Valley buckaroo Leland Arigoni to be remembered Saturday

Buckaroo Leland J. Arigoni worked for many of Douglas and Mono counties' famous ranching families during the decades since his arrival in Carson Valley.

The 97-year-old native Nevadan will be remembered 4 p.m. Saturday with a potluck dinner at the Walker Community Center.

Arigoni died Dec. 8, 2008, at his daughter's home in Coleville.

Born Nov. 30, 1911, in Nyala, located in the Railroad Valley east of Tonopah, to Italian immigrants Angelina Fallini and Abramo Arigoni, he went to school in Cherry Creek, Nyala, Hot Creek, Ely, and Pahrump.

He came to Carson Valley the first time at age 16 to compete in Chris Gansberg's rodeo. He worked for the Settelmeyers, Parks and Hunewells, as well as Bing Crosby's ranch in California.

According to a story appearing on the front page of the June 13, 1985, edition of The Record-Courier, during the Depression he trapped in the mountains for the government, worked on Hoover Dam, fought fires and oversaw a camp of conscientious objectors for the U.S. Forest Service.

In 1949, he was hired by the California Department of Highways as a heavy equipment operator, where he worked until he retired in 1976.

He returned to Carson Valley from Coleville in the 1940s, where his son and daughter attended Douglas County High School in Gardnerville.

He was named Man of the Year by the Carson Valley Active 20-30 Club in 1985 for his work on the Douglas County Fairgrounds and contribution to Carson Valley Jr. Rodeo.

In presenting the award, Chris Gansberg said Mr. Arigoni was "self-educated in survival skills of the mountains and desert: a man who can read the signs of the earth and sky and knows the ways of wild animals as well as domestic."

In order to get him to town to get the award, he was told he was coming to town to move some cattle.

Mr. Arigoni received the Nevada Cattlemen's Association award for 100,000 miles on horseback in December 1996.

Leland was preceded in death by his parents, five brothers, Albino, Amaturo, Arigo, Aldo, and Alvino, a son Bruce, niece Eveleen Barcellos, and nephew Lawrence Arigoni. He is survived by daughter Lenore of Coleville, California, sister-in-law Eva Arigoni of Carson City, daughter-in-law Karen Arigoni, nieces Audrey Glock (Ernie) and Hazel (Claude) Chisum, nephews Robert (Katherine) Arigoni of Yerington and Richard of Carson City, and many great nieces and nephews. Leland had seven grandchildren, 14 great grandchildren, and five great-great grandchildren.