Thirty-four years is a large piece of a lifetime. Few people will ever stay at a job that long, live in the same home, or even live in a community that length of time. Two people, however, didn't fit the mold, two who have given the greatest gift that one can offer: the gift of time.

That time spent was creating, building, teaching, and listening. They led, encouraged others to lead, guided, and pushed when necessary. They built a family around them that spans generations and lifetimes.

Westernaires exists today because of Marjorie and Elmer Wyland. Their hopes and dreams, their effort and determination, have been the driving force in gathering people and urging them to use their talents and skills to build the largetst organization of its kind in the world today. They have indelibly marked the lives of scores of young people. We are in their debt.

“Elmer E. Wyand and Marjorie Wyland: In recognition of your principles and lifelong effort to further the American way of free enterprise. In special recognition of your work in founding and directing with outstanding success the Westernaire U.S.A. youth organization. In recognition of your leadership and assistance in aiding so many young people of our country in becoming outstanding citizens. The people of our nation hereby recognize and cite you for your citizenship, your leadership, your love for youth and country.”

— President Richard M. Nixon, in Presidential Citation issued January 31, 1970

On May 21, 1983, Elmer E. Wyland, founder and Director of Westernaires, died in his 85th year. He had devoted nearly 35 years of his life to the service of youth. His legacy is the largest precision drill-riding group in the world.

Elmer Wyland was a man among men. He was energetic, creative and productive. He was imaginative, inquisitive, and far-sighted. He loved horses and he loved kids and he had total faith in the abilities of both. Because he was all these things we are the Westernaires.

Wyland was a genuinely patriotic man. This patriotism is reflected throughout the Westernaires and is one of the central themes of every arena show. It was the basis of his life and the foundation upon which Westernaires has been built.

He was iron-willed, tough and demanding. He was a gentle and most human person. He was, above all, fiercely proud of his youngsters. He demanded excellence from them and offered the opportunity to achieve that excellence. The result is a living tribute to his ability and his vision, Elmer Wyland's Westernaires.

He refused to acknowledge a generation gap. In 1976, he talked about his philosophy concerning all generations and particularly his Westernaires.

"Why can't we all give more of our time to young people? We should not criticize them. We should give them the guidance that only our experience can provide. They're in need of that, they want it, they relish having real discipline. I'd like to see more people helping the young people. More people making that a way of life after retirement when they can spend more of their time without the press of business. I'd like to see them spend it helping others, helping young people, helping to guide them. There are a lot of ways that it can be done.

"Over the years in my experience in training these young people, I find them fantastic. In today's age, subjected as they are to so very much information, you may wonder sometimes how much of it rubs off on them. All you have to do is to work with them a little while and you find out. They are a tremendous generation. They do need guidance, guidance from their parents. This mobile age of parents who find themselves with multiple car families, leisure time—dashing here and there, trying to use up every minute of it. 1 want to tell you, if they would give their youngsters more guidance they would find that these young people have a capacity far beyond what they realize.

"Westernaires is not just a riding organization. If that's all it was, I wouldn't be part of it. No, it's a youth movement, using the horse as the motivator. He/she learns about the horse and what that wonderful equine really is. He/she learns about history, ancient history and modern history. He/she learns public speaking, practical public speaking. He/she learns to be responsible and self-reliant. He/she learns to work as a team with others. He/she learns to overcome disappointment and the rewards of success.

"I want to tell you that those Red Team riders can teach you a thing or two if you just spend time with them. Forget age. Look for performance. They deliver."

Elmer and Marjorie Wyland took ordinary kids and gave them a way to enjoy life while they were growing up. They offered them the horse as a motivation. They offered parents and children a way to grow closer. They demanded that they be dependable and responsible, that they strive for excellence. They challenged them. They afforded them the opportunity to enjoy the thrill of performing before audiences. They offered them a way to succeed.

Elmer Wyland challenged their parents, too. He offered them an opportunity to use the talents they had and he often recognized talents they did not even know they possessed. He encouraged them to be creative and productive, to accept responsibility and authority, to learn and to grow just as their children were doing.

The Westernaire organization had its beginnings over seven decades ago in Jefferson County, Colorado. It was originally started as a recreational riding group for young people of the county. It has become a model for youth groups throughout the United States and in a number of foreign countries. Films and articles featuring the Westernaires have appeared in France, Japan, South Africa and Australia to name a few. To fully understand the organization, it is necessary to know something about this extraordinary man.

