As a rodeo scholar at Laramie County Community College, Nick Salter had the ride of his life. At rodeo practice one day, a bull named Double-aught ripped off his pants and flung him over the chute gate. He regained consciousness shortly thereafter, and after a couple of beers at the Cowboy Bar in Laramie, life was back to normal. Outlandish? Maybe, but Salter’s passion for bulls and life trumps any rodeo-induced head trauma.

Raised in Parker, Colorado, Salter worked as a hunting guide as soon as he turned 18. In the off-season he was a farrier, bull rider and occasional college student studying animal science. He started working for Roper, a western apparel and footwear company, when he turned 21. With Roper, the wandering cowboy had finally found a saddle that fit.
 
At the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) in 2000, Salter met Tony Schoonen, then vice-president of marketing for the Elk Foundation. After talking, the two helped forge a new partnership, one that would benefit both Roper and the Elk Foundation. “Nick is definitely an idea guy,” says Schoonen. “He ended up taking the bull by the horns and coming up with ideas to help us out.”

Roper decided to set up a 10x20 booth at the 2001 Elk Camp in Albuquerque. They provided the Ring Crew with Roper shirts, and as soon as the doors opened to Elk Camp, people flooded the booth wanting western shirts of their own. The stock of 200 shirts sold out in a flash.

“We saw that the Elk Foundation were our kind of people,” says Salter, now creative director with Roper. The relationship grew like a heifer in a feedlot. In 2001, Roper began sponsoring the Ladies Auction at Elk Camp. In 2002, they began picking up the tab for the Elk Foundation’s booth at NFR. In 2004, they started donating tens of thousands of Roper’s western-style shirts to the banquet program. All told, Roper has donated roughly $320,000 to conserve elk country. “If people are passionate about something, then they need to step up and get invested in it,” says Salter.

To say Salter is invested in elk is putting it lightly. Being both a guide and a hunter, he has some stories. And you can tell when you’re about to hear one. He’s polite and allows you to finish your hunting tale. Yet all the while, he fidgets in his seat, goes bug-eyed with anticipation. Then finally, when it’s his turn, you know it’s going to be a good one when he prefaces: “When you go elk hunting, you get to be wild.”

He hunted one bull with 20 cows for five days. Finally he snuck in close enough with his bow for a double-lung shot. The bull took 15 steps and died. The cows knew nothing. A younger bull sniffed the dead bull, bugled and went back to the cows and started “playing cowboy.”

Salter lives in Montana now, with his wife Jess who is senior marketing coordinator with Roper and their two young kids, Chase and Kaycee. He’s traded rodeo bulls for runny noses, yet his excitement for conservation, elk and life in general hasn’t waned, just taken a new role. “I’ve gotten to do more stuff in my life than I could ever dream of,” he says. “Now, I want to be the world’s greatest dad.”

- PJ DelHomme