Honoring life and career, Kila man inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame

Tom Harmon at about age 4 was given a brown sawdust stuffed horse on wheels from his grandfather and at age 14 he broke his first colt.

Riding horses and working livestock have been an integral part of his life first growing up, later working on ranches and at rodeos, and throughout his 41-year career with the Montana Department of Livestock.

Honoring his life and career, Harmon was inducted Feb. 11 into the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame as part of the 2023 inductees for District 10 which includes Flathead, Lake, Lincoln and Sanders counties.

“It’s an honor,” he says reluctantly. “When I think of all the people doing what I’ve done — the friends and guys I’ve had the privilege of working with — it seems like there are other people more deserving of this. It is good to be acknowledged with so many cowboys in Montana.”

Harmon was born in Lethbridge, Alberta. His family moved several times between the Canada province and Montana until December 1963 when they settled in the Kalispell area.

The Kila resident grew up riding an old bay ranch horse and a runaway pinto mare as a kid. When he entered high school he was hired by his neighbors to start a colt and throughout the years he would start colts at the Flathead County Fairgrounds.

“That’s always been a part of my life,” he said of breaking colts. “One way or another I found them or they found me. It’s neat watching them progress and come along, taking them from starting out to being able to ride on them.”

In high school, he competed in rodeos where he rode saddle broncs. Later he competed as a header in team roping competition in the Montana Rodeo Association, the Northern Rodeo Association and the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.

Working for the oldest law enforcement agency in the state, the state department of livestock, Harmon put many miles on the truck and met many folks in the course of his career. Working as a brand inspector at the Kalispell Livestock, he said at one time it wasn’t unusual to see 52,000 head of cattle pass through in the course of a year. Kalispell also saw a weekly horse auction. Brand inspectors are charged with checking brands on livestock and documentation to confirm lawful ownership.

Attending the Montana Law Enforcement Academy, he worked as a market inspector after which he became the District 15 inspector, covering the area that includes Flathead, Lake, Lincoln and the northern half of Sanders counties. Later he was commissioned by the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a deputy special officer, granting him the ability to conduct investigations on tribal lands.

“In the '70s and '80s there were a lot of little and big places operating a lot of cattle,” he said. “I worked from the Canada border to the Bison Range, Idaho and the Continental Divide.”

“I investigated crimes involving cattle and horse thefts, white collar offenses and drug-related crimes,” he added. “The best part of my job was making sure that a stray cow was sent back to its owner. Livestock is worth a lot of money.”

During his career, Harmon saw cellphones and computers enter the equation as brand inspectors began relying on digital records to check state databases.

“It helped,” he said of the changes in technology, “But it was never going to replace physically looking at the cattle. When I went to work the job description was you had to be able to ride a horse and rope cattle — they were hiring cowboys — it’s become more modern but it hasn’t changed.”

MEETING HIS wife Mary Ann Roberts when she asked him to teach her to drive, the couple married in July 1972. Early on in their marriage, he met Bob Nordtome, whose father owned a ranch south of Kalispell.

The Harmons helped with ranch chores on the place while Nordtome worked as a livestock inspector in Arizona. It was on the ranch where the Harmon children, Jordan, Jessica and Brian learned to feed cattle with a team and helped out with calving.

“They learned to do what a lot of people didn’t know how to do,” he said of his children.

After his tenure with the state, Harmon worked for S.M.H. Cattle Co. in Pleasant Valley and Lost Prairie near Marion. He continues working as a local livestock inspector in Flathead County.

Harmon also served as a pickup rider with Rocky Mountain Rodeo. A pickup rider is a person on horseback who works at the rodeo in rough stock competitions and plays an important role in assisting rodeo riders by picking them up at the end of their ride, often by riding next to the bucking horse allowing the rider to get off the animal safely.

He traveled throughout the year in Montana for many stock contractors. In 1998, he was voted the National Rodeo Association Pickup Man of the Year and worked the rodeo finals picking up at MetraPark Arena in Billings.

“I made a lot of friends working with bucking horses all over the state,” Harmon said. “It’s not something everybody can do.”

Features Editor Heidi Desch may be reached at 758-4421 or hdesch@dailyinterlake.com.