William "Bill" McKinley Wilkinson

Born in Archer, Wyoming in 1908 to homesteading parents, Albert became
enamored with Cheyenne Frontier Days after he first saw it as a young man in 1919. Building his life around his love for cowboys and rodeos, Christensen worked with legendary Charles B. Irwin at the latter's famed feed tent and accompanied the legend on trips through the American West to do rodeos. He was present in the hospital when Irwin died and shortly thereafter was taken under the wing of another great, Ed McCarty. He worked on McCarty's Chugwater Ranch for several years and it seemed natural that he would gravitate towards Cheyenne Frontier Days. In 1925 he rode his first bareback bronc at CFD and won the Wild Horse Race in 1926. From that time he kept the company of other great CFD cowboys from Paddy Ryan to Jim Shoulders and served as a pick-_up man for many years. He competed on bucking horses and bulldogging, but the Wild Horse Race remained his favorite. He raised stock for-the race in the 1940s and 1950s and never missed a performance of CFD while he was alive. He contributed a great deal to the safety of Cheyenne's greatest rodeo legends and helped make the event the most exciting in the world.