Kenneth Canfield

Kenneth Dean Canfield was born on February 28, 1919, on his father’s homestead southwest of Sundance on Inyan Kara Creek, Crook County, Wyoming. He was the son of Willard and Ada O’Haver Canfield. The Canfields came to Crook County from Wisconsin in immigrant cars in 1887. As a country boy, he often talked about long days riding while working cattle and moving horses as well as breaking and training horses from an early age on. As he grew older, he welcomed the challenge of training a difficult horse with “learning disabilities.” Kenneth always rode a good saddle horse and drove well-trained work horses. When he was young, he became skilled at making and repairing leather tack. He crafted his first pair of metal spurs when he twelve and used them for many years. After graduation, he worked on the home place and during the terrible grasshopper infestation in the late 1930s he was employed by the Crook County grasshopper poisoning program. He entered the U.S. Armed Forces in 1941 serving four years in World War II. He received the Purple Heart. After his discharge, he returned to ranch on Inyan Kara Creek where he resided until his death.