Although there have been hundreds of books about Colorado cattlemen, mining and miners, no one had written about sheepmen and lonely sheepherders working by themselves with only their faithful dogs. The last comprehensive history about sheepmen in the American West was published 70 years ago. No one had described the violent cattle and sheep wars between 1880 and 1934 that dominated Colorado\u2019s Western Slope, especially Bureau of Land Management lands sought after for winter grazing by both sheep and cattle ranchers.<\/p>\n
Cowboys clubbed sheep to death. They ran woollies off cliffs. They poisoned sheep dogs, shot at and killed Hispanic sheepherders, and burned sheep wagons and the adobe ranch houses of sheepmen. The conflicts were ugly, racist and untold.<\/p>\n In 1892 in Pagosa Springs, a tragedy unfolded when Juan Montoya and other herders brought a huge flock of sheep, 20,000 woollies, along the West Fork of the San Juan River. Cattle rancher William Shaw, distraught over the recent death of his wife and baby son, rode out to harass and shoot at the sheepherders.<\/p>\n Shot in the shoulder, Montoya quickly levered a shell into his Winchester rifle and fired back, fatally wounding the Anglo county commissioner. The Archuleta County sheriff charged the young herder with murder.<\/p>\n \u201cNo other event for years so excited our people or caused such universal regret and sympathy. There are two sides to all cases and this one is no exception,\u201d reported the Pagosa Springs News<\/em>. Because of intense prejudice, the trial was held in Durango and lasted a week. On Jan. 12, 1894, the jury took only 15 minutes to acquit Montoya. In the American West, shooting back in self-defense was never murder. Unfortunately, only rarely in Colorado history did sheepmen or sheepherders have a successful day in court.<\/p>\n Of the hundreds of books written about cowboys and cowboying in the American West, few volumes exist on sheep and sheepmen. Cowboys sing to their cows and ride the long circle each night around their herd but then return to their bedroll and a sidekick takes over. Not so with sheep.<\/p>\n Sheep stories abound. In Walsenburg during the Great Depression, a sheepman had his bank loan called in by the local banker, but the rancher had no funds \u2013 only sheep. The banker refused to extend the loan so the rancher did the only thing he could think of. He brought in his woolly assets on four hooves, surrounded the bank and closed off streets in town with baaing, bleating sheep. The banker relented and extended the rancher\u2019s loan.<\/p>\n In the same decade in Rifle, a Works Progress Association artist thought he\u2019d paint sheep on a mural he was preparing for the Rifle Post Office. Historian Stephen J. Leonard wrote: But \u201cbefore the sheep could safely graze, cattlemen raised such hell that the postmaster swore that he preferred undesecrated walls.\u201d Instead, the Depression-era mural, still visible today, features a big mountain, a few horses and a dog. Leonard says that the Denver Post Office did get sheep \u2013 sculptures of mountain sheep.<\/p>\n In some Colorado place names, the nomenclature refers to wild mountain sheep, probably Rocky Mountain bighorns, but often the reference was to domestic woollies. The two have shared the same high-altitude ranges. Now, domestic woollies can pass a pneumonia-like virus on to wild bighorn sheep, with fatal results.<\/p>\n As for the lonely herders, imagine that instant panic when dusky grouse explode off the ground and fly up into tall pines. One herder with grouse nearby his camp carved Mucho Gallinas Aqui, or \u201cmany chickens here.\u201d Of course, the herders and camptenders would arrive once every five or seven days to bring supplies, but still those were hours and hours alone and sometimes ghosts were in the forest. Certainly, there are stories.<\/p>\n Sheepherder lore drifts and settles like mist rising off a mountain stream at dawn. Tales on the Routt National Forest reverberate from a place named Dead Mexican Gulch where a herder paid the price for being too successful in a poker game and was killed by avenging losers who followed him back to camp. It\u2019s marked on the forest map with the symbol of a grave.<\/p>\n I sought to become a voice for the voiceless, for those herders who spent years of their lives, almost always alone, with their sheep and their dogs and a horse or two. But also a voice for the land, how it was used, abused, restored, and how it is being used now, primarily for recreation.<\/p>\n Where Colorado sheep once wintered in the broken canyon country between the Green and Colorado rivers, parts of that area are now Canyonlands National Park. Dynamite-blasted sheep trails are popular hiking and mountain biking venues for visitors who have no idea that lonely sheepherders once clutched cold coffee cups where they luxuriate in distant views.<\/p>\n In my book, \u201cThe Woolly West: Colorado\u2019s Hidden History of Sheepscapes,\u201d the timeline goes to the present. I discuss Peruvian herders and the expanding market for lamb, whose buyers are primarily Muslims living in cities and urban areas. They prefer fresh, unblemished American lamb to frozen imports from Australia or New Zealand.<\/p>\n Sheep-owning families prospered when multi-million-dollar ski areas came in to remote valleys. The land grandfathers bought for sheep pastures, patriarchs who barely spoke English, created a fortune for their grandchildren. Sheep browse became condos or starter castles for second-homeowners at Copper Mountain, Vail and near Telluride at Aldasoro Ranches.<\/p>\n As a history professor, I was able to research and write \u201cThe Woolly West\u201d because Fort Lewis College has a commitment to the liberal arts, stamped on our college seal, and to connecting with local communities. Thanks to the college\u2019s Board of Trustees, I received a sabbatical in 2015 to take a semester and do on-the-ground research. I also made use of Faculty Development Funds to cover some travel expenses around the state.<\/p>\n So, I am deeply gratified that, in April, \u201cThe Woolly West: Colorado\u2019s Hidden History of Sheepscapes\u201d won the Western Heritage Award from the National Cowboy Museum & Heritage Center for Outstanding Non-Fiction. In May, \u201cThe Woolly West\u201d won the Colorado Book Award for History.<\/p>\n I am indebted to all the families and historical societies that offered me assistance. I tried to write a good book. I guess I didn\u2019t do to baaaaaaadly.<\/p>\n