SPEAKER_00: 0:00

But one day he was out uh you know watching the sheep and this lone uh wolf came into camp like a wolf wolf, like a wolf wolf, not a coyote wolf, but a full-on grade timber wolf.

SPEAKER_01: 0:16

Stories that live in us is a podcast that inspires you to form deep connections with your family, past, present, and future. I'm Krista Cowan, known online as the Barefoot Genealogist. Coming down to the upcoming celebration of America's 250th birthday, you'll meet families from each state whose stories are woven into the very fabric of America. Tales of immigration, migration, courage, and community that remind us that when we tell our stories, we strengthen the bonds that connect us. So join me for season two as we discover from C to shiny C the stories that live in us. Do you ever meet someone and when you ask them the standards, so where are you from? And they tell you, and you look at them and go, yep, that's where you're from. My guest today exemplifies all things Colorado. And I've been able to work with him for the last 20 years. I've sat near him, I've heard his stories, we've interacted in a lot of different ways in a professional capacity, but I'm so excited for you to listen to the conversation that we had about his family history. Colorado seems like a pretty big, pretty wide open place. But like a lot of places in the West, you always have to wonder if the tale you're being told is a tall tale or if it really happened that way. Today you'll find out. Hear my conversation with Chris Trainer. Well, Chris, I'm so excited you're here. Uh you and I have worked together for a long time. How long have you been at Ancestry? Since 2006. Okay. So you came in a couple years after me. Felt like you'd been here longer than that.

SPEAKER_00: 1:59

I know.

SPEAKER_01: 2:00

What brought you to Ancestry?

SPEAKER_00: 2:02

Um it was the publishing department. I came to do uh graphic design in the uh for Ancestry magazine that you've had it.

SPEAKER_01: 2:10

Back in the day, I was a customer a long time before I was an an employee, and I used to get the Ancestry magazine, and I loved it. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Do you have some like favorite thing you worked on for the magazine that you remember?

SPEAKER_00: 2:23

I just enjoyed all the stories. I thought it was always fascinating, all the different um oddball genealogy stories that we'd run across. In particular, the ones where there would be salesmen that had families in one part of the world and family, but neither of them knew about each other until they uh started doing genealogy themselves and discovered that you know the the whole traveling salesman really was a thing.

SPEAKER_01: 2:53

That was in the days before DNA.

SPEAKER_00: 2:55

Yeah, yeah, that was yes.

SPEAKER_01: 2:57

Yeah. So uh so you came in as a graphic designer. Is there um like how has your career evolved in the what 18, 20 years you've been here?

SPEAKER_00: 3:07

I've always loved history and I've always loved genealogy and I've always loved all that kind of stuff. So it's it's funny because I was just thinking the other day, um, you know, I've I've never been at a job that long before. It's because I'm like, yeah, I get to practice art, I which you know, graphics I've always enjoyed, and I get to participate in historical stuff and family stuff. It's really quite a good mix.

SPEAKER_01: 3:37

Yeah, well, you do beautiful work enjoy it. Um, for anybody who comes to Roots Tech, they have seen your work because you have done all the graphic design for our booth and the artwork there. Um, anybody who listens to this podcast has seen your work because you designed the the thumbnail for the podcast. So I am always in awe of your talent.

SPEAKER_00: 3:58

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01: 3:58

Yeah, it's it's that's very kind, pretty impressive. So you were interested in family history before you came to Ancestry?

SPEAKER_00: 4:05

Yeah, I was interested in it. My my grandfather, um, my dad's dad had a he was our family genealogian. Genealogist? Genealogist. Thank you. And uh and shortly before he died, he had asked me if I could try to find a brother that was in the first family that immigrated here from Ireland, and um, because he could never find them. And so in the process of finding him, looking for him, I discovered cousins I never knew. I discovered cousins that still lived in that still live in where they um settled in Ontario, Canada, um, that were big into genealogy. And there was a point where uh we ended up having a family reunion with them coming down to Colorado, uh out on the the trainer ranch, uh where we all met them, and but now my grandfather was you know long dead and and it was pretty cool. And I found a lot of that through Ancestry before I even would ever think I was ever gonna work at Ancestry. Oh wow, okay.

