Cebulski Inducted into MT Cowboy Hall of Fame

Two men with ties to Malta were inducted into the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame as a part of the Class of 2022 earlier this year.

A couple of months ago, the PCN caught up with one 2022 Inductee, Raymond Glenn Cebulski who was born south of Malta on October 9, 1926. Cebulski was inducted to the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame representing District 11, which includes Mineral, Missoula, & Ravalli Counties, last January.

Cebulski and Barb (born and raised in Zortman), his wife of 72-and-a-half years, reside in Seeley-Lake, a town that they have lived in for 60 years.

Cebulski said that being honored for ranching felt good.

"It's quite an honor I guess," Cebulski said. "It was way more than I expected, not knowing what they do but it is good."

Though Cebulski spent the last 22 years of his working career as a trucker, he was nominated for his efforts in the ranching community. While several inductees earned their hall of fame spot through the rodeo arena, Cebulski earned his spot through work.

"This hall of fame thing; there are two stories to it," Cebulski said. "My life story was on a ranch. I was working on a ranch all of the time and breaking horses."

Cebulski said that he had no interest in riding around in arenas for one reason.

"The main reason is that I never had time, I was working and trying to make a living," he said. "It's still the Hall of Fame but there are kind of two different areas in a way.

Cebulski started his ranching journey at the age of 8 years old, helping his grandfather Allen Mitchell. Around that same time, some of his favorite memories of ranching in Phillips County were made.

"I can remember when I was eight, nine, or maybe ten years old there was a blizzard and they had a coal shed along the railroad for the freight trains," Cebulski said. "The snow was as high as the roof of those sheds clear out to the middle of the street. The snow was so deep."

Cebulski stayed with his grandfather on his ranch during the summer months, and one summer day, one of the grain elevators in Malta caught on fire. One of the towers fell and ignited several train boxcars on fire.

"It got so hot, the rails curled up like pretzels," Cebulski said. "I'll never forget that."

After things cooled down the grain that was burned was made available to all that could use it.

"...it was burned and had charcoal and nails in it," Cebulski said. "My grandpa and I took a team and wagon and loaded up that grain."

His grandfather put the grain in barrels to soak and then fed it to the pigs.

Another story that Cebulski shared was of a coach trip that could've gone sideways in a hurry.

"We were going down Taylor Hill, and in those days it was an all gravel road," he said. "My grandpa was smoking a pipe and while lighting the pipe, he let me grab the rope to drive the team. I fiddled around there and dropped one rein."

This was a problem because the reign was attached to a mare that Cebulski said would run away at the drop of a hat.

"I told grandpa, geez, 'I dropped one of the reins', and he just about spit his pipe out on the ground," Cebulski said. "He said, 'don't say nothin!' He had a stick or something and got the rein back without the old mare knowing about it. We would've had a heck of a wreck there."

His grandfather passed away in 1938, which turned out to be one of the best years due to the rain that they received.

One summer on the ranch, there was a bounty on coyotes, $2 per head. That year, Cebulski and his uncles went hunting and found a den of coyotes. They started digging and could not figure out which way the den went. So, his uncles wanted Cebulski to go into the hole headfirst while reaching down into the hole to figure out the path.

"I said, I'm not too interested and I'm not crawling down a hole," Cebulski said.

They promised to pull him out if he got scared, so he crawled into the hole about waist-deep, and then he started to get scared.

"It seemed like when I got scared, either I swelled up or the hole got smaller," Cebulski said. "I hollered for them to drag me out and they kept hollering for me to keep feeling around and finally it got into their heads that they should drag me out and when they got me out, I tried to whip both of them. Of course, that didn't work very good. I haven't crawled in a hole since."

Cebulski ranched with his family around Malta until 1949 when he was recruited to work for Miller Brothers Land & Livestock ranch for about ten years. At its peak, Miller Brothers owned 346,000 acres of land from the border of Canada to Cleveland, Montana, according to the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame.

While breaking horses, Cebulski only had a couple of bad experiences with horses, but he said most of them were good.

He then told a story about a time that he broke a horse and his spurs had caused a tie-down to malfunction. He couldn't get his foot untangled.

"If he would've bucked me off, I probably wouldn't be here today," Cebulski said.

Cebulski was then asked about his favorite horse.

"Penny (a standardbred) was my favorite horse," he said. "I got him as a little baby colt, raised him until he got big enough to break. I broke him to ride and every place I went, I took him."

After ranching for Miller Brothers, Raymond and Barb moved to Seeley-Lake, they brought Penny and a pony for their kids to ride.

"I kept him here until he died," he said. "He was around 30-years-old when he died."

The name Penny became a favorite with Raymond and Barb. When they got a Scottish Terrier in recent years, the couple did not name her, until Raymond took the dog for a walk and the inspiration was found.

"I reached down to get her and there was a penny there that had been plowed with the snow," Cebulski said. "It was kind of beat up and then I said, that's her name, Penny. So we still have a Penny, quite a little dog."

The couple kept saddle horses around until three years ago. After the ranching and work years were over, the couple rode horses with friends in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.

Cebulski was asked about the longevity of their marriage.

"You gotta get along with your partner pretty good," Cebulski said. "To last this long, you have to have a good partner. I have had one for over 72 years."

Cebulski was also asked what advice he would give a young cowboy or cowgirl.

"It's hard work," Cebulski said."You have to like stock cows and horses. You have to watch them but it's a good life."