Let's Talk Wyoming
A podcast about Wyoming and everything we talk about including the weather, politics, energy & agriculture, sports & everything else effecting our state.
Let's Talk Wyoming
Let's Talk Wyoming - Coping with Holidays and Exploring the Wyoming Sheep Industry
Ever wondered how to maintain your sanity during the holiday chaos? Tune in, as our esteemed guest Marcy helps us navigate those uncomfortable emotions that often surface during this time of year. From the local weather to updates on Wyoming Cowboys, we seamlessly transition into some serious discussions, including a lament on the recent school bus accident. Marcy imparts thoughtful strategies for coping with negative feelings and emphasizes the power of self-compassion. This episode promises to equip you with tools that can make your holiday season more enjoyable and less stressful.
Curious about the rise and fall of Wyoming's sheep business? We’ve got you covered. We deep dive into the captivating historical narrative that shaped this industry, from the 19th-century boom to the clash between sheep and cattle operators. The tales of industry trailblazers like John B Oakey and Francis E Warren come alive in this episode, giving a new perspective on Wyoming's rich past. Furthermore, we unwrap the unique life inside a sheep wagon and the cultural significance of the Code of the Justice towards the end. All this wrapped up with a dash of Wyoming Aloha spirit, this episode promises an engaging peek into the tales of the west and the sheep business.
Good morning and welcome to let's Talk Wyoming. I'm Mark Hamilton, your host, and today we'll be taking a look at our Wyoming weather and it's been beautiful. We'll also have an update on the Wyoming cowboys and we'll talk about yellow buses and we'll have our mental health moment for the month of December with Marcy and finally we'll talk about sheep and Wyoming. Thanks for joining us today and we hope you enjoy the podcast Taking a look at Wyoming weather here on the 12th day of December, getting closer to the first day of winter. Right now here in the northern part of Wyoming we've had just cool weather, nothing real extreme, no snow since our big snowfall that hit around Thanksgiving. Some of the areas around here we have in Hot Springs County we have areas that there is snow on the ground but most areas are pretty well cleared off. With these temperatures that we've had Just nice weather for December. We'll take it and I did see a report today that looks like a lot of the country will have a brown Christmas. So we'll see what happens coming up in the next few weeks. You never know here in the state of Wyoming, but right now we'll take every bit of this weather.
Speaker 1:In Wyoming, sports pretty quiet right now the cowboys are preparing for their bowl game. We do have our new coach. Not a lot of information yet on our new coach. I did see salaries. Looks like that new coach, coach Savel, will have a pretty good wage. Looks like in the neighborhood I've had about a million dollars in that range. They're getting trying to confirm right now the dollar amount, but reports I've saw are close to five million. So probably a nice pay raise for him. A lot of questions have come up whether why they didn't do a national search or why just that quickly look at somebody from within the program that never had any type of coaching experience. My opinion is that probably that was the easiest thing to do instead of trying to start the recruiting process. Looking at a coach you didn't really know how long it was going to be here. I guess potential that it could have an effect on the recruiting class and on the team and overall be a big change potentially in all the coaching staff. So the cowboy stuck with what we probably work out the best and we'll see how coach Savel does. Here is our Wyoming head coach. Coach Bull will coach the Arizona Bull and then he'll ride off in the sunset and then I guess we'll have to wait till next September to start taking a look and see what our new coach has in store for the cowboys.
Speaker 1:High school sports, a lot of yellow buses all the winter sports, I should say, have taken off. So buses, buses, buses and buses, yellow buses everywhere. There actually was an accident here in the state of Wyoming. I said some of these trips could be a little perilous, but I'm in Toronto County high school bus. One of their yellow buses was going to an event. They were down on I-80 and a snow plow ran into the back of them. So I guess you'll add it is to never. If you don't have to, I should say don't travel on I-80 in the winter time. It's one place to stay away. If there's any way possible, go around I-80 no matter what the case. But again, part of travel here in the state. Luckily no one was hurt and I guess a snow plow driver that probably isn't feeling too good. Today in our mental health moment for the month of December, we have Marcy back. Welcome back, marcy. What do you have for us today going into this holiday season?
