Lovely.
There was NOTHING that the sheep ranchers could do to save their flocks/herds?
You would think that, knowing the weather forecast in advance, there would be something that could be done. Are there no shelters, no valleys, no place for the sheep? What a shame...for the sheep to die that way.
Nope.
Some of these storms come in far harder than forecast. Sometimes, far less. The last five years, we’ve had forecasts that were predicting inches to feet of snow... which might have turned out to be anything from a skiff to an inch of snow.
Native Wyomingites are telling me that this weather is much more “like we had when we were kids” (about 40 to 60 years ago) and a rapid reversal of what we’d seen since the early 60’s.
The worst of these sheep-killing winters in Johnson County were back in the 30’s to 50’s. They’ve moderated since then.
What people need to understand is that the ranchers aren’t just sitting around with the thumbs up their ass. This is often their entire livelihood. A cow-calf or sheep man is losing perhaps DECADES of breeding and genetics when hit with a killing like this. This is a major hit for most of them. They’re not sitting at the TV, watching some NFL game. They’re out on the range, doing and saving what they can. Which isn’t much when the weather turns on a dime.
The problem is that once it becomes apparent that there’s a big storm bearing down on you (when you might have only a day’s notice), you simply have too much country to cover to get everything moved to easier ground. Since the settlement and fencing of the west, it’s nearly impossible to just “round ‘em up and move ‘em out” - you’re usually talking about moving the herd/flock down to a gathering point, putting them on trucks (who you have to call with some advance notice - there’s only so many truckers who haul livestock any more) and then truck them over to your lower pasture. There’s fencing, roads, neighborhoods, etc in your way. In cases where the ranchers could drive cattle, I’ve seen two-lane paved roads covered with cow poop for days - after ranchers have called up the county sheriff and said “We MUST move today - no choice - please lend a hand” and they’ve moved hundreds to thousands down a road anywhere from a mile to 20 miles in a day to get to easier ground.
Weather forecasts around here don’t firm up until maybe 24 hours ahead of time. That’s today. 50 years ago? Feh. You might as well consult a witch doctor. Many a hunter got killed in the mountains by being snowed in. I’ve heard tales of men who got caught out in the mountains, had to kill and eat their horses and set up shelter until they could build a sled, snowshoes and drag their food behind them to get out. No one knew for months whether they were alive or dead.
Even today, right now, there are hundreds of RV’s and camps snowed in all over Wyoming, western MT and the Black Hills. Those guys now likely won’t get their RV’s and camps out until spring.
Life is tough up here. Winters kill people, too. It isn’t a place for city slickers who think they can get their butt out of a jam with just a phone call.
A dude named Noah was going to build a barn that covered 7700 acres, but another one named God told Noah to build an ark for some reason or other.