“Every spring, the Vermilion Ranch breeds about 5,000 cows by artificial insemination. They sell 90% of their bull calves; it’s not uncommon for the ranch to sell 600 head of outstanding breeding bulls and over 4,000 commercial Angus heifers at their annual Fall auction. They keep the remaining 10% of bull calves for their own breeding program. Their award-winning black Angus cattle are raised using no growth hormones at all. To achieve superior specimens, the Goggins rely on Read More …
“Alan Chew discovered the half-eaten carcass of a yearling cow near the bales of stacked hay that had been stored for the tough winters here in the Rocky Mountains. Something big and mean must be stalking the area. On the ground, soft dirt had captured impressions of the vicious four-legged intruder. Alan dropped to one knee and studied the tracks. Each print had four teardrop-shaped toe pads, no claw marks.Mountain lion.” – Jim Keen, Great Ranches of the Read More …
“It was a good life that John D. Flournoy was searching for when he first rode into this high country in 1871. One of the thousands of young Missouri men drawn west on the Oregon Trail, Flournoy wandered into California and worked as a cowhand in Yolo County in 1865. When feed provisions fell drastically low in Yolo County as the winter of ’71 approached, John saw an opportunity. He and a partner offered to winter ranchers’ cattle Read More …
“Ranch manager Cal Hancock tells me it has been colder that this already this winter. He takes it in stride since the cattle need to be fed no matter what the weather conditions. Temperatures can swing from one extreme to another here. Cal remembers one March day several years ago when the temperature went from a minus thirty degrees to sixty above within eight hours. Today’s traveler has to be prudent about venturing out into Wyoming winters. The Read More …
“One morning Dan’s father, George, decided to go out and check the pumps at the various ranch wells. He parked his pick up at the first pump. Suddenly a helicopter zoomed over the surrounding boulders. Presuming it was Border Patrol, Dan’s father waved, checked the pump and then drove up a small canyon to check two more pups. The helicopter followed his route, hovering over him as he stepped from his truck. Again he waved, checked pumps, and Read More …
“James Whittaker’s family has been here since 1915, when his grandfather carved out a ranch in this wilderness. As a teenager, James’ father, Floyd, ran a twenty-mile trap line for beaver, bobcats, and coyotes high in the mountains above the ranch. He used the money he made from selling pelts to buy more land and continued to buy property before and after the Great Depression. Each purchase enhanced the ability of the next generation to continue to live Read More …
“‘Boy, you brought this trouble on yourself,’ the captain shouted, shoving the teenaged stowaway into the arms of two sailors. ‘Take him below to shovel manure!’ It was 1876, and the two rough men hauled the struggling youth to the bowels of the ship. There was no turning back to port for this English cattle ship, so sixteen-year-old Harry Haythornthwaite of Lancaster, England, crossed the Atlantic cleaning the stalls of the bulls bound for Texas. He did his Read More …
“The view below rolls out beneath the plane’s wings. Miles of sagebrush are interspersed against the vibrant colors of the valley, a spectacular and vast feast for the eyes…and the camera lens. It’s a simultaneously rough and beautiful environment. Winters may be wet and cold, but summers are so dry that Dan’s dad, Robin, spends the hot months watching his truck’s odometer spin as he hauls water in a 4000-gallon tanker truck to the remote parts of the Read More …