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Page: of 8
4 The Nevada County Nugget, Wednesday, July 7, 1971
‘Wild Horse Annie’ descendan
Wild Horse Annie, the 104-pound native and “dyed in
the sagebrush" Nevadan who became a legend within her lifetime, for her spirited fight to save wild horses is a-descendant of two Nevada county families and a long time friend
of this reporter,
Mrs, Velma Johnston of Reno, Nev., for more than 20
years has followed a dream which has taken her from her
county courthouse to her nation's capitol. She has come out
a winner at both levels, with favorable laws passed and in
progress, to save the wild horses and burros who roam the
‘public lands, .
Identical bills to establish the wild ones as national heritage species have been introduced recently by Representative
Walter S. Baring of Nevada and Sen, Henry M. Jackson of
Washington, Baring is a former school mate and a friend
of Mrs, Johnston,
These bills were the result of recent testimony by “Annie”
in Washington D.C. ’
Mrs, Johnston counts her paternal and maternal grandfathers among the Clay and Bronn clans who were in Nevada
county during the era of hydraulic ‘mining. The Clays, on the
maternal side, settled in the North San Juan and Camptonville
area and the men folk followed hydraulic mining,
The Bronns operated the Half Way House, a brewery and
a stage stop near North San Juan, during a period covering
1885, Half Way House later burned, family records reveal,
The families moved on to greener fields when the famous
Sawyer decision banned hydraulic mining. However, it was not
before Mrs, Johnston's parents, Joe Bronn and Trudy Clay
met, They established their home and reared their family in
Reno,
Mrs. Johnston by day is a poised and well groomed executive secretary for the long established Harris Insurance Company. In spare hours she turns into Wild Horse Annie,
Mrs, Johnston and this reporter were among members
of a graduating class who traded tears and troths of eternal
friendship on commencement night in the gymnasium of the
now vanished Reno High School.
Wild horses wete.to renew this friendship pledge many
HALF WAY House near North San Juan, operated in 1885
by Wild Horse Annie's grandfather, Ben Broni, The buildings that are-completely visible housed the coolers and the
vats for the brewery operation. To the right and barely
years later when the late Al Trivelpiece found that his news
nose led him straight to his wife's girlhood friend, Trivel-piece heard that men were lassoing the horses from airplanes
in Nevada and went there to find out,
This was in 1957 when Mrs, Johnston and her late husband, Charles, were ranching on the Double Lazy Heart along
the Truckee River, east of Reno. A trail of blood and a truck
load of wounded wild horses enlisted the sympathy and interest
of the Johnstons, Together they launched the battle to save wild
horses which within the next years was: to become a crusade
with thousands of school children, horse lovers and just plain
people joining.
Those who know her best say Mrs, Johnston's chief sorrow .
is that her husband did not live to see their mutual dream unfold,
Meanwhile, back in 1957, the Johnstons had become discouraged, The news media and public appeared apathetic toward
the project, although Mrs, Johnston had met with some success
in legislative halls in Carson City, her state capitol, .
While coffee brewed on a wood cook stove Mrs, Johnston
spread out her files and pictures on a kitchen table and told
her story to the out-of-state reporter.
She described the slaughter by 20th century horse haryesters with airplanes, She told how they drove horses from
ridges and canyons on to flatlands, How the horses were roped
by motorized cowboys atop fast moving pickups,
"For many years Nevadans have boasted of their wild
horses as they still do about their liberal gambling and divorce
laws, their Pyramid Lake, their sagebrush and their Piper
Opera House in Virginia City," she said, and asked, "But why
are they letting their wild horses disappear into dog food cans?"
The very feminine ranch wife rebelled at "Wild Horsé
Annie", a name she said enemies had dubbed her in derision
when she went to Carson City to testify at the Nevada capitol.
Trivelpiece told her that some day she would wear that
name like a badge of honor, and it would go down in history
with other heroines of the west. Today she wears the name
like a badge of honor, by her own admission,
Mrs, Johnston has publicly credited the newspaper man
from Nevada City with "launching me into orbit with a series
of articles he wrote," He was a staff writer for a Sacramento paper,
visible through the trees, is the dwelling house, Family
Sg reveal that Half Way House burned sometime after
(All photos from Mrs, Johnston's family album.)
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