SPEAKER_01: 5:26

So you were interested before.

SPEAKER_00: 5:29

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I yeah, but like I said, I just didn't have a whole lot of sure I was interested, but I you know, but then I got really interested when he sort of gave me a task to do.

SPEAKER_01: 5:40

You knew all four of your grandparents? Okay did were they all alive for most of your life? Did any of them die young?

SPEAKER_00: 5:46

Yeah, no, uh no, they were they were alive for most most of my life. Um you know, my my grandparents on my father's side, they didn't, you know, they I guess they've been dead for about uh 20 years or so. Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 6:06

So you were an adult by the time they passed.

SPEAKER_00: 6:08

Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I was an adult by the time they they were passed.

SPEAKER_01: 6:12

So what about your mom's side?

SPEAKER_00: 6:14

Uh my mom's side, um my grandfather died younger. I think I must have been about 10 or so. 10 or 11. And then my grandmother, she lived for a while longer and um ended up dying um when I was staying with her in her basement. While you were living there. While I was living there and going to school. Uh, she had a heart issue. Um where did you go to school? Uh uh I started at UVU and then went up to BYU and then ended up graduating over at the U of U. Okay. So I kind of did the college hopped. The tour of Utah schools. Yeah, the tour of Utah schools.

SPEAKER_01: 6:58

So your mom's parents are from here in Utah?

SPEAKER_00: 7:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 7:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 7:00

And then your dad's family is from Yeah, my my mom's parents were here, you know, raised LDS. My dad was raised um Roman Catholic, and they settled in, he grew up in uh Colorado Springs, which is where I was born. And raised. And raised. Okay. No, I was born there, but then I uh lived sometime in Rangely, Colorado, and then did most of my growing up in Grand Junction, Colorado.

SPEAKER_01: 7:30

Okay. So Grand Junction's lovely.

SPEAKER_00: 7:33

Yeah, that's fun. It was great, it was a blast to grow up.

SPEAKER_01: 7:35

What was your favorite thing about growing up in Grand Junction?

SPEAKER_00: 7:38

Probably the fact that we had the Rocky Mountains on one side of the of the valley, and we had canyon lands on the other side. And so, I mean, there was always um outdoor stuff to do. And we had the Colorado River that runs right through the valley. Yeah, and we got big into river rafting, and so you know, my dad was awesome. He got us really well involved in the outdoors, and um, and then when we were younger, he got us involved in he was a city manager for the city of Rangeley, and some of our all-time best memories were when we would go do cattle drives for one of his the the county commissioner at the time, um, up there in in Rangely, and every spring and fall. Wow, there for a few years, we'd go. But you know, we were kids. Sure. You know, we weren't You weren't helping a whole lot. We were helping, you know, irritate the cows to keep them moving forward.

SPEAKER_01: 8:40

But is this like legit, like horseback riding cattle drive, or was there another way you did that back then?

SPEAKER_00: 8:46

No, this was legit. We weren't because we were kids, we weren't on horses. Okay. But um, you know, we our job was to hang out in the calf truck at the back of the at the back of the herd and just you know, pick up any tired calves and keep an eye on them and you know, and have fun on the truck along the way.

SPEAKER_01: 9:10

So fun. So you have a little bit of a history of ranching in your family, yes.

SPEAKER_00: 9:15

Yeah, a little bit. Okay. But I mean, I I we d I didn't grow up on a ranch. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 9:21

So what's um where does that history of ranching come in?

SPEAKER_00: 9:24

I think it came from the trainer side of the family, although my mom's side had ranchers as well. But uh it's interesting because on uh the trainers, you know, when they immigrated from Ireland to Ontario, uh, Canada.

SPEAKER_01: 9:42

Do you know like about what generation or year that was?

SPEAKER_00: 9:44

Freeland, it was around 18, the 1820s. Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 9:49

Oh, so a ways back there. So is this like a three times great grandparent or honestly?

