Joseph Cordeiro
Year Inducted: 2003
Parker Ranch | Hawai'i
The son of a Big Island Cowboy, Joseph was born in Captain Cook, Hawai`i, one of twelve children. One of his favorite memories is his dad coming home one evening after a late night party, and riding his horse up the front steps, through the parlor and out the back door.
Joe can’t remember a time when he wasn’t around horses and ranching. During the 1930’s he worked at McCandless Ranch. In those days there were still a lot of wild cattle in the forest. The cowboys would leave early in the morning and ride up Mauna Loa to rope them. It was dangerous work, and one day while chasing a wild bull, he and his horse fell into a lava tube. He describes that tube as being “three skin rope lengths” deep. Fortunately, the other paniolo were able to rescue them.
Later Joe worked for McWayne Ranch in Holualua and then moved on to Parker Ranch in 1952. He started as part of the fence gang and then was stationed at Makahalau where the purebred cattle were raised. He also worked on the cowboy gang at the Paauhau section of the ranch.
When his wife was awarded a 300 acre ranch lease from the Department of Hawaiian Homelands, Joe installed fencing and other improvements and built his own cow herd of about 100 head. He did all this while continuing to work full time at Parker Ranch. He used to participate in the popular 4th of July rodeo at the ranch, where he loved to enter the horse races.
Joe retired from Parker Ranch in 1972 but continued to work on his own ranch until the late 1980’s. Today, his grandson, Greg, operates the ranch, and Joe often goes with Greg to “check”. He is ninety years old. He still wears his signature Parker Ranch jacket.