Harry James McCaulou

Harry James McCaulou, 88, passed away November 11, 2024 at the VA Hospital in Boise, Idaho, with family by his side.  Harry was born on August 20, 1936, in LaHabra, California.  The family, which included his parents, Murny & Minnie McCaulou, and sister June, moved to Sweet, Idaho, when he was 7 months old.  They lived in and around Sweet.  Two sisters, Bessie & Murna, joined the family. The family moved to Stibnite where Harry’s father was employed.  Two brothers, Murny & Bob were born in Stibnite.  They returned to Sweet to property on Squaw Creek.  Harry & his siblings grew up there, climbing the rocks, swimming in the creek, and riding horses.  The family included “Uncle Mike” who never married or had children of his own but had a big part in raising & guiding Harry and his brothers and sisters.  Much of Harry’s knowledge of horses came from him.  He spent summers as a kid helping Uncle Mike at “the batch” on Big Cottonwood, using work horses to put up the hay. 
  Harry attended school in Sweet and Montour, graduating from the 8th grade at Montour.
During his teen years, there were no fences along the property, and he said he got tired of hunting all over the place for horses.  He found choke cherry and thorn thickets and cut anything that would make a post, pulling them off the hills with his horse.  He built fence on both sides of the highway, some of the posts are still there today.  Breaking horses, trailing cattle into Long Valley and Bear Valley were some of the jobs he did as a young man. 
  At the age of 19, he went to work at the Cox Dude Ranch for Lafe & Emma Cox.  He was a licensed guide and packer.  He met many interesting people and truly loved working there. 
He was drafted into the Army in 1959, doing basic training at Fort Ord, California and mechanic training at Fort Benning, Georgia.  He was then shipped to Ansbach, Germany.  He soon earned the nickname, “Flint” from the old TV series “Wagon Train”. They went over on a ship, and he said he was seasick from the time he stepped on the ship until he got off in Germany.  He was trained in heavy artillery and operated an M44 155 mm tracked Howitzer, sometimes loading them on rail cars to be transported to various places for training. While in Germany, his sister, June passed away, and he was sent home, completing his service in Fort Carson, Colorado.  He served “2 years, 3 months, and 8 days”, his words.  About his service, he was very proud to have served his country. 
  On his return home, he returned to work at the Cox Dude Ranch for another year.  He then took a job with the Forest Service, planting trees in Third Fork.  After the trees were planted, he was offered a job at the Elk Creek Ranger Station in Bear Valley.
  However, life changed for Harry in the spring of 1964.  He attended a dance in Ola and this “Sweet” cowboy met an Ola rancher’s daughter and with some nudging from Judie’s brother, Vern, and Harry’s brother, Bob, they decided to go on a date.  Harry spent most of the summer in Bear Valley and Judie was helping her dad put up hay.  They didn’t get to see much of each other, but they wrote letters to each other & Judie would send cookies with her brother, Guy, who was working in Bear Valley too.  They were married November 14, 1964, at City Hall in Emmett.  They bought a little trailer house and moved it to the ranch at Sweet.  In the spring of 1965, Harry was offered a job with the Forest Service Road Crew repairing roads above Arrowrock Dam.  They were able to move their little trailer house up on the job.  They were there only three months before Harry had to return to his job in Bear Valley.  They made friends on the road crew that lasted a lifetime.  Summer and fall were spent in Bear Valley before Judie had to come out for the birth of their first child, Jamie. They built a little house that winter.  The following summer, they returned to Bear Valley with a baby, 2 dogs, and a pregnant cat.  The next year, Harry took a job with the Forest Service in High Valley.  The ranch needed our attention.  The following winter, 1967, Judie’s dad offered them a chance to lease the ranch in Ola. They leased until 1972 when the offer was made to purchase it. Together, they built miles of fence, put up hay, calved cows, fed their cattle with a team, and trailed the cattle to West Mountain for summer pasture.  It was the life they both loved.  Three more children joined the family, Kate, Clint, and Michael.  The kids remember him humming while he worked, even a difficult mechanic job. Two of their favorites were “Clementine” and the old song “Rub-a-dub dub Three Men in a Tub”.
Harry went to work for Carlock Logging in 1975.  “Harry-O”, a name given to him by the loggers, operated the water truck and road grader for more than 30 years, keeping the roads up to specs for the Forest Service and Boise Cascade.  Many times, he would be leaving the house at 2 in the morning to make sure the landing crew and logging trucks could get into the job and out with their loads of logs.  He took great pride in his roads and was often requested to do a finishing job when they were through with a job. During this time, he said he had three jobs: the ranch, Carlock Logging, and a horseshoeing trade, which he took care of on weekends. 
  Judie took the catering job for the Payette River Cattlemen’s annual barbecue and rodeo in Crouch.  Harry was always there to help.  Every Labor Day weekend, for 30 + years, they would load up the cooking equipment and head for Crouch.  He took on the job of cooking the corn, with his big iron pot and a pitchfork to pull it out.  Got so, he had to set up chairs for people who wanted to visit while they watched.
His hobbies included braiding leather into useful cowboy gear. In later years, he started using up little scraps of leather for key chains.  He gave many away to anyone who came to visit and doctors and staff at the VA Hospital.  If you don’t have one, there are a few left.  He collected old bridle bits, coins, old bottles & jars, petrified wood & other interesting rocks and arrowheads.  He loved dancing and playing pinochle and rummy.  He was an avid reader and had the complete Zane Grey collection.
  Harry served on the Squaw Creek Irrigation (Sage Hen) Board, Ola Cemetery Board, and Ola Community Center & Church Board—50 + years, was a member of the Payette River Cattlemen’s Assn., Ola Grazing Assn. and Gem County Fire District #2. He was on the very first GCFD #2 Board with one other person.
  He was preceded in death by his son, Clint McCaulou; parents, Murny and Minnie McCaulou; sisters, June Diamond and Murna Bugher; brother, Murny McCaulou; father and mother-in-law Abe and Mary McKinney; sister-in-law, Leona McCaulou; brother-in-law, Jake Newell; and brother-in-law Len McKinney.
  He is survived by his wife, Judie of 60 years; daughter, Kate (Ken) Rutherford; daughter, Jamie; son, Michael; grandson, Nicholas (Dawn) Davis;  three granddaughters, Amanda Davis, Aleta (Josh) Guerrerro, and Mae (Kevin) Radigan; one great granddaughter, Cheyenne Radigan; and another great granddaughter due in August;  brother, Bob McCaulou; sister, Bessie Newell; sisters-in-law, Mary Lee Blackford and Sue Shakenis; brothers-in-law, Larry (Shirley) McKinney and Vern (Carol) McKinney; and sister-in-law, Sandy (Len) McKinney; and nephews and nieces too numerous to mention.  
  Harry will be deeply missed, but we will remember him with happy memories and the contributions he made to the Ola community.  We want to take this opportunity to thank the VA Hospital for the special care given to Harry, and our neighbors and friends for being there for us.  You were all very special to him.  Donations in his memory can be made to the Ola Community Center or Ola Cemetery.
A celebration of life will be held at the Ola Community Center, Saturday, May 3,2025 at 11:00 AM.  A potluck dinner will follow the service.

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