Speaker 2:Well, today I wanted to touch on some ways to cope with negative holiday emotions and a few ideas of ways to support friends or family that maybe are going through a mental health crisis during the holidays.
Speaker 1:Okay, but are some of those examples?
Speaker 2:Well, first, mark, I want to say that a lot of people there's a pressure on us to have a really wonderful time during the holidays. I know this year finances are tight, things are expensive and we can't maybe buy the types of presents or the types of experiences we're used to. So a lot of people have a lot of emotional things coming to the surface because of these kind of outside factors.
Speaker 1:Well, isn't that the truth? It's pretty tough out there. I just want. A lot of people are going to have to find ways to cope, aren't they?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I want to just say that the best way when a negative emotion does pop up is to identify what you're experiencing. So let's say, maybe you have a little bit of envy or anger that other people on social media are having a great time and you're not having such a great time. The first step is to identify what you're feeling and then taking a second to pause, take a deep breath in, out and then naming that core emotion. So let's say, we get upset but deep down maybe you're feeling sad about missing a past on loved one. That grief is that emotion that's under the anger. So kind of sitting with yourself and letting yourself feel the emotion, not numbing it with alcohol or drugs or online shopping or staying so busy that you have no time to kind of take some time for yourself. I think it's very important to allow ourselves to feel what we're feeling.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that does make a lot of sense. It'd be a good idea for people to try that.
Speaker 2:Instead of suppressing our core emotions, it's good to maybe let them out in a productive way. So, instead of skipping that workout or walk, maybe going with a friend to a boxing class, walking your dog, doing some deep cleaning with your favorite music on the radio, doing some positive ways to expel that energy, but allowing yourself to sit in that emotion.
Speaker 1:Okay, that sounds good. What else do you have, marcy?
Speaker 2:So some other suggestions is allow yourself some compassion. Notice if you're being hard on yourself or comparing yourself or blaming yourself, and talk to someone about it. So maybe sharing with a friend hey, I have no family to spend this holiday with and I'm feeling pretty blue about it. Maybe they don't have anyone else to spend the holiday with as well. I think we get so bogged down on our daily routines we don't have that human connection and being honest with other people. I know. When friends are honest with me, I appreciate it because then I can know what they're going through on a deeper level.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's for sure. Yeah, it is definitely a difficult time of the year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so, for example, I think we also put pressure on ourselves. So let's say, most years you go to your in-laws for dinner and it's putting a lot of pressure on someone that's going through a medical situation or more cost to prepare that meal. Instead, maybe suggest hosting at your home and everyone brings a dish to share in the cost of the meal. So I suggest finding new ways to reduce stress or anxiety on different people that we interact with on a daily basis.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that would be a good idea, and I guess that would be able to build a little bit of community at the same time.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I'm going to have a few survival guide tips now, mark and I think I've said these in other podcasts I've been on. They really ring true now and I think we all need a good reminder. So number one stay off social media. So social media nowadays it's really gotten to the point where everyone is perceived living their best life. They have these amazing homes, cars, trips, all their children are perfectly in matching pajamas and you know a lot of us. Our lives don't look anything close to that. So most of the time it's going to make us feel worse. So maybe unfollowing that person that's always out going on that vacation and you can barely afford to pay your bills, there's nothing wrong with protecting our peace.
Speaker 1:Okay, what else?
Speaker 2:I think this is important, mark, because if you know, let's say, there's a day that used to spend it with your grandfather and he's no longer around make plans for that day. Keep busy. If you know a day is going to trigger you, let's say you're sober and New Year's Eve is a big trigger keep yourself busy, have plans, have people to hold you accountable those days. For example, I'm volunteering on Christmas Day with some friends to serve the homeless here in my community. So a lot of people that maybe aren't able to go home for the holidays get together and have that community and start a new tradition, and the piece here, too, is to give back to others that have less than you.
Speaker 1:Oh, that is some good stuff to do for the holidays.
