. He said he was glad to have lived when he did. In his lifetime
transportation went from horse and buggy to the automobile, telephones and
electricity became available in every home, and travel to outer space and the use of
computers became common. With all of that, Bud was proud to have made a life with
horses. He had bucking horses go to rodeos coast-to-coast, from the smallest rodeos,
to the largest rodeos of the time. He had horses at every National Finals Rodeo from
the start until after he passed away.
Bud passed away July 6, 1979 in a truck accident while hauling cattle to
Cohagen He was a big, soft spoken, somewhat shy man, who would have considered
it a great honor to be in the Hall of Fame.
PAGE 2
2 – C. A. (BUD) KRAMER – 2015 LAST REVISED 01/04/16
Reference:
Jones, Helen Carey, creator. Custer County Area History: As We Recall, Montana Historical
Society Research Center – Montana Memories Project. Henington Industries. 1990
Kramer, Charles K., The Early Pioneering Days in Garfield County Montana of the Charles A.
Kramer Family
Donald John Cameron – Personal Memories
###
PAGE 3