Cebulski named to Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame

SEELEY LAKE – Raymond "Ray" Cebulski, not yet 18-years-old, was riding a green colt up a hill when a half-blind dog ran into the back of it. The colt turned around and started bucking downhill.

"It is dang hard to ride a bucking horse downhill because you keep gaining altitude," Cebulski said and laughed. "Finally I went over his head and laid on my hands and knees right in front of him. It sounded to me like he was hitting the ground right between my legs. I was jumping just like a bullfrog - I thought sure he was going to jump on me any minute. Finally, I rolled off to the side and got away from him. My friend thought it would have made a great Charlie Russell painting."

This story and his years breaking horses and ranching prompted Cebulski's nomination for the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame (MCHF). Even though his riding and ranch work was in Phillips, Blaine and Fergus Counties, Cebulski was chosen as the 2022 Living Inductee for District 11 (Missoula, Mineral and Ravalli Counties).

"The Hall of Fame exists to honor those who have made an impact in their part of the state and represent Montana's authentic heritage for future generations," said Bill Galt, MCHF & Western Heritage Center president. "Our volunteer trustees around Montana vote on nominations that come from the district in which they reside. This process gives the local communities a strong voice in who will represent them in the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame."

Cebulski's love of ranching, cattle and horses started as a young boy and grew throughout his life as he learned the art of breaking horses and living a life in the saddle.

Cebulski said, "I always figured if I went broke, I'd get on a horse and ride out of the country."

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Cebulski grew up in Malta, Montana during the Great Depression. When he was six, the neighbor had a Shetland pony that kept bucking his children off. The neighbor asked Cebulski if he could hold him on to see if he could ride it.

"That was when I first started getting interested in horses," Cebulski said, adding he thinks he was the only one that could ever ride that pony.

When Cebulski was eight years old, he began spending summers with his uncles Orvil and Jim Mitchell and grandfather Allen Mitchell at their ranch outside of Malta.

On the ranch, they farmed with horses. When his uncles left to work on the ranch for the day, Cebulski stayed back with the colts. He named them all after his favorite horses in the old Western shows.

"I'd chase them around and play with them," Cebulski said. "If they laid down to take a nap, I'd lay down with them."

Cebulski rode bareback for years on the ranch because his uncles thought he would get hung up in the saddle. He learned to farm and put-up hay with the horses.

When World War II started in 1939, the government paid $10 a ton for bones. He would ride saddle horse with his grandfather who drove the team pulling the wagon and they would pick up bones from the fields.

"We found a lot of bones but you can't believe how many bones it takes to make a ton," Cebulski said.

In 1941 as a freshman in high school, Cebulski bought his first horse for $25. Sandy was the first horse that he broke.

When he was 17, Cebulski had the worst ride he had ever had on one of his uncle's spoiled horses. Since Cebulski was doing a lot of riding, they gave him the horse to see if he could do anything with it. The horse was always hard to get on and after riding him for a couple weeks Cebulski was ready to give up.

One cold, rainy morning when they were leaving the barn, the horse was fooling around and Cebulski said he stuck the spurs to him.

"Jeez he blew up. I don't know yet how I stayed on that horse," Cebulski said. "One time I looked down and I could see the saddle horn on the saddle but there was no horse."

Cebulski said when he stopped he was back in front of the barn door.

"It must have taken me 15 minutes to get my heart back to where it belonged," Cebulski said adding he did not hurt anything. "The horse was standing there looking at me. Finally I decided the only thing to do was to get back on him. He never moved. He never made a bad move the rest of his life. I could do anything with that horse. No one else could ride him."

As soon as Cebulski graduated from high school, he went to work for his dad on a leased ranch 25 miles south of Malta. As a top hand, he managed the cattle and farming, but happily spent a majority of his time on a saddle horse, riding herd on the cattle.

"I was the fence on a saddle horse," Cebulski said. "Seemed like I was always breaking a young horse. That was the life I liked."

Cebulski said the first thing he would do to start breaking a colt was put a halter on it and tie it up.

"They would pull back and pull back. I would leave them tied up until they quit pulling back because I always liked a horse that led good," Cebulski said. "Usually when they got done pulling back, you could just lead them with one hand all over. Then you could start fooling with them."

Next Cebulski would get a saddle and a bridle on them. If he was kind, he could usually get on them without having a big wreck.

Cebulski continued the story about the green colt that bucked him off going downhill. He made a whip and told his brother that if that colt gave him any more trouble, he was going to teach him a lesson. When they were out working the cattle, the colt started dancing and Cebulski wrapped that whip around its belly.

"It was like a stick of dynamite went off. I was spinning around up there and something hit me above my left ear and I thought that dirty bugger kicked me right in the head," Cebulski said. "The next thing I know I'm sliding on the ground and run my nose into a big sagebrush."

Cebulski stood up and told his brother that the horse kicked him in the head.

