Willson, Roscoe G. (Roscoe George), 1879-1976

Roscoe George Willson was born in Granite Falls, Minnesota, July 13, 1879. His family moved to the Dakota Territory in 1881. During the construction of the Great Northern Railroad Roscoe's father ran a farm machinery business and started the Pembina County Democratic Weekly Newspaper. Roscoe graduated from high school in Bathgate, North Dakota at the age of 16 and began working at his father's newspaper. In 1898 Roscoe went to Minneapolis to work in his uncle's printing plant. He also did police court reporting for the Minneapolis Tribune. That same year Roscoe became restless, sold all his possessions and rode a bicycle from North Dakota to Mexico. Roscoe spent over three years wandering around Mexico and Guatemala. He worked for the railroads, construction, coffee and rubber plantations, harbor works, and other odd jobs. When yellow fever broke out in Tampico, Mexico Roscoe returned to the United States through El Paso, narrowly escaping quarantine. He followed railroad construction, finding himself jobs along the way through Texas, New Mexico, and finally into Prescott, Arizona on July 1, 1902. Roscoe found his way to Crown King, Arizona, a booming mining camp at the time and took a job at the Crown King Mine. He bought himself a burro and went out prospecting on his own -- an activity that held a lifelong interest. Roscoe later joined the U.S. Forest Service in 1905. His job was to inventory the timber in Horsethief Basin and where he earned the nickname name Horsethief Willson. His assignments took him to Huachuca, Tumacacori, and Baboquivari forests in Southern Arizona. In May of 1907 Roscoe met Maude Hudgin, in Nogales, Arizona. The two were married January 6, 1909 and moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico. In May of that year he was appointed supervisor of the Tonto National Forest with headquarters at Roosevelt. The couple then moved to Roosevelt, Arizona and lived there for four years during the construction and dedication of the dam. After several years of Forest Service work, Roscoe took time off to publish the Southwestern Stockman in Phoenix; soon after he became the supervisor of Madison National Forest in Clearwater, Idaho adjoining Yellowstone National Park. By 1919, Roscoe quit the Forest Service to pursue sheep ranching in Montana. He went broke after the 1929 stock market crash and gave up ranching to run a lumber yard at the Cat Creek Oil Field in Montana. He sold oil well supplies and wrote oil field news for the Montana newspapers. This led to a partnership in the oil rig business. Roscoe built the first oil rig in the Kevin-Sunburst Field just north of Shelby, Montana. He sold the business in 1923 and drove to California for the winter. Roscoe returned to Arizona in the spring of 1924. The Willsons opened the Arizona Specialty Company and became one of the first tenants of the Luhrs Building in Phoenix. Maude ran the office and Roscoe sold advertising. He also went back to prospecting in the nearby desert. Roscoe claimed to have never found any riches but thoroughly enjoyed the hunt. The Willsons sold the business in 1945 and retired. In 1947, Roscoe began writing Arizona Days and Ways, a column for the Sunday Arizona Republic. In 1953 the column was shortened to Arizona Days, which he continued to write until his death on August 25, 1976 at the age of 97.

From the description of Roscoe Willson Photograph Collection, ca. 1860-ca. 1970 [picture]. (Scottsdale Public Library). WorldCat record id: 228302587

Businessman and writer.

From the description of Roscoe Willson collection, 1923-1976. (Scottsdale Public Library). WorldCat record id: 25530140

Biographical note: Journalist and forest service employee; Roscoe G. Willson moved to Arizona in 1902, and in 1906, he joined the U.S. Forest Service, working as a supervisor in Prescott forest region. He also worked in the Coronado and Tonto National Forests in Arizona. In retirement, Willson, at the age of 68, began writing a weekly column for The Arizona Republican called "Arizona Days and Ways" and in 1958 published a collection of his stories called No Place for Angels. Roscoe G.Willson died on August 25, 1976 at the age of 97.

From the description of Willson manuscripts, ca. 1949-1960. (Arizona Historical Society, Southern Arizona Division). WorldCat record id: 635524400