Cowboy Spur Maker: The Story of Ed Blanchard

Chapter 7 Handmade to Order

Handmade to Order [ 117 ] C H A P T E R 7 Handmade to Order hile Ed had his twenty-section Arizona ranch, the Cook boys—Porter, Billy, and Bob—helped him with his cattle work. Ed’s ranch was close to theirs. Ed was always so busy making spurs, he didn’t have time to take care of the cows he had. One morning, Ed and Charlie came rushing into the Cooks’ ranch. “My cattle are out of water,” Ed told Billy. “I think my well’s dry!” He wanted the Cook boys to go to his ranch and look at his well. They had a jeep with a winch on it, so they gathered up their well tools and followed Ed and Charlie over to the well. A bunch of thirsty yearlings stood around that old dug well. I don’t know how deep it was, but Billy said you could look down in it fifty feet or so and see water. It wasn’t dry. They discussed it and decided to send Ed down to have a look. They had a pulley and an old ore bucket, so they hooked the winch onto the bucket, and Ed climbed in. Billy worked the winch and Charlie just stood around watching. Porter directed the operation. W W As Tom Kelly Remembers [ 118 ] Porter motioned to let the bucket down, and it soon was out of sight. Porter kept motioning down, down, down, then stop. Ed hollered to pull him up. Soon Ed appeared. “There’s water down there, but I don’t think there’s enough,” he said. “Is the pipe in the water?” Porter asked. “I didn’t get that far down, but it looked like it might be.” “We’ll let you down again and you take a better look!” Porter could get a little ornery, and he was aggravated. Porter was also a big tease. Those Cook boys had about driven Ed crazy when they were kids. Ed climbed back in the bucket, and Billy let him back down real slow. Porter kept motioning down, down. Charlie had on a little hat with an inch-wide brim—one of those city hats. He wandered over and looked down the well. He threw that hat in the air and got to jumping around and screaming, “Edward! Edward!”—they always called each other Edward and Charles—very formal. “What in the world is wrong with you?” Porter said. “Edward’s gone,” Charlie said as he peered down the well. “He’s completely gone! His hat’s floating on top of the water!” The Tom Kelly collection of spurs made by Blanchard. Photo © Hoss Fosso, 1999. Courtesy Tom Kelly Handmade to Order [ 119 ] Porter had let Billy drop Ed down under the water so he could get a good look this time. Charles was having a screaming fit, so they pulled Ed up. He had had a good bath. He reported that there was fifteen feet of water in the well. After they changed the leathers on the sucker rod, they had plenty of water for the cattle. That’s how the Cook boys fixed Ed’s well. Ed drove out to the Cooks’ ranch another time for a visit. There was a kid there, and his pickup had quit running. It was quite a way back to town. Ed was going to Kingman, so he told this boy he’d hook onto his pickup and pull him into town where he could get his truck worked on. Ed had a thirty-foot nylon rope with a horn loop in the end, and he put the loop over the ball of his trailer hitch and tied the other end onto the bumper of the pickup. They each got in their trucks, and Ed took off. Billy saw the kid later. “Did you get to town all right?” he asked. “I never had such a wild trip in my life! That old fool drove forty The Cook brothers are pictured on their Arizona ranch during the early 1950s. Bob Cook is standing on the right, Porter is kneeling in the middle, and Bill Cook is leaning at the left. The cowboy in front of Bill was a helper. Blanchard followed the Cooks to western Arizona in 1953. Courtesy Tom Kelly As Tom Kelly Remembers [ 120 ] miles an hour on that dirt road. The dust was so thick, I...