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OUR HOMETOWN: Cowboy to the core

Wade McNolty has been working at the stockyards since 1998
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B.C. Livestock Producers Co-op yard manager Wade McNolty is looking forward to hosting the 85th Annual Williams Lake Bull Show and Sale in-person April 13 and 14. (Monica Lamb-Yorski photo - Williams Lake Tribune) B.C. Livestock Producers Co-op yard manager Wade McNolty is looking forward to hosting the 85th Annual Williams Lake Bull Show and Sale in-person April 13 and 14. (Monica Lamb-Yorski photo - Williams Lake Tribune)

You know Wade McNolty loves his job when early on a Monday morning he says he will continue working at the B.C. Livestock Producers Co-op in Williams Lake as long as they will let him stick around there.

The 46-year-old has been working there since 1998 and loves the social aspect of the job and dealing with the customers.

As the yard manager, he looks after sales and ensures the stockyards are kept in good condition.

While he was born in Vanderhoof, and lived in Fort Nelson for three years and grew up in Dawson Creek, he moved to Williams Lake specifically in 1997 because of the Stampede.

“I just wanted to rodeo and it was the centre of B.C. I thought. I liked doing pickup and riding bulls,” he says. “I was travelling to rodeos with Al Dacyk at the time and I told him this is where I was going to move to and I’ve been here ever since. I have no regrets.”

Soon after he moved to the Cariboo Chilcotin he went to work for Tommy and Donna-Rae Ilnicki on the River Ranch at Riske Creek.

He was a labourer doing everything from logging in the bush in the winter and cowboying in the summer.

When the stockyards in Williams Lake relocated to Cattle Drive in 1998 he started working there.

“I was coming in and sorting with the guys and going back and forth from the ranch. If I wasn’t out there I was here.”

He continued to compete as a bull rider until 2006, when in his own words he quit because he “got too old,” but is still a pickup man for the rodeos, “saving the guys off the bucking horses.”

“I will just be doing team roping if anything because I got a new hip put in last June and the doctor doesn’t think it’s a good idea to keep steer wrestling.”

In the past Carey Price, was his roping partner off and on at the Williams Lake Stampede, that was until “he got the big contract.”

Wade and his wife Brady, who grew up in Pitt Meadows, met on a movie set where they were working doing stunts and extras as cowboys and wranglers.

Nonchalantly, he lists some of the movies they were in including Doctor Dolittle, Night at the Museum and Pathfinder.

He does not discount more movies in the future.

That will depend on their good friend Jamie Payton who works in the film industry and calls them up when he needs a hand.

“He’s kind of like Brady’s older brother and he has been a friend of ours for years and years. He’s from Maple Ridge and has a place in Kamloops where he lives now.”

Wade and Brady have a daughter Paisley, 11, and son Rowdy, 8, whose name was inspired by an old friend of Wade’s who named his son Rowdy.

“I always thought it was a cool name.”

Paisley competes as a barrel racer and Rowdy, who has been “having fun” riding two mini bulls on their property at 150 Mile House, where they have horses and cows, is starting to do roping.

“He will be breaking away at some rodeos this year.”

Brady also works at the stockyards, running the back end, receiving cattle and loading trucks.

Eyeing the upcoming 85th Annual Bull Show and Sale taking place April 13 and 14, Wade said the bulls will be there by Tuesday evening and checked by a vet Wednesday to make sure “everything is sound.”

Wade says the COVID-19 pandemic did not slow down sales, although they had to make some changes to keep them going.

“We had to keep the cattle moving. You cannot stop the beef chain right? It was good. We kept busy.”

It will be a lot of fun, however, to have the bull show and sale back in its fullness with the ever-popular trade show, which is always a “crowd-pleaser.”

“The guys get to come and do the tour and visit with the other farmers they haven’t seen for two years now.”

READ MORE: 84th Annual Williams Lake Bull Show and Sale a success



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Monica Lamb-Yorski

About the Author: Monica Lamb-Yorski

A B.C. gal, I was born in Alert Bay, raised in Nelson, graduated from the University of Winnipeg, and wrote my first-ever article for the Prince Rupert Daily News.
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