CHUGWATER – A Chugwater cowboy, Alva Miller, will be inducted into the Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame this weekend, Oct. 11 and 12 in Casper for nearly 50 years of contributions in establishing the cowboy culture of Wyoming.
The WCHF’s chief goal, according to their website, is “to preserve, promote, perpetuate, publish and document Wyoming’s working cowboy and ranching history through researching, profiling and honoring individuals who broke the first trails and introduced that culture in this state. WCHS plans to collect, display, and preserve the stories and photos of such individuals and anything else that will honor and highlight their contributions to our history.”
Miller’s story began on a homestead where he was born to Bert and Agnes Miller about five miles southeast of Chugwater. He spent his entire life practically on the range, and he’d find any excuse to work or train a horse, but the man would rarely brag about his success. His life and legacy speaks for itself.
The following is excerpted from the nomination to WCHF, as submitted by Miller’s son, A. Keith Miller, and provided by WCHF.
Alva was born in 1917 on a homestead about five miles south-east of Chugwater to Bert and Agnes Miller. He was the third of four kids with an older sister and brother, Georgia and Edward, and a younger brother, Donald. Early in his life, the family moved to the Whitcomb Ranch on Chugwater Creek, about six miles west of Chugwater, where Bert was in the employment of the Swan Land and Cattle Company as the foreman for the Swan ranches in the Chugwater drainage west of Chugwater. At that time, the Swan had numerous sheep herders dispersed across their vast acreage. When Alva was nine or 10 years old, he and his older sister, Georgia, were hired by the Swan for a few summers to individually take a team of horses to the different sheep camps and move the sheep wagons to new grazing areas.
Bert had struck a deal with the Swan: he would work as the foreman in his designated area, but he could also run his own livestock on their land, maybe 50 head or so. The type of livestock was evidently not specified in the deal, and Bert chose horses. Bert would purchase groups of young, unbroke horses from the ranchers in the southeast Wyoming area, trail them to his pasture on the Whitcomb where it was the job of Alva, his older brother Ed, and a young fellow from the east who had come to live with the Millers, Ervin McConnell, to break the horses so they could be sold as “remount horses” to the US Army. Ed, Alva, Ervin, and eventually Don continued that job of breaking horses to be sold to the Army throughout Alva’s teenage years. When Bert and Agnes moved to a ranch near Wheatland, the horse-trading business with the Army ended.

Alva then moved on to the now famous Diamond Ranch, southwest of Chugwater, in Albany County, to tend to cows and break horses for the owner, Mrs. Overmier. She had a passion for polo and was impressed with Alva’s skill at breaking “cow ponies.” Mrs. Overmier started having him train her most athletic ranch horses for polo, rather than import polo ponies. In fact, she had a polo field built on the premises of the Diamond Ranch so that Alva and the other ranch hands could train the horses in competitive play. It was at the Diamond Ranch that Alva met the girl that would eventually become his wife, Faye Rhoades.
After he and Faye were married in 1937, they returned to Chugwater where he was employed by the Swan Company as a ranch hand, tending cows, calving cows, branding, putting up hay (with teams of horses), and breaking saddle horses. However, Alva knew that someday he would have his own cow herd, and he wanted to learn the best ranching practices from the ranchers in the area. That goal took him and his family to several ranches in the tri-county area (Platte, Albany, and Laramie counties) during the early years of their marriage, starting with the Gus and Ruth Miller ranch in Albany County where he continued his work as a ranch hand. They then moved to the Morrison ranch just east of the Miller ranch on the North Chug drainage. It was during that time of employment that he and Louis Voight, whose family had a homestead ranch just east of the Morrison, became good friends and helped each other with their livestock for the rest of their years.
Then it was on to Laramie County on the Ira and Eddie Trotter ranch on Bear Creek, where Alva ran their west operation at the Moffat ranch. At the Moffat ranch, Alva got to put into practice the livestock management techniques he had learned during his previous experiences, and the arrangement was a very happy one for the Millers. Ira and Eddie Trotter agreed that it was a very good arrangement for them as well. However, the Miller’s daughter, Lorene, was approaching high school age and the one-room schoolhouse at the Moffat was judged to be inadequate. At that point, arrangements were made for Alva and Faye to go into partnership with the Haney couple, who owned land near and around Chugwater but who were approaching an age where they could no longer work the land.
The Miller’s moved into the Haney’s home about five miles south of Chugwater while the Haney’s moved to town. As Alva’s and Faye’s cow herd grew, Alva would lease more land west of Chugwater for summer grazing and use the Haney home place for the calving. Alva knew how to increase the family income with his skills and experience breaking horses. Most years he would purchase two to four unbroke horses, use them in his ranching operation, including packing gear for fixing fences in the rougher terrain of the Richeau hills, then sell them to people in southeast Wyoming.
At that time, recreational horse riding was becoming more popular, which included parades and buggy riding. Alva and Faye took part in many of the trail rides organized in the area, and Alva broke several light-driving teams for people in the area who would participate in parades at the Platte Country Fair, Cheyenne Frontier Days, the Laramie Jamboree, etc. For several years, the Platte County Fair would have a ten-horse relay competition between the towns in Platte County (Wheatland, Guernsey, Glendo, and Chugwater). Chugwater folks knew that Alva knew the faster horses in the area and always asked him to form the relay team for Chugwater. The Chugwater team was always very competitive and would often win the competition. Then there was the new sport: chariot racing, which was right up Alva’s alley.
While Alva would almost never talk about his experiences, there was almost nothing he was unwilling to do on horseback, e.g., rope coyotes with his brother Ed; rope, trip and hold bulls with foot rot for doctoring in open pasture; gather wandering buffalo that Earl Vandehei tried to keep on the Swan home place; haul home deer and antelope fawns on horseback for the kids to play with, etc. People who rode with Alva seldom saw him ride at a pace anything less than a lope, except when trailing cattle. His horses were fast, tough, and handled well.
He broke many chariot teams for people across Wyoming, and the teams were known to run at their peak. His technique for getting teams to run their hardest was direct and sometimes exciting for someone riding with him. He would have a fast, stout “breaking horse” harnessed with a new horse (sometimes colts, often not). He would have his helper untie the team and catch the wagon as it came by and then grab the jerk rope of the “running Ws” foot ropes fixed on the new horse. Then it was off for as fast of a ride as the team wanted to go – he would never slow them down, especially on the first drive.
He would say, “give them their head, and let them run” – to let them feel that they had the freedom to run as fast as they wanted. He was always confident he could slow the ride down with the “running Ws” if needed. He would only direct where the team went, it was up to them to set the pace, at least for the first few miles, and then if the new horse wasn’t behaving well, he would force the fast ride for a couple more miles. This technique was effective, and Alva’s teams always seemed ready to run.
He continued to train racehorses as part of his ranching operation until his health forced him to step back. He suffered from Type 1 diabetes for most of his adult life, and as a complication of this disease, he suffered a series of strokes. This didn’t stop him from continuing his ranch work, however, until his death in 1976.
Miller was also active in the community, serving as Deacon in First Baptist Church of Chugwater, an organizer of horse drawn vehicles for Platte County parades, relay team organizer for Chugwater in Platte County Fair, and co-sponsor and co-producer of Chugwater Winter Chariot Races.

Longtime area cowboy Norman Hanks will also be inducted into the Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame gathering this weekend. Look for his story in next week’s issue.