Henry LaDell "Del" Jenkins was born in Farmington, Utah, on August 26, 1880. When he was 15 years old, Del traveled to Yellowstone National Park with his father, former Overland Stage driver Henry James Jenkins, where he began his career as a wagon driver for Shaw and Powell offering transportation for camping tourists. In 1898, when he was 18, Del began work for the Monida and Yellowstone Stage Company, driving stagecoaches to the west entrance of the Park and beyond. He continued to drive stagecoaches in the park until 1914, and in 1938, established a ranch near Jackson, Wyoming, where he raised a family. Jenkins married Emma Louise Johnson Jenkins and the couple had a son, Byron Jenkins, and a daughter, Gloria Jenkins McCourt. Del Jenkins died in Jackson, Wyoming, on November 16, 1977, at the age of 97.
Art True was an amateur historian who met Jenkins in San Diego, California. In his 1975 letter forwarding the audiocassette to MSU history professor Robert Dunbar, True wrote, "Del was 88 years old at the time of the taping. He wrote a book that he called "The Lucky Cowboy" about his life and experiences. Unfortunately, a woman who got hold of it for editing took out his spicy down to earth language and he decided not to publish. You can learn more about it from the Historical Society, Jackson, Wyoming. As far as I know, Del is still living. He has wintered in San Diego for over 20 years. That's where I met him."
The Del Jenkins oral history was conducted by Art True in San Diego, California, in 1968. The interview describes Jenkins's experiences as a stagecoach driver in Yellowstone National Park from the 1890s through the transition to the automobile in 1915 as well as his father's work as a trader in Montana Terriroty and as a wagon driver during the 1877 Flight of the Nez Perce.
Jenkins describes his background learning to break and ride horses from father and cowboying on the family's horse ranch. He offers anecdotes about his fellow stage drivers, accidents, and stage hold-ups. He also details the mechanics of a typical tourist's visit to the park, including the route, schedule, and behind-the-scenes tasks necessary to feed and manage the horses. Jenkins also discusses training horses to ship to the British in the Boer War. The second part of the interview details his father's time freighting goods from Corinne, Utah, to Butte, Montana. He then recounts his father's experience being conscripted by the U. S. Army to drive a team and wagon of provisions during the pursuit of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce or Nimiipuu.
This collection is open for research.
An original audiocassette recording of an interview with Del Jenkins conducted by Art True of Arlington, Virginia, was given to Robert Dunbar, Bozeman, Montana, on May 13, 1975. Dunbar subsequently gave the tape to the MSU Library.
This collection was processed 2018 November 1. The audiocassette has been digitized, probably in 2018, and transcribed in 2026 using HappyScribe (an artificial intelligence-assisted transcription tool) with human-in-the-loop review and editing.
The interview was originally recorded on a reel-to-reel recorder and later transferred by True, with some difficulty, to the audiocassette that forms this collection. As a result, the sound quality is poor, with portions recorded at the wrong playback speed, several lengthy silences, a few repeated sections, and some audible tape squeals.
[Creator Name], [Date of Creation], [Brief Description of Object], Folder [#], Box [#], [Collection Name], [Collection #], Montana State University (MSU) Library, Bozeman, MT
Researchers must use the digital version of the recording.