Alice Fales

Alice Fales
born Sept. 29, 1923

When Alice Fales was growing up on Sage Creek, east of Cody, plenty of people still used horses to get around, and she wouldn't mind if that were still the case today.

"I remember I used to always ride my horse to town for the Fourth of July," she said. Riders would leave their horses at the livery stable on Beck Avenue, near where the Cody Auditorium is today.

"My sister never could hang her knees tight enough to stay on bareback. But then, I could never ride a bicycle and she could," she said.

Fales said she preferred when Cody was "more of a horse town," and residents adopted a slower pace, taking time to engage each other.

Later, she lived in Powell, and got a Valentine's Day visit in 1941 from Glenn Fales, who rode his horse from Garland to bring her candy. The two had been courting for about a year, and Glenn's romantic gesture sealed the deal. They were married three days later.

Alice and Glenn worked at farming and ranching near Sage Creek and Meeteetse, and Glenn made a name as a horseman and rodeo rider. Then, Glenn told her he had a chance to run a grocery store in Meeteetse, a move she still finds puzzling.

"Glenn was always a horseman. I couldn't believe when he said he was going to run a grocery store. He could hardly go buy a loaf of bread," she said.

"We never gave credit, but if someone wasn't able to get what he needed, Glenn would say, 'Here. Here's $20, go get what you want.' And that's how we made some good things happen."

In six years, only a single customer wrote a bad check, and that was for $5, she said.

Eventually, they were contacted by the Dawson family, who had owned a Safeway grocery store, but later bought the Rimrock Ranch, a guest ranch at the eastern edge of the Shoshone National Forest, along the North Fork Highway.

The couples made the logical move of trading properties in 1955. Alice and Glenn's son, Gary Fales, still runs the ranch with his wife Dede.

Though Glenn was a respected outfitter, Alice was as handy with a rifle as she was steady in the saddle, and wears a unique piece of jewelry that proves it.

A bear was caught helping itself to the goods in her hunting camp kitchen. It came back later and she put a stop to the shenanigans. Permanently. The old bruin's claws now adorn a striking necklace she earned the hard way.

The bears still wander the wilderness, and Cody has grown as Fales never imagined while one of about 15 kids attending school in the Sage Creek Community Hall, which her grandparents built.

"We knew just about everybody in town. To me, it's an honor to be from Cody and Sage Creek," she said.

Asked if she had advice for people starting out in Cody, Fales said, "Make friends!"

"We used to know everybody. Now you're just sort of a number. It used to be, even if you didn't know someone, you would stop and speak to them on Main Street. You always acknowledged them when you passed them," she said. "I miss that."