A personal note to a Wyoming clothing customer about how the clothing company’s owners eloped in a Wyoming elk hunting camp traces all the way back to a Navy veteran’s exploits during World War II and the Korean War.
Frank Roberts served as part of a bomb disposal team aboard an aircraft carrier in both wars, earning the nickname “Fuse.”
He’d also become an avid hunter during the Great Depression, when it was all about bringing home venison.
By the 1970s, Roberts and one of his best friends from the wars were looking for new places to hunt. They found a veritable elk hunter’s paradise in the remote Savery Creek area near Baggs.
In time, Roberts’ daughter Victoria started joining him on Wyoming elk hunts.
“Wyoming always had a special place in my heart, because my dad was always in such a great mood when he got to go hunt in Wyoming,” Victoria told Cowboy State Daily.
And by the early 2000s, her fiancée, Engle Saez was also going along for the Wyoming elk hunts.
On Oct. 19, 2004, Saez and Victoria Roberts got married on a whim at the Savery Creek Outfitters camp — and they were back out hunting elk only minutes after the ceremony.
The couple lives in Seattle and recently celebrated their 20th anniversary.
Together they run the Atlantic Rancher men’s outdoor clothing company, which has numerous customers in Wyoming.
One of those customers got a personalized note with his order this month – including the line “we eloped while elk hunting in Baggs.”
So, Cowboy State Daily reached out to the couple to get the story behind the note.
Victoria said that she includes a personal, handwritten note with every order. And it seemed only fitting that a Wyoming customer should get a little tidbit about why the couple loves Wyoming.
It also reflects their business philosophy of and maintaining personal connections. And it reflects the patriotism that Victoria’s father passed down to her.
“I write the notes because I love this country and I think ‘meeting’ fellow Americans, and connecting with them through our business is a gift,” she said.
Engle founded the company in Massachusetts in 1995, but it closed it down in 1999.
He moved to Seattle to work for Starbucks Coffee Co. But he kept the intellectual property for Atlantic Rancher, and re-launched it in 2019.
As he sees it, there’s nothing quite like having a close network of customers in Wyoming and other states.
“If the company gets to the point where we can no longer sign and comment on every order, then it’s time to go do something else,” he said.
Victoria Roberts traveled from an elk hunting camp near Savery in 2004 to obtain a marriage license so that she and Engle Saez could get married back at the hunting camp. Right, they kiss after an impromptu wedding ceremony at the Savery Creek Outfitters camp in Savery, Wyoming, on Oct. 19, 2004. Only minutes later, they were off on an elk hunt. (Courtesy Victoria Roberts) 
Victoria Roberts wore a $5 dress she found in a Rawlins thrift store for her impromptu wedding with Engle Saez in a Savery elk hunting camp on Oct. 19, 2004. The couple just celebrated their 20th anniversary. (Courtesy Victoria Roberts) 
Victoria Roberts and Engle Saez are happily married after an impromptu wedding in a Wyoming elk hunting camp 20 years ago. (Courtesy Victoria Roberts) 
Victoria Roberts and Engle Saez are happily married after an impromptu wedding in a Wyoming elk hunting camp 20 years ago. (Courtesy Engle Saez) 
Victoria Roberts and Engle Saez are happily married after an impromptu wedding in a Wyoming elk hunting camp 20 years ago. They still enjoy outdoor adventures and are pictured here on their fishing boat, “Uncle Jack,” in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. (Courtesy Victoria Roberts) 
Wyoming outfitter Bo Stocks, left, suggested to his friend Engle Saez that Saez and his fiancée, Victoria Roberts, get married in a Wyoming elk hunting camp in 2004. (Courtesy Victoria Roberts) 
Frank Roberts was a navy bomb disposal specialist during World War II and the Korean War. He’s pictured here being interviewed by legendary pioneer broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow. After the wars, Roberts started going on elk hunts in Wyoming, and his daughter, Victoria, still has strong Wyoming connections. Right, Roberts with his daughter, Victoria. (Courtesy Victoria Roberts) 
Victora Roberts and Engle Saez were married in remote Savery, Wyoming, in 2004. (Courtesy Victoria Roberts)
‘Now You Can Marry My Daughter’
Victoria said her father never changed his approach to hunting – it was always about getting fresh meat, never a trophy.
Even after the family started hunting with Bo Stocks of Savery Creek Outfitters, her father would deliberately choose bull elk with “lopsided antlers” because they were generally easier to find, Victoria said.
“He had an entire garage full of deformed, I guess you could call them antlers,” she said.
During the 2004 hunt, Engle shot what he at first thought was “a nice, symmetrical six-point bull,” Victoria said.
But upon walking up the bull, he discovered that the opposite antler was lopsided.
“They thought, ‘Frank is going to love this,’ and when he showed it to my dad, he said, ‘Now you can marry my daughter,’” she said.
Victoria and Engle were in no rush. She’d been married once before, and he’d had two previous marriages. So they weren’t sure what kind of wedding they wanted, or when the time might be right.
A Wedding Without The Rigamarole
While the hunting party was unwinding one evening in a bar in Dixon, Wyoming, Stocks told them that, in light of Frank Roberts’ blessing, it was as good a time as any to take the plunge.
And, since Stocks’ grandmother was an ordained minister, she could officiate the wedding.
“The next day, we drove to Rawlins, which was the closest place to get a marriage license,” Victoria said.
“We went to a used clothing store and I got a $5 dress. Engle found a very ill-fitting suit for, I don’t know how much,” she added.
The ceremony was short and sweet, “between the morning and afternoon hunts,” Victoria said.
Minutes later, they’d changed back into their hunting clothing and were out chasing elk again.
“It was like I won the golden ticket. I got to have a wedding and I didn’t have to go through all the rigamarole,” Engle said.
Since their wedding, the couple has come back to Wyoming a couple of times, and they long to return again.
“I think about going to Savery Creek every year. Not a year goes by that we don’t check the bank account to see if there’s enough in there to make the trip,” Engle said.
“It’s just a magical place. You go there and you just forget about everything except what you have surrounding you,” he added.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
