In Memory of Alfred G. Clayton
1892-1937
 
An excellent article by Alfred G. Clayton appeared in the Annals of Wyoming – October, 1926 / Vol 4 / No 2 entitled “A Brief History of the Washakie National Forest and the Duties and Some Experiences of a Ranger”. The above sketch by Clayton was used for the cover page. |
From Rocky Mountain Region Bulletin – Vol. 20 – NO 10
October 1937
(Transcribed with notes by Karl Brauneis)
Alfred G. Clayton was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 11, 1892, the son of an accountant, the family of which had resided for many years in the heart of New York, City. At the age of sixteen, after graduating from high school, he felt the call of the west and a desire to break away from the “roar and grind of the city”.
He arrived at Spearfish , South Dakota, in the winter of 1908, where he worked on a ranch. From there he drifted from ranch to ranch through western South Dakota and northern Wyoming; punching cattle, herding sheep, and trying his hand at almost everything until he at last landed in the Forest Service as a Forest Guard on the Washakie National Forest in 1914 (note – the old Washakie was consolidated into the Shoshone National Forest by an act of Congress in 1946).
In 1915 he was appointed assistant Forest Ranger on the Bighorn National Forest and was stationed at Hyattville, where on September 22, 1915, he married Mattie Lee Barnett (note – Mattie Lee later remarried as Mattie Lee Brown. She is buried next to Alfred G. Clayton at Mount Hope Cemetery in Lander, Wyoming). He remained on the Bighorn until 1919, when he resigned to try his hand at stock raising.
Returning to the Service in 1924 as Assistant Ranger on the Washakie, he was stationed at the South Pass Ranger Station until 1925, when he was transferred to the Sheridan District where he remained until his transfer to the South Fork District on the Shoshone Forest in April, 1937. (note - Clayton was promoted to District Ranger at Sheridan Creek)
Clayton was a ranger of the “old school”. He loved the out-of-doors and disliked the office. He was an artist and writer of ability, and his sketches were used frequently in “American Forests”. He contributed a series of sketches for “Sapling Sam’s Scrapbook”, a humorous feature of American Forests, also illustrations for the “Death Defying Moments” stories published in the same magazine. During his spare moments prior to his death, he was working on a series of sketches entitled “Phil, the Forest Ranger”, which he had in mind introducing into the R-2 Bulletin to replace the page of sketches “Take It or Leave It by Ranger Zilch”, which ended with the death of its creator John C. Leadbeater of the Pike on February 15, 1937. Clayton as guest artist prepared the Zilch page for the February issue of the Bulletin, also the cover for that issue which was an excellent ink sketch of “Chief Washakie of the Shoshones.” (note – the Clayton sketch was also used for the map cover to the Washakie National Forest user’s map).
He enjoyed writing and was a frequent contributor to the Rocky Mountain Bulletin. “The Chimes of Lost Valley” appeared in the January, 1935 issue of American Forests.
He left a host of friends in the Dubois country and in Lander, where Mrs. Clayton resides with her son Jimmy, age fourteen, - the daughter Jeanettee, attending the University of Nebraska.
Ranger Clayton was buried in Lander, services were held at the Episcopal Church, with the Masonic services at the grave. Representatives of the Washington, Regional and Supervisor’s offices acted as honorary pall-bearers.
Clayton had the ability to see beauty in everything, goodness in everyone; a man with a keen sense of humor, admired and respected by all who knew him; loyal to his friends, he had many; tolerant with his enemies, he had few. |