SPEAKER_00: 9:54

I think it was about a three or four times great grandparent. And then they immigrated from uh my line immigrated from Canada on over into New York and Nebraska and ended up settling in uh Colorado.

SPEAKER_01: 10:10

And so who's the first person in your family line to end up in Colorado?

SPEAKER_00: 10:14

The first person that um in my family line was uh James Trainer.

SPEAKER_01: 10:22

And did he settle in the same place in Colorado that you were raised?

SPEAKER_00: 10:26

Close. Okay. I was born in Colorado Springs, and um the town that they settled in was uh Ordway, Colorado.

SPEAKER_01: 10:36

Ordway?

SPEAKER_00: 10:37

Ordway. Never heard of Ordway, which is close to Rocky Ford and Ordway are close to each other, and that is kind of close to Pueblo. It's between Colorado Springs and Pueblo, but it's it's right out in the middle of you know the plains, yeah, out of the middle of nowhere. You know, they got some land there, they had a ranch, they started up a ranch, and what were they ranching? Um, so this is the interesting part because part of the family were sheep ranchers, and part of the family were cattle ranchers. The trainers were cattle ranchers.

SPEAKER_02: 11:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 11:09

Well, my great-grandmother, her family settled over near Deer Trail, uh, Colorado, and they were sheep herders. Okay, so I kind of would have loved to have seen what that family reunion looked like when you had big sheep herders here and cattle ranchers here.

SPEAKER_01: 11:27

Because they didn't always get along.

SPEAKER_00: 11:29

No, they definitely didn't get along. I mean, I I think my family got along, but I mean, I mean, they married each other for crying out loud, so they must have got along to some degree.

SPEAKER_01: 11:38

Yeah. But traditionally, sheep. But yeah, traditionally like there's a there's a competition for resources and oh yeah. Yeah, lots of that that sometimes doesn't work out well.

SPEAKER_00: 11:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 11:50

Interesting. So they married each other. And did they keep the ranch in the family?

SPEAKER_00: 11:54

Yeah, yeah. They've kept, in fact, the ranch is still run by trainers today.

SPEAKER_01: 11:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 12:00

And um, though my my particular line, my um, so my great-grandmother, her name was uh Matilda Jane Bolden. Maddie Jane, we called her Nano. She died when I was about eight. Oh wow. But um her her family, she married one of the trainers. That would be my great-grandfather, you know, but then they moved into Colorado Springs because, you know, for whatever reason, maybe ranching wasn't for them or it's hard work. It's it's hard work and yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 12:35

And as you get older, it's probably not easy to sustain, and depending on whether you have children who you expect will take it over or not.

SPEAKER_00: 12:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 12:42

Yeah. Okay. So uh as you think about growing up in that family, were there family stories that you heard? Did you come from a storytelling family at all?

SPEAKER_00: 12:53

Yeah, I came from a storytelling family. Probably one of the best ones that I uh that I remember, and that I actually uh was given an article by one of the cousins uh that and it the story had actually uh been published in one of the Denver newspapers years back in the 70s. Oh wow. And that actually gave a picture and told the story.

SPEAKER_01: 13:18

That's rare.

SPEAKER_00: 13:19

It was pretty awesome. But the it had to do with my great or my great, yeah, uh my great-grandmother, the Boldenside. The Boldens came from uh North Carolina and Virginia and uh Patrick County, Virginia.

SPEAKER_01: 13:34

And they're the sheep firm, the sheep herders.

SPEAKER_00: 13:36

They're the sheep herders. The Boldens were the sheep herders, and they immigrated over to Deer Trail, and that's where they had one of uh one of the sisters, one of her sisters, I should say, uh had a ranch, had a sheep ranch, and uh William, uh one of her brothers, decided to come out uh when he was 17 and help out on the show from back east. From back east.

