![]() ![]() The Quealys farmed hay, ran cattle and sheep, and leased so much federal land that in 1916, when he passed the ranch on to his children, he was running 4,000 cattle and 12,000 sheep on more than 150 sections of land (150 square miles).Īfter 81 years of ownership, the Quealys sold the ranch in September, 1948 to the Palm Livestock Company, who were to be one of the largest sheep operations in the State. In 1899 a large log barn was built by Quealy which is still used on the ranch. In the 1890s, the west end of the ranch was occupied by “Frenchy” an early day trapper whose cabin was recently renovated by the present owner. Robert Foote, who had been the Fort’s sutler (provisioner), raised hay and developed early irrigation ditches, along with Michael Quealy, who homesteaded and filed for the first water rights on the ranch in 1866. ![]() 40), the Fort Halleck cemetery, and Ohio 11th cavalry names chiseled into the rock in the 1860s, and still legible today.There are also artifacts, shell casings, arrowheads, etc Remnants of the fort today are the original blacksmith’s shop (Wyoming historical site No. Soldiers stationed here were mostly volunteers who chose to avoid the Civil War and go out west to fight the Indians. government built Fort Halleck on today’s Elk Mountain Ranch. In order to protect the pioneers from Indian attack west of Laramie, in 1862 the U.S. Elk Mountain, almost all of which is on the Ranch.Ī short drive east of the ranch, an early trapper named Jacques Laramee built a cabin at the juncture of the Laramie and Platte Rivers but was killed by Indians around 1820, thus giving the name “Laramie” to the river and the present day town, now a thriving community of 28,000 with shops and restaurants, and home to the University of Wyoming as well as a commercial airport with regular service to Denver.ĭuring the 1850s and 1860s settlers from the east made the long, arduous trek out to open up the west, and the natural route was to skirt the north end of the mountains at Elk Mountain as they followed the Overland Trail from Denver through Laramie to points west. These plains are intersected by the majestic Medicine Bow Mountain range running north and south, terminating at 11,156 ft. Prior to the 1920s, the Wyoming plains were home to the Shoshone Indians, who along with the Northern Cheyenne, the Arapahoe, and the Utes all passed through this area which was then populated by thousands of buffalo as far as the eye could see. back to a warm fire.Įlk Mountain Ranch is the complete example of “Wild Spaces, Working Places”, where the raising of buffalo mirrors times gone past when all the animals shared the landscape and where man is dovetailing the environment with a working ranch. summit, take fishing guides to the nearby North Platte and Medicine Bow Rivers, windsurf in the big lake (100± acres), or view big game animals including bison, elk, mule deer, and antelope.Įxploration can include following the seven miles of the original Overland Trail which passes through the ranch, see the stone carvings of the cavalry soldiers, explore around the early pioneers’ log cabins, visit the memorial to the two deputy sheriffs shot on the ranch by notorious bandit “Big Nose George”, watch a horse logger dragging logs through the forest with huge draft horses, explore for arrowheads and artifacts of the pioneer days, catalogue the prolific wildflower varieties, ride horses or hike to the summit of Elk Mountain, and in winter ride snowmobiles to the summit to downhill ski over 3,000 ft. Guests on the ranch might choose to fish for trophy trout in one of the several lakes, viewbirds of enormous variety, including golden and bald eagles, prairie and peregrine falcons, ride horseback through prairies, timber, and meadows, hike Elk Mountain to its 11,000 ft. ![]() ![]() This vast ecosystem within the ranch was described by an officer of the Nature Conservancy as “equivalent to a National Park-type landscape”. The 22,041 deeded acres combined with the 10,805 acres of leased lands are blocked up together in a combined habitat for elk, buffalo, Rocky Mountain Mule Deer, pronghorn antelope, black bear, and cougar. Elk Mountain it descends through talus covered summit habitat, through high alpine meadows and timbered slopes onto aspen and spruce choked ravines opening onto lush meadows and broadening into ever more gentle slopes leading to 1,000s of acres of broad meadows, interspersed with lakes (there are 5 lakes on the ranch),thence prairies and sage covered hills. Elk Mountain Ranch is an enormous canvas comprising 51+ square miles of every type of ecosystem found in the Rocky Mountains. ![]()
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