Speaker 2:Also prioritize your health. A lot of people. Hey, I'm going to start my diet January 1. Why not start now? Start with some exercise, going to bed a little earlier, reducing alcohol, caffeine, sugar. Doing those steps now is a great way to avoid that stress.
Speaker 1:Well, those are some good ideas, because everybody kind of procrastinates on that and I guess you say I can have a couple more pieces of pie because I'll start on January 1 with my diet or I will not consume that extra beer or wine. Maybe I'll just go without and have a cup of coffee or a cup of tea or something different. It would be important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, mark, and I think too, also talking to people in your life about gifts, let's say you feel a lot of pressure from those coworkers that work to do that potluck or that secret Santa, but that your budget's pretty tight this year. Maybe suggest you all go out and have lunch instead, or have a cup of coffee with each other, or not give gifts this year and just go on maybe a walk during your lunch break. I know this year in my office we're doing a steps challenge, so all the different teams are getting as many steps as we can and it's helping kind of motivate people to keep healthy during time of the year that you lost in, like you said, get into those unhealthy habits.
Speaker 1:Oh, that is very good. Anything else, Marcy?
Speaker 2:I also suggest maybe getting a sticky note or something and putting an affirmation for yourself. So this is something you can personalize it to yourself. But, for example, I give myself permission to do what is best for me. I choose to be kind to myself and love myself unconditionally. I choose peace of a worry. I am safe and supported, rooted in this present moment. So you know, think of something through this holiday season, whatever it's religious or personalized or just positive. Like I love myself, I take great care of myself daily. So it's some kind of thought or idea on a post in every morning when you're getting ready. Kind of say it yourself and see how much difference that helps your day and helps those thoughts that we internalize.
Speaker 1:Well, marcy, going into the holidays, before we go today, can you give us some places that we might turn to if we're having problems or issues around the holidays, some resources that we might turn to?
Speaker 2:Yeah, mark. So let's say you have a friend or family member that is not doing well, not in communication, maybe has a history of depression or substance abuse issues. My first suggestion is to keep that line of communication open, sending a text or a call including them and plans. And let's say you can't get a hold of someone or you're really worried about the statements they're making, my first step would be to call a welfare check to law enforcement. If your community is rural enough, a lot of the officers are trained in mental health first aid.
Speaker 2:If not, if your city is large enough, there's often 988 or the local community mental health center will have an on-call therapist. That would be my next step. If they do agree, I suggest taking them to a local ER to get an evaluation. This is where they can triage, get them set up with services and maybe refer them to a local outpatient mental health center, substance use center, aa or a local religious support group. Again, I think it's best to decide on calling If you're worried about someone. I'd rather someone be mad at me and alive than me want to bother them and them passing away due to something terrible.
Speaker 2:So, I suggest, if we follow those gut feelings, if something's off of someone, they're acting different, or you're worried about the safety of people in the home and themselves, please reach out. Please, google, call someone, call a trusted adult. If you're a child or don't know how to handle it, there's always someone available and, again, 988 is a great resource. But please, you know, we need to look out for our neighbors, even if it's a neighbor that you haven't seen in a while. I always tell people you know, reach out, do something, get more people involved, because at the end of the day, they might be the person that can help you down the road. Or, you know, we just all deserve that care.
Speaker 1:Right, that is very important. Well, Marcy, again, we appreciate you coming on and sharing with us today, and we want to wish you a Merry Christmas and, definitely, a happy new year.
Speaker 2:Thanks, Mark bye.
Speaker 1:Today we want to take a look at the Wyoming sheep business. This is from wildhistoryorg by Samuel Western. In the one known painting of John B Oakey, sheep King of Central Wyoming, the subject looks as if he's about to return to a desk or at a bank or law firm Trem. But not then. Oakey sits relaxed in a dark double-breasted suit sporting a neat tie, stick pen, white shirt, collar stiff with starch, but his eyes intense with focus, and his sharp wax mustache suggests this man did not make his money collecting interest or lid gating on Wall Street. Oakey made his fortune running sheep out of Lost Cabin, wyoming, a town that he owned, down to the Lost Board and Nail. What made this remarkable was his ability to catch the Wyoming sheep-raising wave at the right time and ride it till he died in 1930.
