Trailblazer
Lloyd Cyclone Smith.
Lloyd “Cyclone” Smith was born in 1895 near Davenport, Washington. He came up to the Cariboo after earning a solid reputation as a rodeo rider in the United States.
Lloyd easily found work on nearby ranches cowboying and breaking horses. It was in the Cariboo that Lloyd met the Countess Beatrice Calonna di Montecchio, a wealthy Englishwoman who at one time was married to an Italian nobleman. Shortly after meeting the Countess, the pair embarked on a business venture together; opening up a tourist lodge at Timothy Lake.
His nickname, “Cyclone” came courtesy of another well-known Cariboo cowboy of the time, Jo Fleiger.
Jo said, “That every time Cyclone rode a bronc it was a wild ride and looked like a regular cyclone of movement.”
By the time the Williams Lake Stampede rolled around in 1932 Lloyd was Arena Manager and was also doing double duty as a pickup man.
It was in the arena at the Williams Lake Stampede that Cyclone was involved in the tragic accident that claimed his life.
A bronc had thrown his rider and the bucking horse was bolting for a hole in the fence. Cyclone rushed to head it off with his pickup horse; the two collided, Cyclone’s foot caught in his stirrup and he was crushed under his horse when they went down. They transported him to the hospital where the
Countess di Montecchio remained at his bedside throughout the entire ordeal. After Cyclone’s death, a day and a half after the wreck, the Countess left the area, but had a mortuary and chapel built as a memorial to her friend.
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