When Bobbie Williams got the chance to buy five acres in the heart of the Kamas Valley for $25,000, she jumped at it. The year was 1986 and she called her newly acquired piece of paradise the Shady Lady Ranch.

“Some people probably thought it was a brothel,” laughs the lifelong horse lover, who arrived in the valley after living and working in Nevada for many years. “Actually, it’s named after the Shady Lady Bar in Reno. No reason in particular; I just liked the name.”

From humble, shallow roots, the California native moved with her family frequently from south-central Los Angeles to Redondo Beach, Torrance, and several points in between. “I went to so many different schools I can’t remember,” she jokes. Among them were the Figueroa Street Grammar School in L.A. and Redondo High School through the 9th grade.

“I sort of got tired of school, but finally got my GED when I was 30 years old so I could go to work at the phone company,” says Williams.

She practically grew up on a horse. “When I was a kid I just loved the pony rides,” she recalls. “It got so bad my parents would have to detour around the local pony rides so I wouldn’t see the ponies. I guess I’d cry if I didn’t get to ride. When I got older we would rent horses at a stable down the road from the house. I knew I wanted to be a cowgirl from then on.”

She ventured east to Las Vegas at age 18 to take a job as a horse wrangler and teacher at the Hacienda Stables. She took to Nevada, living and working alternately there and in California through the mid-1980s.

Even a partial list of jobs Williams has held reads like a Job Service bulletin board. She takes a deep breath and recites: “I’ve been a wrangler, riding teacher, food and cocktail waitress, bartender, carhop, maid, dog groomer, casino worker, hotel manager, telephone operator, installer and repairman.”

There have been other jobs as well. Williams owned and operated the Rocking TK Stables in Moorpark, Calif., and the Rafter R. Ranch in Canoga Park.

She moved to Utah in 1983 with a man she had just married. The union didn’t work out and Williams returned to California, but not before she’d caught a glimpse of Kamas Valley. “I thought it was the most beautiful place in the world,” she remembers.

That’s what ultimately drew her back and she’s been here ever since. “I love the mountains, the wildlife and especially the people in Kamas Valley, the way everyone makes you feel like you belong here.

“I also love the fact that I’m 45 minutes from Salt Lake City and the Utah Jazz,” Williams adds. It seems she has joined the ranks of rabid Jazz fans. “I’m one of those season-ticket fans that paints my face and screams my head off,” she confesses.

At home at the Shady Lady Ranch, Williams volunteered as a wrangler for local ranchers who ran cattle on Forest Service land along the Mirror Lake Highway above Kamas. “I did it for the love of it, she says. “It fulfilled a lifelong dream and that was pay enough.”

Returning to her roots in 1988, Williams took a job as a waitress at the venerable now extinct Mt. Air Café in Park City. “I worked there through 1991 and just loved it,” she says.

But the work most dear to her heart for the last decade has been her volunteer work with the U.S. Forest Service. Since 1998, she’s practically been a fixture along the Mirror Lake Highway and in the backcountry of the Kamas Ranger District. She’s worked as a range technician and patrolled the trails summer and winter, on horseback, foot, snowshoes and skis. She’s groomed trails, cleaned campgrounds and handed out maps. “I’ve tried to do my best to help maintain the beauty that God has given us,” she says modestly.

Her hard work and dedication have not gone unnoticed, as evidenced by a wall at her home full of plaques and awards. Her most prestigious award came in 2005 when she was honored as “Good Will Rider and Trail Host” for almost 2,500 hours of volunteer work. The award was presented by Dale Bosworth, national director of the U.S. Forest Service.

She met Lynn Williams on horseback in 1998 and they’ve been inseparable since then. “He was the Forest Service worker in charge of the range and grazing program on the forest,” she explains. “He started out in Southern California about the same time I did. We lived in the same neighborhood and knew the same people, but we never met until we got here. It was meant to be.”

They were married on horseback near Cedar Hollow above Woodland in April 2005. “It was so pretty, it was snowing huge flakes before and after the ceremony. It was like God dropping confetti,” beams Williams.

“The reception was at the Gateway Restaurant in Kamas and cost $65, plus another $10 for the wedding cake. It was the best wedding I ever had,” says Williams, who admits to having been married a few other times.

“I suggest everybody get married that way. For me, I’ve just got to be outside. I call it the Church of God’s Cathedral.”

Later that year she sold the Shady Lady Ranch. The newlyweds live in their dream home in Woodland, where they’ve settled in for the long haul.

Spend a little time with Williams in her beloved mountains and it becomes apparent that she’s a very spiritual, reflective, woman. In 2000, she wrote and published “Cowgirl Up,” a delightful coffee-table book filled with autobiographical glimpses and funny, insightful observations from a woman who seemed born to ride.

And what a ride it’s been. “I’m very grateful for the beautiful life that God has given me,” says Williams. “I thank him every day for my husband, home lifestyle, family and wonderful friends. I have been rich and I have been poor. But I have never been as happy as I am now.”

Steve Phillips is a Park City-based writer and actor. Send your profile comments and suggestions to him at [email protected]

VITAL STATISTICS

Favorite things to do: camping, horseback riding, going to films and restaurants in Park City, going to Jazz games

Favorite foods: steak, barbecue ribs.

Favorite performers/music: Willy Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, western, jazz and blues.

Animal companions: Three dogs: Raider, a border collie; Blue, a heeler; and Shooter, aYorkshire terrier “who runs us and the house.” Three cats: Babbitt, Lafayette and Gray. Three horses: Ace, Rubin and Joker, and a mule, Buck.

Pet Park City peeve: “The place is growing too fast and the traffic is crazy.”