Working Ranch Magazine Summer 2025

ur main ranch is located at the base of Mahogany Butte near Ten Sleep, Wyoming. Sixty miles away in Worland is

Rancher’s Journal

what is called the homestead, where Sam and Phyllis Hampton live. Sam’s grandfather, Cyrus Hampton, settled in Wyoming with his wife Nellie in 1911. Carl Hampton, born in 1905, was one of thirteen children. Carl started raising sheep at fourteen in the Big Horn mountains. In 1929, Carl mar ried Wanda Hardwick, a sharpshooter performing both domestically and internationally. A documentary pro duced by a relative, titled “Wanda the Wonderful,” provides an interesting perspective on the early 20th cen tury and includes a time when Wanda “winged” Carl in the shoulder. In 1946, Carl bought Mahogany Butte Ranch and began raising sheep and cattle under the C Lazy H brand, which is still in use.

Sam Hampton was born in 1935. At eight years old, he would ride his pony Bugs from Worland to the Big Horn mountains, eighty miles, stop ping at sheep camps to eat. In 1955, he married Phyllis Hefenieder. After their marriage, Carl, Phyllis’s father in-law, entrusted her with the sour dough starter he had begun in 1926, noting that “Sam likes sourdoughs.” Although Phyllis had not grown up baking sourdough, she has since become renowned for her sourdough

cinnamon rolls. Last year, Sam was honored with an induction into the Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame. Their four children — Dan, Janna, Steve, and Justin — manage the ranch as part of the fourth generation, now alongside members of the fifth and sixth generation. We continued rais ing black Angus cattle but sold the sheep in 2009. When I married Dan in 2021, I fell in love with him, his family, and the beauty of this place. The surround ing mountains offer rich, diverse pastures for grazing. At the ranch, I saw the quality of the cattle and put my marketing skills to use selling Hampton beef online. We strive to utilize every part of the cow, offering tallow for cooking and skincare and offal for dog treats. Our family sour dough starter, almost one hundred years old, is shipped as a live starter. Our family is truly blessed to stew ard the land and animals that God has put in our care. TUESDAY, APRIL 1, 2025 Every morning, Dan and I have a great breakfast to start the day. We buy fresh eggs and raw A2 milk from neighboring families and then, of course, make our Hampton sour dough pancakes or waffles. We are currently in the middle of calving season with a portion of our herd at the ranch and the rest are in the badlands between Ten Sleep and Worland. Heifers and older cows calve here at home, while our proven mamas calve in the badlands. It snowed last night, which was great moisture, but melted by afternoon. We put up our own hay that we feed during the winter and Dan fed the cows this afternoon. Lots of calves are being born that we tag each day.

PHOTO COURTESY OF BRENDA HAMPTON

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