Like millions of American kids, David Stoecklein wanted to be a cowboy. Unlike most of them, he didn't change his mind when he grew up.
He didn't realize his dream. He became a nationally known photographer instead. But he did do the next best thing. He became friends with cowboys, bought a ranch and now has published "The Idaho Cowboy," ($39.95) a lush, colorful coffee-table book."Cowboy" is 156 pages and 200 full-color photographs devoted to cowboys from throughout the state.
Stoecklein (pronounced Steck-line) could have broadened the book by photographing cowboys in other Western states. He declined.
"This is our heritage," he says. "I wanted to develop the appeal of the Idaho cowboy, to give him a special mystique, and I think it's working. The response has been tremendous."
Ironically, the evolution of "The Idaho Cowboy" began in Pennsylvania.
"I always wanted to be a cowboy. I always loved horses," he says. "When I was in military school, I used to sit in study hall and draw pictures of cabins in the mountains."
Stoecklein chased his dreams as a ski photographer, first in California and Utah, then in Sun Valley, where he has built a national commercial photo business that sells 30 pictures a day.
"Early on I figured lifestyle was more important than the financial gains living in a big city might bring," he says. "The most important thing was to be near the things I enjoy."
That love of the outdoors is what brought him in contact with the people featured in "Cowboy."
Ten years ago, through a network of hunting and fishing friends, Stoecklein met Mackay cowboy Jack Goddard. In 1986 he began to hire Goddard and his friends as models for Woolrich clothing ads and other assignments. Four years ago he bought a ranch near Goddard's.
His cowboy network grew, and in 1988 Stoecklein used his cowboy photos to create the first "Idaho Cowboy Calendar." The concept, expanded and embellished with Goddard's prose, became the basis for the book.