WILLCOX Cowboy Hall of Fame inductees

Don (DM) Martin (139)
1926-2014
2025 COWBOY HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE

Don Martin was born in January of 1926, and they say his passion for being a rancher was all started when Don was about ten years old. It started when Don would go to his grandparents’ home for a formal Sunday dinner. One of the other family members that would join them for dinner was his Uncle Will C. Barnes. Uncle Will was a cowboy and a Veteran of the Indian Wars of the late 1800’s. Listening to the stories of his Uncle Will and those told by his Grandparents about the “olden days” is what inspired Don to be a cowboy and to own his own ranch someday.

Don attended high school in Phoenix and he enlisted in the Army after graduation. While in the Army, he was introduced to flying airplanes and this became a lifelong passion. Being in the service had inspired Don to learn about flying. His first lessons came from a crop duster pilot in Gila Bend, but he did go on a flight school. He was an excellent pilot and logged more than 45,000 hours flying a plan. That is more than 5 years at the controls.

Once back from the Army he attended both the University of Arizona and Arizona State University. Don was in school thinking that he would have to become a dentist to be able to afford a ranch. Sounds reasonable, but the dentist plans lasted one semester before he changed his major to Ag, joined the rodeo team and started riding broncs and bulls.

It was after college when Don got his first taste in the cattle business. He started working in a feed lot and he was taking care of pasture cattle. So here was Don Martin, fresh out of college, not a dentist, working in a feed lot and taking care of pasture cattle.

Little did he know his life was in for a major change the night he agreed to go on a blind date. Yes, it was on a blind date that he met his future wife, Ms. Glenda Wold. Don and Glenda were married February 16, 1952 and over the next 10 years or so they had four children. First came daughter Mary Rebecca, then son Scott, followed be a second son Matt and final a second daughter Jennifer.

Don and a business partner bought the Gila Feed yard and they operated it for 28 years. It was the feed yard that led Don into Southeastern Arizona Cochise County as he bought lots of calves from Cochise County ranchers. The Cowans, Snures, Sprouls, Moores and the Krentz family.

The success of the feed yard started series of chain events that led Don and his family to Bonita, AZ. The feed yard allowed Don to buy land in Scottsdale and that was traded for a ranch in Catalina, north of Tucson, and that ranch was traded for the Larson Ranch north of Willcox. The family explains it this way… In 1985, Don traded a small “rock pile” ranch in Catalina for a big “rock pile” ranch northwest of Willcox. Don had bought the Larson ranch and changed the name to the Broken Dipper Ranch.

Don lived at the Broken Dipper until he bought the Pick Ranch north of Magdalina, New Mexico splitting his time between the two ranches. The Broken Dipper is still being operated today by Don’s somewhat famous second son, Matt Martin.

Don served on the Arizona Livestock Sanitary Board and the Arizona Cattle Feeders board of directors. Don always enjoyed “getting involved” and “helping out” wherever he could. Don was a family man that worked hard. He was honest and straight forward. He liked things to look nice. A favorite saying was “Paint is cheap and neat is free”.

Over the years, Don bought literally thousands of calves for the feedlot. When he was asked by a young cattle buyer “What’s the market going to do?” He would answer, “Some people think the markets is going to go up and some people think it’s going to go down and so do I.” Don passed away in October of 2014. Don was able to surpass his wildest dreams of becoming a ranch owner as he owned three different ranches in Cochise County, plus two other ranches in New Mexico.

Tonight, we welcome him into the Willcox Cowboy Hall of Fame.