DAVE CASTRO (1906-1973) 

 

Dave Castro was born September 19, 1906 in Jordan Valley, Oregon and he was raised there.  He married Marie Anderson in 1940 in Winnemucca, Nevada and they ranched on Juniper Mountain for many years.  Dave sold his ranch and worked on others ranches in the area.

 

Dave Castro (as remembered by Evelyn Loveland)

 

Dave was a character of Jordan Valley. He was born September 19, 1906 in Jordan Valley, Oregon.  I guess he had a rough time, not much of a home life, he grew up pretty much on the Jordan Valley street, at sixteen, he was a handsome boy.  But he soon took to drinking, a good hard worker, could handle horses and cattle as good as any rancher.

When he was sober, a better man you’d ever want to know.  He worked for every rancher around, including the Loveland’s.  He always helped Bill and Charley, a lot.

He married Marie Anderson, they had two children, Freddie and Helen.  Marie couldn’t stand the drinking and divorced him.  Dates I don’t remember but Freddie and Helen weren’t in school.

Marie went to school to be a teacher to support the children.  She put them both through college.  Helen became a nurse.

Helen was working in Santa Fe, New Mexico, when going to work one morning she was in a car wreck and killed.  About two months later Marie died of cancer.  Dave had already preceeded them in death.  Fred was left to settle things.  Fred gave his Dad’s saddle and silver mounted bridle to Chuck Dougal.  They are all buried in Jordan Valley.

 

Dave Castro  (as remembered by Frankie Dougal)

 

Dave Castro worked for Chuck and I.  He was a famous Buckaroo.  He covered more country than any man I knew in the United States.  From Juniper Mountain to the Black Rock Desert.  he let no grass grow under his horse’s feet.  He never left a drop of whiskey in any jug.  Very good customer of Wes Halfords moonshine cabin.  The old trail into the canyon was never too steep to ride in or out of for Castro.

 

Dave Castro  (Tales of I.O.N. Country by Mike Hanley)

 

Dave liked to drink and when he did his pleasing personality got side tracked.  he was on a drinking spree in Jordan Valley and making himself unwelcome.  He cornered Pearl Duncan in the hotel bar and started getting rough.  Pearl pulled out his pocket knife and slowly opened the blade, but Dave kept tormenting.  Duncan stabbed him and the blade glanced down his jar and about severed the wind pipe.  Bleeding profusely, Dave continued to raise hell and when someone brought Dr. Jones, Dave just laughed at him.  Doc said, “Go ahead and laugh because you are going to bleed to death soon and I don’t care if you do.”  As Doc started to walk out the door Dave wised up and let him fix him up.  On another occasion Dave went on a drunk in Caldwell and got into a fight with a stranger.  When he sobbered up, he found that the bottom half of his right ear had been bitten off.

 

Dave spent the last years of his life in Jordan Valley visiting with local people and in entertaining tourists.  For a while he would ride into town wearing a gray overcoat and sporting a gray beard topped off with a Mexican sombrero, which made him look like one of Pancho Villa’s men.

Dave had three sisters, Mrs. Juanita Morrison and Mrs. Mario Garro, both of Reno, Nevada, and Mrs. Lela Oanady of Gresham, Oregon. One brother, Joe Castro.  Dave died in a nursing home in Caldwell, Idaho at the age of 67.

 

Inducted into the Buckaroo Hall of Fame in September of 2001.