As Wyo. governor, two-term senator, cattleman advocated for land rights

Clifford P. Hansen, 97, a Jackson Hole cattle rancher who became Wyoming's governor and then served two terms as a U.S. senator, died at his home Oct. 20 after receiving hospital treatment for a broken pelvis.

Mr. Hansen, a Republican, served as governor from 1963 to 1967, when he went to Washington after defeating Teno Roncalio, Wyoming's sole congressman and a Democrat, in a bid for the Senate.

As a senator, Mr. Hansen sat on the Finance and Veterans Affairs committees and was a ranking member of the Natural Resources committee. A cattleman whose livestock grazed in Grand Teton National Park and in surrounding national forest land, he opposed raising public-lands grazing fees and supported establishing reservoir projects in his home state.

He successfully advocated for raising states' share of revenue from mining on federal lands and backed legislation ensuring that landowners are compensated for minerals beneath their property.

Sen. Hansen was reelected to the Senate in 1972 and resigned Dec. 31, 1978. In 1980, President Ronald Reagan floated Mr. Hansen's name as a top choice for Interior secretary. Reportedly because of conflict-of-interest problems due to his federal cattle-grazing permit, Mr. Hansen declined, and the job went to James Watt, then-president of the Mountain States Legal Foundation, a conservative nonprofit group based in Denver.

Clifford Peter Hansen was born Oct. 16, 1912, to homesteaders in Zenith, a community in the Jackson Hole valley. He grew up with a stutter, which he later credited with pitching him toward politics.

"One day, a hired hand, meaning no harm I'm sure, heard me stuttering, and he said, 'Don't worry, Cliff -- someday you'll be governor.' And I thought, 'By God, I will be governor,' " Mr. Hansen told a Denver newspaper in 1996. "When I was riding alone up on the range, I'd pontificate and make speeches to the cows."

He graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1934, when he returned home to ranch and marry the former Martha Close.

His daughter, also a rancher in Jackson Hole, died in 1996 when she was thrown from a horse while herding cattle.

In addition to his wife, survivors include a son, five grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

Clifford Hansen entered politics in 1943, serving for eight years as a Teton County commissioner. Also in 1943, he and his fellow ranchers led a cattle drive protesting the Jackson Hole National Monument, which expanded protections on land around Grand Teton National Park and -- in the eyes of the protesters -- infringed on grazing rights and reduced county tax revenue.

"I'm glad I lost that fight," he said in "The National Parks," the recent Ken Burns documentary. "I have to appreciate, as everyone else does, the beauty and uniqueness of this area."