SPEAKER_02: 14:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 14:03

Uh, you know, came into Denver, uh, took the took a wagon ride out to Deer Trail, out to the sheep ranch, and you know, he wasn't there for a particular job. You just did whatever needed to be done on the ranch. And in this case, uh, he was a uh shepherd, sheep herder. And so he would spend his summers out there after the lambs would be after the lamb crop, they called it. Um he would spend his summers out there in the the sheep camps, just sleeping out with them, yeah, trying to fatten up, fatten up the the lambs to get them good and strong. And there were, you know, they that was within about a 15 mile radius of the home ranch itself. And you know, there was a tent, there was maybe a corral, some water, some food. I mean, it was pretty just barren.

SPEAKER_01: 14:58

Rustic.

SPEAKER_00: 14:59

Yeah, and they had one horse. At least at the camp that he that he was, because it was, you know, it was his his horse. Yeah. So it was, yeah, it was him, and it was his uh well, who would eventually become another great uncle, uh, but at the time was just his friend. What one of his friends. Oh, so they ended up he ended up marrying into the family, yeah. So his friend ended up move marrying into the family. Now you got, but one day he was out uh you know watching the sheep, and this lone uh wolf came into camp. Like a wolf wolf, like a wolf wolf, not a coyote wolf, but a full-on grade timber wolf. Wow, and even though timber wolves now have been reintroduced into Colorado, they were there at one point. Wow. And this wolf, you know, they figured because wolves don't normally just go attack, especially when they see a man and his dog, especially when there's a dog involved. But this one was was uh apparently cast out. It was pretty hungry, it was pretty gaunt, but it came in and it started for the sheep. It came in and started going for the sheep and trying to get whatever it could. And every time it would uh start attacking the sheep, uh William, uh his sheep dog would go after it. And then he would nip it in the hills and but then it would turn around and just keep at it, and then finally, when the wolf had had enough, it had turned on on William, my great uncle. Yikes. The wolf lunged at him and grabbed him up above the shoulder and you know was trying to shake him and you know, rip. You know, he wanted him for lunch, so he would bear hug it to keep him keep it from so him and the wolf are entangled in this mass and they're rolling on the ground and the dog's going crazy, and you know, he's uh getting faint, holding on as as hard as he could, because that was the only way to keep the wolf. He noticed he couldn't quite bite him as hard and he couldn't get couldn't shake him, couldn't shake them. And so while they're rolling around on the ground, he managed with the free arm to pull out a knife. He had a sing just a single blade lock knife that he managed to pull out of his pocket, but he was in such a position, and the wolf was that he couldn't quite couldn't quite stab it, and he tried getting it, but uh there was a point where he heard it, he heard it enough that it rolled over on one side and he let go just for a split second and then latched back on, and he was able to get it and um finally get it between his ribs and uh finally managed to kill the wolf. But when the wolf died, his jaw stayed locked on him, on William, on his arm. So, you know, this had gone on. It was quite the struggle. It just wasn't it wasn't just a quick little bite and a release. It was uh so he was spent, he was totally uh probably bleeding a lot and bleeding a lot. I'm sure he's in shock, as you can imagine. Yeah, um the wolf's dead, but his law, his jaws, he couldn't even stand up. And timberwolves are big. They're big. This one was seven feet from tip to tip. Whoa, you know, he couldn't do anything, he couldn't move. He was the only one out there. He was, you know, away from his camp, and uh he was just hoping that because the sheep would automatically start heading home for grain. He's out there calling out, and his partner, Charlie Clifton, who would eventually move marry into the family and be another great uncle, you know, took him an hour to find him and locate him, and came out, saw the jaw, saw the the wolf attached to him, locked jawed, and found an old fence post and pried his jaws open to get him off his arm. And then uh then that night they spent back at camp uh putting salt packs on, and then early in the morning, uh they made the the trip, the 14-mile trip to the ranch house, and then another 50 miles to Denver. And and Denver at the time, it was their very first hospital, and they only had one room ready for them. One room. So they went in there, and you know, back in those days, you know, rabies, you see this lone wolf, he's probably rabid. Uh and so, you know, there wasn't a cure for that. Um, the only cu that they did have, which was probably more of a wife's tail. I don't know, I don't know if it actually worked, but was called a uh mad stone that they would put on it. I don't know what that is. A mad stone is it is a mass that is found in a wild deer's stomach.