The Early Years

Elmer Wyland was born just before the turn of the century into a world of horses. It was the world of the driving horse, the draft horse, truly a working animal. He spent his earliest years in the San Luis Valley of Colorado. His father ran an experimental farm, raising purebred Percheron draft horses. For pleasure the elder Wyland raised purebred buggy Hackneys. Elmer Wyland owned his first horse at the age of seven and rode to and from school. He rounded up cattle and drove wagons and buggys on the farm where he was born.

While still a boy, the family settled near Cortez, Colorado where his father proposed to build a small hydraulic dam and a generating plant to supply electricity to Cortez. The family settled along the road to the Shiprock Indian Reservation. Wyland recalled quite well the last Indian battle in 1915 at Bluff, Utah, and the posse raised in Cortez and Dolores. As battles go, it wasn't a big one. nevertheless, it stirred up a lot of excitement and made a lasting impression on young Wyland.

He remembered the delivery of the first mail out of Dolores and Mancos to Cortez by the automobile. The bridge was out at Cortez and workmen had to lay planks so that new-fangled contraption could make it across to deliver that mail. Most people in Cortez thought it was just a new kind of gadget and that its time would never come, for the pony express was a lot faster. It was, however, to be the wave of the future—and the passing of the horse.

In his teens, the family moved to Idaho where Wyland completed high school. He served briefly in World War I, training at Ft. Lewis, Washington as a Rough Rider. He drilled with an old Russian musket and the men simulated artillery by using a piece of stove pipe on a set of wheels from a wagon. Fortunately, the war ended before he could be shipped overseas.

He had decided on a career in engineering. His father gave him a draft team and during the summers he worked from dawn until dark on road gangs, building highways. Those horses were the day's earth movers, two horsepower earth movers. They were dump trucks, too. He worked the harvest fields with his team, pulling wagons that carried the bundles from the thrashing machines. Horses helped to pay his way through college.

Wyland also worked as a fraternity house manager and as a janitor in a music hall. He worked as a drummer, playing at dances and in theatres. He once played at a banquet given in honor of John Phillip Sousa. Later on, in his Westernaires days, Sousa marches would be among his favorite musical pieces for Varsity Big Red Team drills.

Upon graduation from college he joined the telephone company in Idaho, moving back to Colorado in the 1930s to become general plant manager for the entire Mountain States Telephone Company, which serviced about a quarter of the U.S. At his retirement in the 1960s, he was assistant vice president for personnel at Mountain Bell.

Westernaires Conception Years

Marjorie Wyland riding Billy Boy, circa 1949

Marge and Elmer Wyland were not to have children of their own, but they were to play an unforgettable role in the lives of thousands of Colorado young people. Once more the horse was to be instrumental in Wyland's life.

The Wylands began riding for recreation and to help Elmer relieve the tensions of his phone company job during World War II. They purchased two saddle horses which they boarded at the old Mississippi Stables on South Wadsworth in Jefferson County. Soon Wyland was holding informal classes for area young people about the horse and Western riding skills.

In 1949, Wyland was approached by the Lakewood Youth Council to form a riding group for Jefferson County youngsters, to teach and promote riding in the Western tradition. The first group numbered 36 riders and a few adult volunteers and was the beginning of the Westernaires.

Each September, hundreds of youngsters between the ages of 9 and 14 apply to become members of the Westernaires. They come from all walks of life, all manners of economic, religious and ethnic background. They are "city kids", most of whom have never before ridden a horse; who couldn't afford the luxury of owning a horse. Some stay a short time. Many stay for years. Their common dream is to one day ride with the Varsity Big Red Drill Team, considered by many to be the finest precision drill team at speed in the world. Wyland remained director of the Westernaires and chief instructor of the Varsity team until his death in 1983.

Those first few years for the Westernaires were difficult at best. The group had no money, no costumes, no permanent place to meet. They practiced at the Mississippi Stables and parents gave what they could in time and money. The financing in those early years came primarily from the Wylands' personal funds. The lack of funds didn’t prove to stop this force of will of the Westernaires.

Fort Westernaire

The Wylands in front of the Westernaires fleet of trucks, circa 1960s.

