The story so far: Jack and Johnnie Gowell ran the Canille Store from 1946 to 1951. It became a local watering hole and their young son, Bill, met many interesting characters, including the “Cat Woman,” Chiquite and Bennett Moson, and a government trapper, Chuck Fish.

Jack Gowell’s dream was to become a cowboy in Arizona. Here he throws a perfect loop as his horse lopes across the Canelo Hills in the late 1940s.

When she found out that Jack Gowell had played drums in a band in New Jersey, Alvessa Hummel, asked him to sit in when her regular drummer was unavailable. According to Gowell’s son, “The ladies at the Elgin Club didn’t like him because he played really loud.”

One of Gowell’s closest friends was Slim Mayo, a cowboy who taught horsemanship at the Little Outfit Ranch School in the San Rafael Valley.

Slim was a confirmed bachelor until he met Kay Hollans. Suddenly married life looked good to him. In November 1947, he asked Jack and Johnnie Gowell to stand up at his wedding.

Another regular at the store was Jim Hathaway, who took a shine to young Bill Gowell. “Hathaway took me all over the area on his rounds,” Bill remembered. “He was a dead shot and always carried a .357 Magnum, even to formal occasions. He spoke at the services for Robert Rodgers, the forest ranger and first Canelo postmaster.” Afterwards, Hathaway winked at Bill, lifted his shirt a little, and showed him the pistol strapped under his clothes

Hathaway was fond of playing jokes on people. Some were quite elaborate and took a lot of planning. Bill says he would set up the scene and then step back and watch the plan unfold. On one occasion, Bill found himself the brunt of the joke.

Fooling around

Hathaway told Bill and Peter Gillingham he wanted to fool some tourists. He had salted a cave ahead of time with gold, jewelry and documents. He told the two teenagers to rappel into the cave and bring up the “treasure,” to amaze the dudes.

The boys lowered themselves down about 40 feet, found the items as planned, and were shinnying back up when Bill spotted a rattlesnake a few feet from the top. He leaped out of the hole and Peter, who was farther down the rope, killed the snake. Hathaway had neglected to give them an important heads up. He had de-fanged the snake and left it there to scare them.

Marie Graham was Bill’s teacher at the one-room Canelo School. The only other students were Ron and Jim Pyeatt and Ken Hale and his brother. When they were old enough to attend Patagonia High School, the school bus, a pre-WWII van, picked them up at 6 a.m. for the two-hour ride. The kids sat on wooden benches that lined each side. The only light came from windows on the back door.

Johnnie Gowell used her inheritance to buy the Canille Store. The Gowells eventually went broke and sold out to Lonnie Cleghorn in 1951. After a few months in Patagonia while Bill finished his junior year, they left for California. The store survived for a time, but was eventually closed. The building still stands in Canelo, near the turnoff to the ranger station.

Retirement

The Gowells later retired to Florida where Johnnie went by her middle name, Elizabeth. No matter what name she was known by, Gertrude, Johnnie, or Elizabeth, she was one memorable lady, and the Gowell’s store in Canelo will long be remembered.