SPEAKER_01: 20:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 20:23

And what they would do is they would take that and this mad stone and they would put it on Is it like a paste or a clay? It's like a it's just a solid clump of hair and matter. Okay. And they would take that and they would put it on the uh put it on the wound because it was thought that it would then pull out the poisons and then it would fall off, and then they would take that, and then they would soak it in milk and uh for about a day or so, and then that would clean out the poisons, and then they would repeat again. Wow, and they would keep doing that until they felt like and hope you didn't contract rabies, yeah.

unknown: 21:11

Wow.

SPEAKER_00: 21:11

So he ended up recovering, so it either worked or never had rabies, or never had rap, didn't never had rabies.

SPEAKER_01: 21:19

But like, was his arm usable? I mean, getting shredded by a wolf like that.

SPEAKER_00: 21:22

That's yeah, it was yeah, he had scars and whatnot. You know, it took quite a few, you know, stitches uh all up and down his arm, but um yeah, he was able to continue on. In fact, he had the wolf stuffed, and then he would uh take pictures of him in different stances with the wolf. They might get missed. He he had put the wolf in kind of an attack mode when he had it stuffed, and in fact, the wolf to this day is down there on the the ranch. Oh, really? So when we went down there to brand cattle several years ago, you know, that's kind of when the stories came up about that wolf.

SPEAKER_01: 22:03

And it's so funny because you see something like that and people start telling stories about something like that, and you always have to wonder like, how true is this story really?

SPEAKER_00: 22:11

Yes, right?

SPEAKER_01: 22:12

But you found like there's a newspaper article about it.

SPEAKER_00: 22:15

There's a newspaper article about it, and not only is there that, but in the newspaper at the at the end of the article, there are people questioning whether this is true, like what you're saying. And so uh William, who he wasn't the one that wrote the article, but they got a hold of him, and William uh was able to put them in touch and himself told them, I'm the one that this happened to, and this is exactly how it happened. And uh, so there were other people that wrote in to verify, no, this really happened as as bizarre as that is.

SPEAKER_01: 22:55

That's crazy. And and it seems like I don't know, like I think we think a lot about like the western United States and all the cattle and ranching and sheep herders, and you know, we have that here in Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado like just has like it has the plains, it has the Rockies. I think now we associate it a lot more with skiing and outdoor adventure, but its origins really are Oh, it's ran.

SPEAKER_00: 23:20

Yeah, it's origins are ranching, it's ranching.

SPEAKER_01: 23:24

Yeah, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_00: 23:25

There's a lot of ranch, even to this day, there are a lot of ranches. And you know, one of my cousins who owns the ranch now is a very successful uh rancher down there still and has quite the cattle business going.

SPEAKER_01: 23:41

How does how does that work?

SPEAKER_00: 23:42

Like and he's highly involved in the community, which is really cool.

SPEAKER_01: 23:45

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00: 23:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 23:47

How does how does that work with like the inheritance of the ranch? Like who decides? Is it just who wants it?

SPEAKER_00: 23:52

Like, you know, I honestly don't know.

SPEAKER_02: 23:55

Yeah, interesting.

SPEAKER_00: 23:56

I wish I knew that. I don't know. Um, I don't know how that worked out. I don't, you know.

SPEAKER_01: 24:03

Yeah, you yeah, I think some of it, I think in some families it's just whoever wants it, right? Because not everybody does want that life.

SPEAKER_00: 24:10

Yeah, and I I think my grand, my, my grandfather, and I think my my great-grandmother, you know, they didn't want that life or they found something else that they wanted. But it is interesting that we've, you know, the family's been so into the outdoors, and we've had so many good ranching opportunities. Yeah, that um I don't know, it's just it feels like home.

SPEAKER_01: 24:35

Well, that's and I love that. I love that even though it's not like the place you were raised, you still have a connection to that family land and this all the stories that come with that.