In 1959, Westernaires was to gain a permanent home: Fort Westernaire, located just south of the Jefferson County Fairgrounds, and initially only 10 acres in total size. This land is owned by the group, with an additional 30 or so acres leased in perpetuity from the county. This additional acreage would be important over the years as the organization grew in membership and functionality.

The Fort is the hub of Westernaires activities, operating 52 weeks a year. It contains a machine shop, club store, first aid facility, the Westernaire Museum of Riding and Driving History, a full kitchens, offices, numerous classrooms, a library, storage for several thousand costumes, laundry facilities, caretakers' home, four closed and heated arenas, three open arenas, and stables for more than 200 livery horses, ponies, and draft animals. Fort Westernaire used to also house a fully-functioning printing shop, self-sustaining and communicating all goings on to its extended family. Among the other items currently stored on site is one of the area's largest private collections of antique rolling stock. The organization owns one of the nation's largest collections of authentic Cavalry equipment and matched side saddles which were made specifically for the Varsity team. When travelling across the United States, the performing teams use their own bus and the horses are carried in Westernaire-owned over-the-road vans.

Little is new at the Fort in the way of buildings, machinery, vehicles, and equipment. Most have been renovated, remodeled, restored or built from scratch by Westernaires volunteers. Costumes are designed and constructed by family members of riders. All instructors are Westernaire-trained and no one, with the exception of the live-in caretaker, receives compensation of any kind. Many of the volunteers have served long after their children have left the organization, a few for nearly 50 years. There are now many second- and third-generation Westernaire families active in the group.

Fundraising

Surprise truck for Wyland, 1966 — A surprise truck donated to Westernaires, 1966

The primary source of funds for the day-to-day operation of the organization comes from the Westernaires annual “Horsecapades” show, held at the National Western Events Center in late October of each year. Four performances are given, all for the general public. The Saturday morning show is also considered a "donation" show — many tickets are distributed throughout the metro area to homes for the aged, community centers, homes for the disabled, head start programs and the like, to enable others to see live family entertainment which might not otherwise be available to them. The show fully put on by the Westernaires members, and tickets are sold by the Westernaire membership.

The organization is totally non-profit and self-supporting. It receives no federal, state or local funding. Dues and insurance costs to the membership are maintained at $25 per year, and the only additional costs are minimal yearly costume maintenance fees, and a $15 per class horse rental fee to those who do not have a horse of their own. The vast majority of members do not own their own horse, instead opting to rent a trusty Westernaires rental herd horse.

Westernaires is not a rich person's organization. For many of these youngsters and their families, the maintenance of a horse is a great sacrifice. The organization attempts in every way possible to make membership economically possible for as many as possible.

Westernaires have performed before hundreds of thousands at arena shows, rodeos, in movies and in television programs and documentaries. They have performed before audiences at the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo for over 70 years, and Westerniares has put thousands of acts into the arena at National Western alone. That's an impressive record for any showman.

The Wyland Legacy

“I know of no one who has contributed more to the development of young people of high character than [the Wylands] have. The Westernaires are a national legend and I can only wish the Wylands another several decades of community services and the personal satisfaction which I know they realize from giving us this fine organization.”

— Donald G. Brotzman, former Colorado Congressional Representative

Westernaires is still Elmer Wyland, even though none of its young members had the opportunity to meet him. For him, and for Marge, it was a 24 hour, 7 day a week endeavor. It was their lives. He was its promoter, showman, teacher, guiding force. They constantly worked to build and to grow, to develop and refine, pyramiding ideas and taking them from thought to reality. They had that rare ability to develop talent in those around him, and his volunteer parents are as much a tribute to his abilities as are his kids. It is those young people, however, who played the most important part in the Wylands’ lives, and vice versa. The Wylands drew strength from their youth. Elmer Wyland refused to acknowledge a generation gap. Long past the time when most people choose a more quiet life, he reached for more. During a time of life when young people tend to be confused and uncertain, he provided a vehicle through which they could work and grow, both physically and emotionally.

We are a family, we Westernaires. There is a lot of love and support here, friendship and understanding. The Wylands gave us this, too.

Now we have a new challenge. That challenge is to celebrate the Wylands’ lives. We have a duty to their memory to honor those things in which they believed. We must continue to grow and to succeed as we would have if he were here beside us. It is the greatest tribute we can pay to the people who gave us so much of themselves. It is what they would expect us to do.

We are the living tribute to his remarkable life. We are the Westernaires.