When Love Cost a Boys Ranch Teen His Life – A Look Back

Moving to the Texas Panhandle back in the late eighties has given me the advantage of knowing a lot of stories about the area. I had really thought I had heard them all. Or at least bits and pieces of most of them.

That is the perk of being a long-term resident. It is hard to surprise me. Really it is. So as I was scrolling through social media and read a story that came out of Boys Ranch back in the late fifties I thought, this is brand new information.

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There is nothing new about young love. Remember those days when you would do anything for love? That is where this story begins.

The year was 1957 and a massive snowstorm hit our area. Yes, a blizzard. We have had one a time or two. The most recent one that stands out was the one that shut our city down for two days, where cars were stuck on Hillside.  I remember being stuck at a radio station spending the night because I couldn't miss getting to work.

I sure had no intentions of leaving. Oh, but that is what young love did to this young kid from Boys Ranch back in 1957. His name was Chester Simpson. Oh, and he was in love. He decided that he just had to see the love of his life.

That is where it all went wrong. They were supposed to make the trip to Amarillo and he was going to see her but the snow canceled that trip. He was going to see her one way or another. So he left for that thirty-five-mile hike in the snow.

He never made it. In fact, they found his body frozen to a barbed wire fence. That is where his life ended—all for love. The saddest part is out of that thirty-five-mile hike he was about four miles from his destination. He almost made it.

The strangest thing is this sounds like a story out of the Twilight Zone but it is one hundred percent true. Oh, and it gets stranger. Life Magazine printed the story. They titled it "Boys Last Walk to See His Girl." That is not strange itself but they also printed the photo of his dead body caught in the barbed wire fence.

Check it out HERE. So just when you think you know all the stories of the Texas Panhandle one may come out of the woodwork to totally surprise you.