Friday, October 6, 2017

Alan Day, author of new book Cowboy Up

As part of the monthly Historical League meetings we often have guest speakers. Hearing the personal stories from Alan Day as he talked about his new book, Cowboy Up, on October 2 was most informative and entertaining. Alan grew up on the Lazy B and has been a rancher his entire life. After graduating from University of Arizona, he went straight back to the ranch and never left! Forty-five years later, he is sharing his life work in this new book and it is fascinating.

When his grandfather, H.C. Day started the ranch in 1880, it was part of New Mexico and Arizona Territories. It grew to 200,000 acres. The 5,000 head of cattle were originally from Chihuahua, Mexico and had the Lazy B brand. The name stayed.

H.C. Day and his wife, Alice, had many firsts in the area: the first brick house, the first bank, the first orchard, the first schoolhouse.

Cowboy Up, co-written with Lynn Weiss Sneyd, is filled with short stories of those times. Alan gave us the premier showing of his video of the ranch and his family. It has wonderful photographs and memories of his grandparents, his parents, and sister, Historymaker and former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Foremost in his talk, Alan shared his love of the land, the grasses and the importance of stewardship to the ranch.



H.C. and Alice Day
Sandra Day O'Connor and Alan Day



Water is the life blood of the ranch. Each cow needs 60 acres to graze.

Lazy B Ranch