Letter About Sheep Ranching In Wyoming In 1931

Publication: November 13, 1931, WHEATLAND, WYOMING

A very informative, 3-page manuscript letter written by a young man to his Mother and Sister in 1931. The majority of the letter tells of buying, selling, and pasturing sheep in Wyoming. He tells of the prices for sheep at that time, and their efforts to acquire more sheep at the currently depressed prices. He tells of pasturing the sheep on the Mule Shoe Flats, where there is 15,000 acres of government land, and the challenges of bringing them home, crossing fenced ranches. Much is written about water issues, as it relates to availability and who owns what. He relates much about "big sheep country" up north, and conditions for grazing sheep year-round. Of their sheep ranch he writes: "I think we have a fine opportunity here on this ranch if we can just keep some one else from coming in and crowding us out of some of these water holes around here. This is a cattle country but there is a few sheep men getting started in here. Most all cattle men who borrow quite a bit of money are hard hit by the low prices that have been hitting them since the war. Cattle seems to require more feed in the way of hay, corn and oil cake". Three full pages, on two 8.5" x 11" sheets. One horizontal and two vertical folds. Clean and highly legible.