Speaker 1:By then, sheep-raising in Wyoming was 20 years past its prime. The state still had millions of sheep and some operators were still making money despite the Depression. But there would be no more decades of steady, strong wool and land prices, and the free grass, open rain system that had made the early boom possible was dwindling fast. The sheep business in Wyoming would gradually diminish to a mere shadow of what was known during Oakey's time. Oakey and a handful of others benefited from auspicious timing. At the end of the sheep business in 1882, cattle prices topped $7 per hundred weight that year, a historical high. Not everyone was seduced by the cattle boom, however. Some contrarians took stock in sheep when the sheep business was still in the financial ugly, ducking of the range. It must have taken financial restraint not to get into the cattle instead of invest in sheep. Sheep-raising in Wyoming or the West simply never earned the same cash as running cattle. When historian Frederick Jackson Turner in his famous Significance of the Frontier in American History essay describes the progression of civilization marching past Cumberland Gap, he mentioned buffalo falling the trail to the salt springs, the Indians, the fur trader, the hunter, the cattle raiser and the pioneer family, but it doesn't say a word about sheep. Still, many a savvy 19th century Wyoming flockmaster made a great deal of money in the wool, lamb and mutton business.
Speaker 1:It took a while for the notion to catch on. The eastern states and Ohio raised most of the American sheep. Small numbers arrived in Wyoming as early as 1847, but they, like their owners, were transients. According to Levi Edgar Youngs, the founding of Utah, a Mormon pioneer company that left Omaha in July of 1847 and arrived in Salt Lake on September 19th included 358 sheep. During the Civil War, high demand for wool for uniforms led to high prices, which encouraged production worldwide. A global supply of wool increased more than a third between 1860 and 1870. A large part of the gain occurred in the first half of the decade when the cotton famines was present. Chester Whitney Wright noted in Woolgrowing and the Tariff.
Speaker 1:Sheep production after the war between 1867 and 1871 fell by 75% in the Mid-Atlantic states and by 25% nationwide. This meant that people who wanted to make money in the sheep business had to be low-cost producers. This drove sheep production west where grass was free on the public domain. The 1862 report of Commissioner of Agriculture estimated that the cost of keeping sheep was only half as great in the west as in the east. The sheep industry in Wyoming had modest beginnings In 1870, for example, thomas Durbin brought 900 Mexican sheep churros into Cheyenne for the purpose of turning them into mutton. He ended up breeding them instead.
Speaker 1:There was some debate as to who was the first operator to get into the big herds. Edward Wentworth in American sheep trails claimed that title belonged to Morton Post. Wentworth cited a March 13, 1875 Cheyenne leader article noting Emmy Post our sheep king has added 5,000 sheep to his flock on Polkrick. Yet in his report of 1871, wyoming Surveyor General Silas Reid given the woollen crown to Edward Creighton. No longer a stranger to southeast Wyoming, creighton, according to Reid, had contracted to build telegraph lines through what is now western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming in 1861, and ended up running 10,000 sheep in both territories.
Speaker 1:In 1873, cattle and sheep operators in southeastern Wyoming territory formed the Laramie County Stockgroves Association. The purpose was to advance the interest of stock growers and dealers in livestock of all kinds within the territory. It wasn't until 1879 that the cattlemen and the sheepmen parted way. The tension between them increased as the sheep numbers increased and eventually free grass became scarce. The Wyoming Woolgroves Association did not form until 1905.
Speaker 1:During the 1870s another important figure entered the sheep business Francis E Warren of Cheyenne, storekeeper, rancher, territorial governor, briefly state governor, and finally US senator for nearly 40 years. Warren owed much of his wealth and power to sheep. A US senator from Iowa called Warren the greatest sheep herder since Abraham. Sheep production in 1870s grew steadily in Wyoming territory. In its annual report of 1878, governor John W Holt reported that sheep numbers exceeded 200,000 head.
