Rich Ranching Roots: Woolery family ranch boasts colorful history, six generations deep

Clyde Woolery, a generational rancher from Kinnear, has deep roots in the Wyoming ranching community, and the family ranch where he resides has a rich and colorful history. 

In 1898, Clyde’s grandfather Gene Woolery moved to Wyoming from Steamboat Springs, Colo., where his dad ran a ranch.

“Gene was about 15 years old when he came up to Wyoming,” Clyde shares. “He worked for a big outfit called the M Bar, then he worked for Shoshoni Livestock with a lease on the reservation.”

When Gene’s father passed away, he returned to Colorado in 1927 for a short time, then returned to the Cowboy State where he and his wife Hattie homesteaded the Whiskey Basin Ranch – now the Bighorn Recovery Center in Dubois. 

“Gene bought the Kinnear ranch in 1930 when it came up for sale, with the idea he could lease reservation land to run cattle on. But in 1931, they quit leasing to those who are not Native American,” Clyde explains. “Gene had to figure out somewhere else to go with his cattle. So, for about 15 years, my grandparents leased pasture in the Copper Mountain area by Shoshoni. Then in 1946, they bought range on Beaver Creek out by Sweetwater, and we still run cattle there.” 

Family operation

Clyde notes his grandparents ran the ranch until Gene passed away in 1950, and since then, the operation has been passed down through each generation of the Woolery family, gradually growing larger as they have had the opportunity to purchase nearby units.

“My dad Harvey Woolery came back to the ranch at the time, and he and my mother Violette ran it alongside my grandmother until the late 1980s,” Clyde shares. “I came back in 1969, and I am still somewhat active on the ranch.”

Additionally, Clyde notes his brother Dale worked on the ranch in the 60s, his brother Bruce worked on the ranch in the late 80s and his sister Carol has helped gather over the years. 

“My mother, my wife Nancy and I have run the ranch for quite a while, but my son-in-law Shane Sanderson is now taking it over and making most of the decisions for the ranch,” Clyde says. 

And, as the next generation of Woolery family takes over, the future generation isn’t far behind. 

In fact, Clyde notes Shane and his daughter LeAnn have two daughters – Layne and Skye. Layne’s husband Cody Rowland also works on the ranch, and their two-year-old son Brecken marks the Woolerys’ sixth generation. 

Skye lives in Riverton and works for Central Wyoming College, making time to help gather when ranch work requires more cowboys.

“Our other daughter Rene lives in Denver, and she has two boys – Easton and Porter. They are quite involved with sports, and we go down there to watch them compete,” he shares. 

Clyde continues, “Quite a few of my mother’s grandchildren have worked and helped on the ranch as well, including Jerry, Terry, Robert, Skye and TJ, who spent three years on the ranch and now has a thriving dude operation. This ranch has raised a lot of kids.”

In July, Violette turned 103, and although she lives in a retirement home in Riverton, she calls Clyde nearly every evening to talk about what’s happening on the ranch. 

The Lazy V3

In the 1980-90s, the Woolery family began transitioning away from Hereford cattle. Today, the operation runs purely Angus cows, branded with the Lazy V3.

Cattle are summered in the Beaver Creek and Sweetwater area, then wintered on the ranch in Kinnear. 

“We put up about 450 acres of hay each year to feed cattle during the winter. It’s all alfalfa and alfalfa-grass hay, grown under two center pivots,” Clyde says. “We put up second cutting on about two-thirds of it. We generally have a long enough growing season we sometimes have a third cutting, which we mow down for pasture.”

“We pasture the hay aftermath and lease some fall pasture close to our range,” he adds. “We bring the cattle down onto some meadows we lease, and we gather and wean at our cow camp on the mountain during the first part of October, then haul the calves home.”

Clyde notes cows are left out on the range until Oct. 25, then brought down to leased pasture where they stay until the first of December, depending on weather conditions. The herd is then brought back down to the homeplace and pastured on hay aftermath.

“We can usually make it to January before we have to start feeding hay,” says Clyde.

In addition to running cow/calf pairs, the Woolery family also retains yearlings to market through Northern Livestock Video Auction in Billings, Mont. 

“We’ve sold yearlings on the video for about 10 years and have been very pleased with the market,” Clyde says. “We use local auction barns to sell cull cows – Riverton Livestock Auction is just 20 miles from our place.” 

The Woolery family also keeps their own replacement heifers, which are better adapted to the tough range conditions of Fremont County.

Clyde comments, “I think it’s important to fit cattle to the range.” 

When it comes to the bull battery, Clyde notes the family sources their genetics locally, and for the past six years, they’ve bought bulls directly from a neighboring ranch. They also source seedstock from the Midland Bull Test in Columbus, Mont., which have been a nice fit for their herd. 

Heather Smith Thomas is a corresponding writer for the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to roundup@wylr.net.