In appearance he was every inch a cowboy with his large, flat-brimmed Stetson, silk neckerchief and woolly chaps.
They said Val Haynes was known to sleep out in any weather with just the shirt on his back and a saddle blanket. Born Dec. 21, 1875, in the middle of a snowstorm, by the time he was 8 years old he was earning his keep as a cowboy on his father’s ranch in the South Okanagan. After his father’s death in 1888 the family returned to his mother’s home in England where Val completed his education.
He returned to Canada in 1893 eventually acquiring the Garrison and Vasseaux Ranches and the range on Kruger Mountain. Although he never showed much interest in rodeos or competition, he was considered the best in roping in tough places on the range. Despite being an excellent horseman, Haynes was never too fond of horses, knowing that the South Okanagan was home to thousands of wild ones that consumed large quantities of the precious bunchgrass resource, leaving less for his beloved cattle.
In all his years as a foreman and rancher, he always ate at the same table as his crew, and always referred to them as his cowboys, never just his hired men.
Val Haynes remained an active cowboy until a month before his death in 1962. On his 87th birthday, with the help of his grandsons, he drove some 200 weaned calves about 20 miles to Swan Lake.
