John Hoiland, rancher.

John’s parents immigrated from Norway to America in the early 1900s. They homesteaded in the Absaroka Mountains of Montana, near Livingston, starting a cattle ranch. John was born on the ranch and lived his entire life there.

Over a lifetime of working the Hoiland Ranch, John kept every car, every truck, every tractor he ever purchased. They are spread all over his property. In one barn, there is a pristine 1957 Chevrolet with less than 50,000 miles on the odometer.

Most Montana ranchers I’ve met are (in their words) land rich and cash poor. John’s ranch encompassed 1500 acres and is worth many millions of dollars. Nevertheless, each week John would drive his 1939 Chevy pickup down to the Food Resource Center in Livingston and collect boxes of free food.

Several years ago, a Norwegian film company made a movie of John Hoiland entitled “The Last Norwegian Cowboy.” It is available on Vimeo. If you watch the movie, you will see a number of my portraits of John, especially in the final credits.

John died earlier this year at 97 years of age. His passing, I believe, is going to mark the beginning of the end of an era of cowboys and working cow ranches in Montana.

Robert Osborn