[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 62 (Tuesday, April 29, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Page S2465]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         REMEMBERING BUD PURDY

 Mr. CRAPO. Madam President, I wish to honor a true Idaho 
original, a man who set the bar high for ranching and conservation in 
my State and established a world-class trout fishery.
  Every so often, a generation produces remarkable characters--
individuals who set their sights high and leave the bar higher for us. 
Bud Purdy of Picabo, ID, was one of those people. While he could not 
claim Idaho by birth, he more than proved to be an Idahoan through his 
experiences, work ethic, and inclinations. He began working on a family 
sheep ranch in Blaine County at Picabo, near Sun Valley, during summers 
in 1928. Not long after, a young Bud Purdy climbed nearby Hyndman Peak 
at over 12,000 feet. He graduated from college by the time he was 20, 
and despite an offer to go into banking, he chose to manage that family 
ranch. He was a hunting partner for writer Ernest Hemingway. There 
wasn't much Bud Purdy could not do. He was still flying his own 
airplane at the age of 94. He was--and is--considered an Idaho legend.
  Bud made his mark in Picabo, Sun Valley, and Idaho. Near his ranch 
there is a creek that is world-renown--Silver Creek. It was along that 
creek that Bud joined a young Hemingway, actor Gary Cooper, and many 
others to fish and hunt birds. When Hemingway moved to Idaho in 1959, 
he had already been hunting with Bud for many years. The Purdy ranch 
consisted of 6,000 acres along Silver Creek. The waters of that creek 
are so crystal clear that you can see the trout. I have been one of 
those lucky enough to fish there. Bud and his family were visionaries. 
They donated a 3,500 acre easement to the Nature Conservancy that meant 
the land could never be subdivided, and the world-class fishery remains 
there today, just like it was when Bud arrived 86 years ago.
  Bud felt all ranchers should have a strong conservation ethic, and he 
was one of the first to employ rest-rotation grazing to protect the 
land and water. Bud got that message out as a founder of the Idaho 
Rangeland Resource Commission. He was recently inducted into the Idaho 
Hall of Fame, joining the likes of Hemingway, poet Ezra Pound, skier 
Picabo Street, former U.S. Senator William Borah, and agri-businessman 
J.R. Simplot.
  It was important to Bud to pass along the message to care about the 
land, and he has succeeded admirably. As he told writer Steven Stuebner 
in an article for the Rangeland Commission about the ranching 
profession:

       Once you get started in it, you're hooked. Every morning, 
     you get up and do something different. You turn out on the 
     range and ride a horse every day. Even now, I go out and make 
     sure the water is OK, check the fences and make sure the 
     gates are closed. It's just a constant going out there and 
     doing it. I was never a cowboy, but I've ridden a million 
     miles.

  That description of the ranch life in Central Idaho sounds a long way 
from Capitol Hill, but the hard work ethic and the dedication to 
principle is what made Bud Purdy an Idaho, and American, hero. His life 
of service is something we can all aspire to, or as Idaho Governor 
Butch Otter said, ``someone whose life was a lesson in cowboy ethics, 
common sense, stewardship and the value of hard work and 
perseverance''.

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