Speaker 1:The Ascent of the Sheet business differed from the cattle boom. Wholesale prices for cattle doubled from 1878 to 1882. From 1881 to 1885, cattle prices rarely slipped below $5 per 100 weight. Sheet prices were more stable, though they enjoyed strong months. Prices stayed between $3.50 and $4.50 per 100 weight until the disastrous winter of 1886 to 1887. At the same time, the price of wool remained flat or slightly declined.
Speaker 1:Jb Oakley never left his native land before he came west from Washington DC to Rollins in 1882. Though he came from an upper middle class family and borrowed his $4,500 seed money from his mother, oakley spent three winters in a dugout on Badwater Creek. In the 1880s. The boosters and the shills lost no time in getting out the word. There was money and sheep. In his 1880 book the Beef Bonanza or how to Get Rich on the Plains, author James Bisbon felt compelled to include a chapter titled Sheet Farming in the West. The Great American Desert is the natural home of the sheep, but when he bought a ranch in Montana a year after his book was published, he did not run sheep.
Speaker 1:Whimming operators like the Cosgryff brothers, thomas, james and John, did run sheep. However, these three ex-framonters purchased land between Hannah and Rollins, wyoming from the Union Pacific Railroad and eventually built their flocks to 125,000 head. Like Oakley, they entered the business in 1882. Producers began importing bands as large as 10,000 head from the West Coast. In 1882, hartman K Evans and his partner Robert Homer drove 23,000 sheep 850 miles from Pendleton, oregon, to Laramie, wyoming. It took them four months. The national production was growing steadily and much of the growth must have been due to sheep in the West. The wool clip, or total supply of wool, increased the United States from 264 million pounds in 1880 to 329 million in 1885, or roughly 25% in six years.
Speaker 1:Besides avoiding clashes with Kaliman about grazing Wyoming sheep, producers had to survive three calamities in the next 15 years the killer winner of 1886 to 1887, which reduced herds and ravaged prices, a financial earthquake. The Panic of 1893. And the Wilson Gorman Teref of 1894, which eliminated the import duty on wool and created a dreaded free wool. Heir Warn, for example, managed to make it through the winter of 1886 to 1887. 1890 was running 110,000 sheep and his lamb crop reached 25,000. Yet the Panic of 1893 spared no one. It bankrupted even the Union Pacific Railroad. In 1894, the Warren Livestock Company went into receivership as well, with $200,000 in debt. Wyoming Wool Revenue in 1894 was roughly half of what it was in 1890. The Cosgriffs apparently survived the panic. In 1895 the brothers sent their largest shipment of Evereth Wyoming Wool, 800,000 pounds, via the same bankrupt railroad to Boston.
Speaker 1:It's not surprising, therefore, that Warren testified before Congress in 1894 that Wyoming could not survive without a wool tariff. We cannot compete successfully in any part of the United States in raising wool, he said, noting that the state's production costs were too high. The condition of sheep and wool growing is very severely depressed, more so than any other business in the state, and growers are greatly discouraged, he added. The lack of federal support for wool did have one silver lining Producers began raising more lamb and mutton. Warren had a strong affiliation with the American Protective Tariff League, one of the leading anti-free trade organizations of the day. The Wyoming Senator's chance to support Congressman and fellow Republican Nelson Dingley Jr of Maine and his Dingley Act which doubled any historical tariff sum wool.
Speaker 1:The Dingley Act of 1897 started a second boom in sheep. By 1890 there were 712,000 sheep in Wyoming. By 1900, wyoming sheep had passed the 5 million mark. This were cattle. Wyoming counted 1.5 million of them in 1895, but by 1898, one year after the passage of the Dingley Tariff there were only 706,000 head.
