Sheep Industry News November 2023

lambing come spring. He threw his flock in with A.D. Bright’s and worked for Bright as a sheepherder for $40 a month. That didn’t even begin to cover his expenses, but Okie gained invaluable sheep sense. Okie had cash to build back up again at this point. No doubt, he didn’t want to tell his mother he’d lost most of his sheep and needed more money. Instead, he sold off a little shanty he’d built as a youth in Washington, D.C., which he’d been renting to a family for $5 a month. With the $300 from that sale, he bought 150 ewe lambs, increasing his flock from 718 to 868 ewes. Not as many as he’d had before. But as close as he could get. There would be more winter roller coaster rides in his future, but Okie was more knowledgeable and managed to ride them out, even the particularly bad winter in 1886-87 that ruined so many cattle ranchers. Unlike cattle prices, sheep prices rose thanks to that debacle, making the sheep Okie had left even more valuable. By 1889, Okie had more than 5,000 sheep and the Wyo ming Derrick newspaper took to calling him the “Sheep King.” In the spring of 1891, the Derrick reported that Okie had sheared 12,000-some sheep. He’d restored his flock and then some. But as Okie’s empire grew, he chafed at the restrictions his mother had on his sheepherding activities. Facing a downturn in real estate that had dried up her own cash flow, she had forbidden him from making investments in the ranch, to prioritize his pay ments to her. That was, as he saw it, holding him back from improvements he needed to make. Okie ultimately bought her out so that he was free to in vest where he needed to in his growing empire. A day after, the volatile sheep market exploded on an upward trajectory. That prompted his own mother to sue him, claiming he’d undersold the value of her interest. A judge, however, determined otherwise, and Okie pre vailed in that case – as he would in subsequent suits brought against him by various others seeking one claim or another on his wealth. EASY CREDIT, EASY STREET Freed from his mother’s shackles, Okie opened general stores in not just Lost Cabin but surrounding communities like Lysite, Arminto, Moneta, Shoshoni and Kaycee. At these stores, he allowed his fellow sheepherders liberal credit – at the low end of market rates – which allowed them to buy what they needed now and pay later, after shearing or lamb shipping time. Hugh Day, a beginning sheepherder, recalled this tale,

which he told in the 1970s to a researcher named Karen Love. Like other ranchers in the area, Day bought on credit at the Bighorn Sheep Company stores and typically paid his bill when he sold his stock. But one morning, when he had ridden to Lysite to get supplies, a clerk told him his credit was no good anymore. He’d charged too much, he was told, and would have to pay first. Just as Day was leaving, however, Okie happened to arrive in his car and asked the man what was wrong. Hearing that Day had been summarily cut off, Okie went to the clerk’s office and told him – in front of Day and anyone else in the vicinity – that he was to sell Hugh anything he asked for, and that he was to continue to sell to Day until the shelves were empty. After that, he was to offer Day the shelves, too, if Day wanted them.

In addition to business horse sense, Okie wasn’t afraid to defend what was his, either, Fross said, even against outlaws that struck fear into the hearts of most other people. When a bandit loaded up supplies with no intention of paying, Okie’s store employees watched from afar, afraid to inter vene. Okie stepped into the unsavory character’s path, and fearlessly demanded payment for the items. The bandit scoffed and said, “Don’t you know who I am? I’m the bad man from the Stinking Water.” “Well,” Okie replied, pulling his gun out. “I’m the stinking man from Badwater, and you’re going to pay for that.” MANY FIRSTS Okie wasn’t at all content during his short life with the fortune he’d made. He was always seeking ways to do things better and to expand the empire he began in Lost Cabin. When a disastrous winter led him to send his sheep to

24 • Sheep Industry News • sheepusa.org