Since the 1960s, Sagebrush Sven has been doling out satirical commentaries about Buffalo, Wyoming, residents to the readers of the Buffalo Bulletin.
His wit has had readers laughing for the past six decades as he pokes fun at himself and the “Bench Sitters,” a group of older men who sit around and discuss the world around them.
“Among the better remarks we heard this week came after one of the regulars was bragging about how he ‘worked out three times a week, and he could do almost everything he could do when he was 30 years old,’” Sven said. “That’s when old Bad News said, ‘I’d guess you were not doing a heck of a lot when you were 30.’”
The fictional Swedish sawmiller and the “Bench Sitters” are featured in the humorous weekly column by Jim Hicks, a fixture in Wyoming newspapering for more than six decades.
He uses real life incidents that he said would not make the newspaper otherwise.
A Job In Lead
For more than 60 years, Hicks, 89, has been writing the column.
Born in Gillette, his family moved to California during WWII and returned to Wyoming in 1945. His father went to work for the Buffalo Bulletin and bought the paper in 1956. Jim started working part time at the paper when he was still in grade school.
“I started out as what they call a printer's devil, and that's the kind of the lowest rung on the ladder,” Hicks said. “I’d sweep up the scraps of lead in the back shop and that would go back into a melting pot.”
A printer's devil would be given a range of tasks including casting bars of lead that fed into the melting pots on linotype machines. In this role, Hicks joined such luminaries as Benjamin Franklin, Warren Harding, Thomas Jefferson, Lyndon Johnson and Mark Twain.
After first going to Creighton University as a pre-med student, Hicks switched degrees, transferred to the University of Wyoming and went back to what he knew best.
“I went into journalism, and I'm very happy I did,” Hicks said. “I enjoyed it all my life. My first job when I got out of college in ‘57 was with the Wyoming State Tribune in Cheyenne. Part of my “beat” was state government. Milward Simpson was Governor at time, and he was a great guy.
“I learned a lot about state government. Later I went to work at the old Casper Morning Star. It was a morning tabloid ... a pretty flashy paper ... and a lot of fun. Casper also had an afternoon paper (The Tribune).
“I was married to a beautiful girl, Mary, from Story, and we moved back to Buffalo in 1961. Jack Williams and I both bought all interest in the Buffalo Bulletin and started working there. We bought the rest of the paper in ’64.”
Despite the changing landscape of journalism, Hicks believes small town news is still relevant to the community.
“My good friend, Ron Lytle, said it best,” Hicks said, quoting Lytle, “Y’ou show me a small community without a newspaper, and I'll show you a town without a soul.’
“People need to have the public eye on what's going on,” Hicks added. “They have to have that information easily accessible to them.”
Small Town Newspaperman
Before computers and technology revolutionized the newspaper business, Hicks said most small-town publishers did everything from reporting, photography, selling ads, running a press to distributing it around the town.
“If you were the publisher, chances are that you also served as the janitor, the editor and so on,” Hicks said. “My business partner handled the advertising. We also had a commercial printing plant and a small stationary store. We even sold typewriters and photocopiers when they first came out.
“In those days most publishers did a lot of things to make a living. Attending local government meetings, taking pictures and covering the basketball and the football games. You really worked pretty much seven days a week.
“(Wyoming Newspaperman) Pat Schmidt said you could always spot the local weekly newspaper owner, ‘He’s the guy with a camera hanging around his neck and a notebook in his pocket.’”
Hicks loved being a journalist in Wyoming despite that actual production in “hot type” was labor intensive.
“A good printer in those days could read upside down and backwards as fast as you can read the right way. If there was an error in type, you would reset that one line,” he said. “Part of the job is the same. Community newspaper men and women are still out getting the stories local readers want to read.”