Speaker 1:Given these fast-changing conditions, conflict between cattle and sheep growers were perhaps inevitable. They centered on grazing rights and on public range. As Frank Benton, a rider and cattleman from Eagle County, colorado, wrote, a sheep has no business eating grass away from a steer. Violence against sheepmen occurred all over the Rocky Mountain West, but the battle in Wyoming, notes American sheep trail author Wentworth, was a bitterest war of all. Edward Smith, a banker with Beckwin-Gwynne and company at Everston, wyoming, testified before the 46th Congress that the law of the territory prevents trespassing on occupied ranges near settlements. But away from the settlements the shotgun is the only law, and sheep and cattlemen are engaged in constant warfare. With the passage of the Dingley Act of 1897, the dam holding back cattlemen's resentment first, and no part of Wyoming was spared.
Speaker 1:The Bighorn Basin in particular endured more than its fair share of troubles. One of the most violent acts occurred in 1905 on Shell Creek in Bighorn County. A group of mass riders rode into Lewis Gantz Camp and shot, dynamited or clubbed to death 4,000 sheep, shot horses and burned the herders' sheepdog alive. Five years later, in April of 1909, the Spring Creek south of Tensleep, wyoming, armed men approached a sheep camp and killed three men, roasting two in the sheep wagon and shooting the third and killed the dogs. Despite this, herds expanded. By 1908, wyoming led the nation in wool production with over six million sheep valued at $32 million wool-taught beef. Even in value, the value of cattle in Wyoming in 1910 was estimated at $26.2 million, according to a 1913 supplement to the 1910 US Census.
Speaker 1:The acme of the sheep was short-lived. By 1914, the number of sheep in Wyoming had been cut by 40 percent. A new tariff law, the Pain All Rich Tariff Act, was passed in 1909, but it was not, as some have claimed, the replacement of the Dingley Act that caused the decline. According to Chester Whitney Wright, the new act, as finally passed, made no alterations in the duties on raw wool as fixed by the Act of 1897. The cause was more systematic in nature Sheep grazing land was disappearing.
Speaker 1:In 1906, the National Forest Reserve, which would soon become the US Forest Service, began delineating grazing areas, charging five to eight cents per head of sheep to graze them seasonally on federal forest land. Grazers were taking up land that had formerly been grazed by the flocks. In 1909, congress passed the Large Homestead Act. The legislation doubled the amount of land deeded to each homesteader from 160 to 320 acres. The Stock Grazing Homestead Act of 1916 doubled homesteads again to 640 acres. In 1920, dry land farmers, homesteaders and ranchers filed for a record 3.9 million acres of Wyoming land. That grazing area was saturated with livestock.
Speaker 1:Didn't help. Finding grass for millions of sheep pitted flockmaster against flockmaster. The Rock Springs Grazing Association formed in 1907 for the express purpose of preventing nomadic sheepherders from Colorado or Utah from using Wyoming's winter range. Gw Ogden in 1910 article the Toll of Sheep are by nature's creatures of the desert. The lack of water for a week is no hardship to them, since they ravage like caterpillars, leaving nothing for the cattlemen who trails behind or who has depended for winter pastureage on the invaded land. By early 1910, wool and lamb prices had begun a long decline, although they were brief periods of prosperity. World War I drove up the wool and lamb prices and then dropped them flat. In 1919, a whole lamb on the hoof in Wyoming could be bought for $3.
Speaker 1:Finally, in 1934, the Taylor Grazing Act put an end to the old free-grass system that allowed nomadic flockmasters to graze their sheep wherever they could, similar to the practices adapted on the national forces. In 1906, the Taylor Act imposed a system of land leases and per head grazing freeze on the unclaimed public land remaining in the west. Sheep growers now needed to own at least a small piece of private land if they were to graze their flocks on specifically designated public land leases. Sheep numbers in Wyoming hit nearly 4 million during World War II, but that was the last hurrah. In 1984, wyoming's sheep population fell below 1 million, according to the US Department of Agriculture. In 2011, wyoming sheep numbers owned the numbered 270,000, not even as many as Oki, warren and Cosgryph brothers owned in total in 1890.
Speaker 1:Rather an interesting story, having known people in the sheep business and I have eaten mutton and been to the sheep wagon before in a lot of tales here in the west. Thanks for joining us today and we hope you enjoy our podcast. As per the Code of the Justice, we ride for the brand and we ride for Wyoming Aloha.
