Dayton O. Hyde

The books of a legend of the west.

Dayton O. Hyde, Rancher, Author, and Wild Horse Advocate

Dayton Ogden Hyde, a rancher, naturalist, and celebrated author whose life spanned the last era of the Old West through decades of pioneering conservation work, died December 22, 2018, at his family's Yamsi Ranch near Chiloquin, Oregon, surrounded by family. He was 93. Known to friends and family as "Hawk," Hyde had returned to the ranch shortly before Thanksgiving for what would be his final visit, more than thirty years after he had left Oregon to found the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary in South Dakota.Born March 25, 1925, in Marquette, Michigan, Hyde's path west began at age 13, when he hopped a freight train to Yamsi, his uncle's 6,000-acre cattle ranch in Oregon's Klamath Basin, after being drawn there by his uncle's stories of ranch life. He attended the Cate School in California before serving with Patton's Third Army in World War II, wading ashore at Normandy on D-Day. After the war, he studied English at UC Berkeley, then returned to Yamsi, eventually taking over the ranch, marrying, and raising five children there. Along the way he worked as a rodeo rider, bullfighter, clown, and photographer alongside Hollywood figures like Slim Pickens and Rex Allen, even selling photographs to Life magazine.Hyde's writing career produced roughly 20 books over five decades, blending memoir, natural history, and an unconventional conservation philosophy. His breakout book, Don Coyote, argued for coexistence with predators rather than their eradication and was named one of the American Library Association's ten best books of the 1980s. His 2005 memoir, The Pastures of Beyond, chronicled his ranching youth and was praised by novelist Larry McMurtry as a graceful portrait of a vanished West. Across his work, Hyde championed the idea that humans were stewards of the land rather than its masters — a philosophy that shaped both his writing and his life's largest undertaking.That undertaking began in 1987, when Hyde witnessed the roundup of wild mustangs in Nevada and was moved to action. He petitioned Congress, partnered with South Dakota Governor George Mickelson and the Bureau of Land Management, and in 1988 established the 11,000-acre Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary near Hot Springs, South Dakota — a permanent home where rescued mustangs, including rare Choctaw and Sorraia breeds, could live free from capture or sale. The sanctuary's story, along with Hyde's broader conservation legacy, was later told in the 2013 documentary Running Wild: The Life of Dayton O. Hyde.Hyde's honors included being named Oregon's Conservationist of the Year by three separate governors and Environmentalist of the Year by the National Cattlemen's Association; he was also profiled by People magazine and appeared on Good Morning America and The Dick Cavett Show. He is remembered by the sanctuary he built — now home to hundreds of wild horses under the continued leadership of his longtime colleague Susan Watt — and by a body of writing that preserved, in his own words, "great love" for a vanishing American West. He is survived by his children and the countless readers and conservationists his life's work continues to inspire.

Books

Movie: Running Wild: The Life of Dayton O. Hyde 2013

In 2013 a feature length documentary was released about the life and times of Dayton O. Hyde.