The Bench Sitters are rarely identified by name and remain anonymous as they share their small town wisdom from Buffalo, Wyoming. They have been featured in the Sagebrush Sven column in the Buffalo Bulletin for the past 60 years. (Courtesy Buffalo Bulletin) 
During the pandemic in July 2020, Sagebrush Sven kept up his commentary about life in Johnson County, Wyoming. “We hear the virus problem has stimulated the sales of camper trailers and judging by how many of those “tin houses” are parked in the Bighorns, this could be true. It makes sense. This is a way people can enjoy the holiday and still remain “isolated” by parking at least 20 yards away from the next trailer.” (Courtesy Buffalo Bulletin) 
Among the many observations made by the “Bench Sitters” of Buffalo, Wyoming, in Johnson County: “Noticed a “dirt bike” parked with no rider in sight. When the hail stopped, he emerged from the outhouse. It might have been a long wait in there unless someone had left a magazine.” (Courtesy Buffalo Bulletin) 
Left, Mary Hicks drew a customized illustration for a story from 2019 featuring dumpster diving. Right, one story shared by Sagebrush Sven in 2020 that Mary Hicks illustrated told of their hiking trails. (Courtesy Buffalo Bulletin) 
Jim Hicks, 89, has been in the Wyoming newspaper business for 60 years. He continues to write satire as “Sagebrush Sven” in the Buffalo Bulletin, the newspaper he once owned and now published by his son, a third-generation Wyoming newspaperman. (Courtesy Jim Hicks)
Community Service
After a few years of running the Buffalo Bulletin, a local attorney challenged Hicks to become more involved in his small-town community rather than just reporting and selling stationary.
“Dennis Kirvin said to me, ‘So you've been taking from this community long enough, it’s time you started giving some of your time and talent back,’” Hicks said.
He listened to this advice and went on to serve on the city council, was mayor for two terms, served as a county commissioner, volunteered as a fireman and was on the Water Development Commission for eight years.
“Small communities of Wyoming are pretty special places, you know,” Hicks said. “I served on a lot of other boards over the years. You just kind of take your turn and do your job as best you can, to help the community.”
Wyoming Satire
Hick’s son Robb bought the paper years ago, but has urged Jim to keep writing the Sagebrush Sven column.
The fictional Sven serves as his mouthpiece, and many people are unaware who really writes the column. He relates the tidbits of conversations that he gathers from a group of men he calls the Bench Sitters who sit on a bench located on the Main Street bridge just south of the Busy Bee Café.
Local politics, national politics, off-the-cuff remarks, the weather — all are fair game for commentary by Sven and the Bench Sitters.
“When I moved back to Buffalo, there was a lady who wanted to write a column. She called it Sagebrush Sven,” Hicks said. “I helped her syndicate it in papers in Colorado and Montana. After about a year the gal just left town.
“So, I continued writing it until the agreements with those other papers expired. Our local readers seem to like it, so I continued writing it for well over 60 years. Robb and his wife, Jen, now run the Bulletin and asked me to keep going.”
60 Years Of Sagebrush Sven
The column has become harder to produce now that he is not as active in the community, but Hicks is still able to piece together his commentaries for Sagebrush Sven to share. His latest column features calling for a local repairman, Adam, to fix the dryer.
“As I led Adam back to the laundry room I spoke in my best knowledgeable voice,” Hicks wrote. “I was going to pull this out from the wall and take the top off so you could see the ‘motherboard.’
“But Angie at the physical therapy place has been trying to help me recover from knee surgery and broken ribs. She says I shouldn’t pick up any heavy stuff for a while. (I’ll explain that some other time).
“I’ve been buying gallons of 2% milk instead of whole mile because I think it’s lighter,” I joked.
Adam just smiled and said, “We won’t need to take it apart.”
Then he pointed to the one little red light on the front of the machine. I put on my 2.5 readers and leaned close to bring things into focus.
“There, next to that little light the small type said, ‘Child Proof Lockout.’”
Sagebrush Sven is still popular with local readers, and Hicks put together a small book of bits from past columns.
Fellow longtime Wyoming newspaperman Bill Sniffin had long encouraged Hicks to do this. The books are available over the counter in Buffalo at The Sports Lure, The Prescription Shop or Buffalo Bulletin in Buffalo. You can also contact Hicks directly at his email, jhicks@vcn.com.
“They're interesting stories of funny things that happened. If you knew the people well enough and wouldn't offend anybody, you could have a little fun with it,” Hicks said. “Sometimes it was self-depreciating humor that happened to me where I wasn't too bright. They are stories that wouldn't make the news but are still interesting.
“It's been very rewarding, and I got to get to know a lot of people. In Wyoming, you're able to communicate with those in charge and we are very lucky that we have this access that you can’t get in the bigger states. I’ve been very fortunate to be in the newspaper business here in Wyoming.”
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