"'No he didn't," Ray recalled his brother saying laughing at the memory. "'You swung the quirt a second time and he went around and you slapped yourself alongside the head.' I ended up riding him the rest of the day but I didn't use the quirt on him again."

Along with kindness, Cebulski said the best way to break in a green horse was working cattle because they were moving slow and had time to work. He said the quickest way to train a horse to neck reign was to cross the reins under the horse's neck.

"When you cross the reins it is just like you are pulling on one side," Cebulski said. "Eventually they get so just a touch on their neck is all it takes."

Working with his father and for various ranches, Cebulski learned how to work and to work hard. He gained a reputation for breaking horses that got him a job offer to work for the Miller Brothers Land & Livestock in 1949. That same year he met his soon-to-be wife Barbara Ann Messerly at a dance in Malta. It blossomed into a three-month courtship and a 72-year marriage, celebrated annually on Sept. 17.

The Miller Brothers Ranch included 346,000 acres from the Canadian border south through the Bear Paw Mountains and the area of Cleveland, Montana. They owned about 7,500 cows, 50 head of saddle horses and up to 15 two-three-year-old colts at a time. Cebulski started at $125 a month with room and board.

Cebulski told another story of a green colt that he was riding. It was -30 degrees Fahrenheit and he forgot if he jumped him out too quick, he would blow up. He wanted to cut the team off into another corral, so he goosed him.

"Jeez, the first thing I know I look down and the [seven-foot long] bridle reins were going right through my fingers and they were standing straight up like two sticks and I was still going up," Cebulski said. "I thought, holy man, I'm going to get killed when I hit this old hard ground - mom is going to be a widow."

Somehow he got turned over and landed on his back and slid. He just barely touched the bottom pole of the corral.

"It never even knocked the wind out of me," Cebulski said questioning if it was because he was so bundled up for the cold.

Cebulski and a handful of cowboys trailed down to the Fort Belknap Reservation each spring, just before calving season. These were some of his favorite excursions, as they would pull a chuck wagon, like he'd read about in books as a child. The cook was a Native American that was an incredible artist and would entertain the crew with his drawings.

Cebulski remained at the Miller Brothers' Ranch for nearly a decade before it was sold.

"With Miller's, I always figured I would end up with a ranch of my own. The sale put me plumb out of the ranching business," Cebulski said. "I didn't have enough money to buy a place and I couldn't rent one 'cause I couldn't find one."

In 1961, after working on a wheat ranch for three years, a neighbor encouraged Cebulski to hang up his cowboy boots and move south to load lumber on the railroad at Clearwater Junction for Pyramid Mountain Lumber. After a week learning how to load lumber and realizing he could make $60 a day, Cebulski called Barb.

"Start packing, we are going to move," Cebulski said. "I'd never made that kind of money."

The biggest challenge was finding a place to live.

"When I told them I had a wife, five kids, one dog and two horses, I could just as well have said I come from the Alcatraz," Cebulski said and laughed. "I told Barb, jeez we might have to put up a tent on the courthouse lawn cause I can't find no place to live."

They finally were able to find a house on Donovan Creek outside of Clinton that had a place for the horses.

"We had a hard time surviving but we made it," Cebulski said.

In 1972, the Cebulskis moved to Seeley and started Cebulski Trucking. For the next 22 years he hauled log homes and lumber across the United States.

Cebulski Trucking hauled all the logs, cinder blocks and lava rocks for the Montana Island Lodge in the middle of Salmon Lake. He was told to haul the logs across the ice.

"I told them that these trucks with them logs are heavy. If I do and it goes into the lake, you're going to buy the whole outfit," Cebulski said. "They figured they didn't want to do that, so we unloaded on this side and they ferried everything across."

When he wasn't on the road, the Cebulskis gathered their children and friends and headed out on pack trips into the Bob Marshall Wilderness. This tradition was upheld for decades and later included their grandchildren. His love for "seeing over the next hill" continued taking his last trip into the Bob Marshall last year at the age of 93.

In addition to his passion for hard work, his horses and his family, Cebulski served on the Clinton School Board while his children attended school and has represented the Seeley Lake District on the Missoula Electric Cooperative Board since 1974.

When Allen Martinell nominated Cebulski for the MCHF, Martinell told Cebulski he thought he was a great candidate.

"I guess it worked," Cebulski said and smiled.

Barb said they were both really surprised by the recognition and really excited as well. They plan to attend the MCHF Annual Induction Ceremony & Western Heritage Gathering April 9 in Great Falls with their children.

"In all chapters of Ray's life, the common thread has been grit and dedication," reads Cebulski's MCHF biography. "In or out of the saddle, he is a true Montana cowboy and is known as a man who works hard in all aspects of his life."

For more information about the MCHF visit http://www.montanacowboyfame.org. To read Ray's full biography visit https://www.seeleylake.com/home/customer_files/article_documents/mchfcebulski.pdf