Charles L. Vyvey

Charles L. Vyvey worked on his family’s farm near Eernegem, Belgium, from the time he was a boy until he was 24 years old. This work involved raising and training horses. He left Belgium in 1907 at age 24 to immigrate to the United. To help pay for his fare, he cared for Belgian horses on the ship that brought him to America. In the United States he found work in the copper smelter at Encampment and on the tie drives. He began working on the Peter and Emma Verplancke ranch near Encampment in 1909, primarily helping with crop harvest and delivery -- all done by horse drawn equipment and wagons. In 1911, two years after Peter Verplancke’s death, he married Emma Verplancke and they ranched together on the VX Ranch the remainder of their lives. On October 10, 1917, Charles became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Charles’ understanding of Belgian and Percheron horse bloodlines became an important part of their ranching operation. For more than 30 years he and his children raised and trained horses for use on the ranch, in the tie camps in southern Wyoming and northern Colorado and to sell to other ranches. They had more than 40 Belgian and Percheron brood mares. The Vyveys also raised a lot of saddle horses, using them for their ranching operation and selling them to other ranches.