SPEAKER_00: 24:45

Yeah, yeah, a lot of good stories and um yeah, a lot of good family connections. And what's cool though is you get a lot of the a lot of the old timers that are now more genealogists as well, that either grew up on that ranch at one point or another, or you know, that they'll have been in touch with me, with genealogy, or and so it's like it's cool because although that was history, you still get live history happening right now. You're still in touch with some of these people, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 25:24

Yeah, maintaining them.

SPEAKER_00: 25:25

Some of my cousins and uncles, and you know, they've got a whole lot more stories.

SPEAKER_01: 25:30

Yeah, that's really cool. So as you think about like, and you um you have how many children?

SPEAKER_00: 25:36

I've got four kids.

SPEAKER_01: 25:37

Four kids, okay. And did you like have they ever been to the ranch?

SPEAKER_00: 25:41

No. No, no, they've never been to the ranch. I've never one day I should take them down there.

SPEAKER_01: 25:47

Yeah, well, now you're a grandpa. Now I'm a grandpa. How many grandkids? I've got five grandkids. Two, two that were just born, right? Two that were just barely born. Wow. Okay, so they're all still little, little. Oh, yeah. So as you think about like the kind of grandpa you want to be, what does that look like? Like, are these stories gonna perpetuate? Are they gonna become tall tales? Are you gonna take them to the ranch? Like, what does that look like?

SPEAKER_00: 26:09

All of the above. I'm just kidding. No, I I would love to take them, you know, out to have experiences like that. Yeah. And, you know, um I've had friends that have had ranches that I've been able to take my kids to that I look for those opportunities so that they can kind of see what it was like. And, you know, they loved it, they really enjoyed it. I would actually really love to take them someday down to go see that ranch and see I see the wolf. Right. And I I mean, I haven't been there since man, it was must have been when I was about 18, was the last time. And I'm 51 now. So it's been a minute. It's but yeah, it's been a minute. I mean, if I showed up on the ranch now, I better have my genealogy tree on it to say to show that, oh, I I'm actually I do belong to this family, I promise. I'm not just a stranger walking in here.

SPEAKER_01: 27:12

Well, and I imagine there's some kind of a responsibility of the person who owns the ranch today to to like be welcoming to people like you as you come back to be for sure.

SPEAKER_00: 27:22

Yeah, yeah, because you know, my daddy spent some time down there and they would know they they would know who yeah, they would know my my dad and my grandfather.

SPEAKER_01: 27:35

Yeah, I love that. So well, as you think about Colorado, right, as a character in your life story, what does it mean to you to be from Colorado?

SPEAKER_00: 27:45

You know, I loved Colorado. Uh, you know, if you like the outdoors and if you love mountains and canyons and you know, cows and animals and hunting and fishing, wild frontier a little bit. Because, you know, I was a kid there, I grew up there, and it wasn't until I was about 21 that I left and came to Utah, another awesome state. And I've been here ever since. And so it's, you know, to me, Utah and Colorado just kind of to me just feels like one big or sibling states.

SPEAKER_01: 28:19

Yeah, sibling states. That's amazing. Do you still have family other than the trainer ranch in Colorado?

SPEAKER_00: 28:25

Yes, I do. My brother actually is the city manager for for Fountain, Colorado, which is just part of Colorado Springs. Okay. I'm just south to Colorado Springs. And um, you know, and I've got aunts and uncles that still live down there and cousins, and you know, we get together every now and then, and it's a lot of fun. I mean, I still, yeah, uh, most of the trainers are all still over there in Colorado Springs.

SPEAKER_01: 28:53

Sounds like maybe you need to take your kids and grandkids and see if you can have a reunion on the ranch.

SPEAKER_00: 28:58

Oh, yeah. Wouldn't that be amazing? Awesome. Go brand some cows again.

SPEAKER_01: 29:02

There you go. Well, I know somewhere you can get a giant printed family tree so that you can make sure everybody knows how they're related. That'd be awesome. Well, Chris, thank you so much for being here for sharing your family and your love of Colorado and that amazing wolf story. Super fun.

SPEAKER_00: 29:19

You bet. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01: 29:22

Studio sponsored by Ancestry.