BLACKFOOT — Durl Gibbs, a new inductee to the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame, was born in Bingham County, where he spent decades fine tuning the farming and ranching skills that would ultimately call him and his family to Montana.

In the 1950s, Gibbs put an ad in the Montana Farmer-Stockman publication indicating he was looking for work in the big sky state. Not long after, he took an offer from Green Ranch in Buffalo, putting him on his path to cowboy notoriety.

“We left Blackfoot and headed for Montana with $1,500, all of our possessions in a pickup and a car, and an old milk cow in a horse trailer,” Gibbs said in his Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame biography. Gibbs eventually raised and sold cattle statewide.

He served on the board of directors of the Central Montana Hereford Association and was an active member of the American Hereford Association. He also studied beef cattle genetics and was a pioneer of artificial insemination in central Montana.

The now 98-year-old Idaho native was just inducted into the 2024 Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame in District 6 for his ranching work, as well as his competing in cattle and horse shows, including team penning and sorting, across Montana, Idaho and Utah.

“I never wanted to do anything but ranch, raise cattle, or farm,” Gibbs said in his biography. Gibbs grew up ranching, rounding up cows on horseback from age five.

He said he’s spent an equal amount of his life in Idaho and Montana, though Montana is where he currently lives. He moved to Montana after World War II.

In the war, Gibbs served in the United States Army’s 96th Infantry Division. Upon his return from deployment, he met his late wife Lucille Hofer in Blackfoot, and with their children they moved to Montana to ranch.

Now, nearing his 100th year of life, Gibbs still lives in Montana. While he doesn’t compete anymore, the last time he rode a horse wasn’t too long ago.

Just before his 80th birthday, he was still competing and even won first place in a competition, with a performance that qualified him for the national team penning finals in St. Louis, Missouri.

“I competed in the arena until I was 90,” Gibbs said. “But I had always made fun of anybody I’d seen crawling on the fence to get on their horse. When I was 90, it became such a chore for me to get my foot high enough to get in the stirrup. I thought, I’ll be darned if I was going to go over and climb on the fence to get on. I’d made too much fun of people who did that over the years. So, when I couldn’t just reach my foot high enough to get in the stirrup, that’s when I quit.”

Gibbs said despite his no longer riding, he still spends a lot of time on the ranch. This summer, he was out driving the swather, his grandson Chance Merrill said.

“The swather might get banged up a little more when he’s driving,” Merrill said, jokingly. “But he basically just never quit doing what he enjoys doing. Of course he always puts his two cents in about what we should be doing (on the ranch) and what we shouldn’t be doing, but when he says stuff people usually listen.”

Gibbs was surprised when he heard he would be in the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame. Merrill said he put in his grandfather’s name for consideration, not knowing whether he’d be selected. When it came to a vote, Gibbs was tied with another candidate and ultimately won the tiebreaker vote, Merrill said.

The Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame isn’t just looking for people who are in rodeo, Merrill said. They’re looking for people who are “involved in their community and in ranching, and who have made a difference in agriculture.”

“That fit my grandpa perfectly, so I decided to submit his name,” Merrill said. “He was pretty surprised when I told him that he got selected. He was really excited.”

Gibbs said he’s looking forward to what the future holds for him.

“I’ve got two goals. I can hardly wait until I’m 100. I’ve got two more years. I want to see a big party at the barn out on the ranch for my 100th birthday, open to anybody and we’ll have a big potluck,” Gibbs said. “Then my long term goal is I want to be the oldest World War II vet alive. The VA is really keeping track of me and the nurses are doing their darndest to help me get to that goal.”