W. Hudson Kensel

W. Hudson Kensel (June 16, 1928 – January 16, 2014) was a

The son of Willard F. "Bill" Wilkinson and the former Jessie R. Brenizer, Kensel was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He made his first trip to the West as a newborn when his family bought Pahaska Tepee, Buffalo Bill's hunting lodge near the east entrance to Yellowstone National Park. His childhood was spent at Pahaska in the summer months and in Cody during the school year.

The family later moved to

Upon earning his Ph.D., Kensel taught at Columbia Basin College in Pasco, Washington. In 1965, he joined the Department of History at California State at Fresno, where he served as assistant professor. In 1969, he became an associate professor and in 1973 he became a tenured professor. He was a visiting professor in the Department of History at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, during the summers of 1974, 1975, and 1976. While at Cal State, Fresno, Kensel served as the Chairman of the Department of History from 1972 to 1982. He was named professor emeritus on his retirement in 2002.

Kensel lived in

• Buffalo Bill Historical Center
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• Dude Ranching in Yellowstone Country: Larry Larom and Valley Ranch, 1915-1969. University of Oklahoma Press, 2010.^[3]

• "Hope and Reality in the Sunlight Basin, Wyoming: The Painter Family and John K. Rollinson," Annals of Wyoming, Spring 2006.
• "
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• "Inland Empire Mining and the Growth of
  JSTOR 40488655
• "The Early
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