Eugene Bischoff

Eugene Olson Bischoff was the 12th child of Annie Sophia Olson and Nephi Daniel Bischoff of Lovell. Eugene’s father passed away suddenly from a farming accident when Eugene was only 17 years old. Eugene and his four brothers took over the responsibilities of running the ranch. They divided up the duties and Eugene and another brother worked as the cowboys. Eugene and his brothers built a cow camp cabin, Cottonwood, in the Big Horns and this cabin would become his second home and where he and his wife Helen Tebbs would spend time every summer and fall for years. Their family grew to include seven children. One of the big events of the family’s life was to round up the bucking horse stock to bring down the mountain to town for the Big Horn Basin rodeos. Eugene would supply the stock for these local hometown rodeos and he also worked as a pickup man at the local rodeos. When in the Big Horn Mountains, he and his children could easily ride 15 miles in a day to gather and check on the cattle. Eugene started calling the pace of these excursions the “Bischoff trot.” He always said that a horse could trot all day long and not play out.