"A Look Back"

The Stories presented here are about people and events during the early days when this corner of Colorado was first settled.

Rangewars - Sheep Massacre on the Yampa
By Shannan Koucherik

The young man had enjoyed a good night's rest and awoke ready to tend the band of sheep that had been left in his charge by his boss, George Woolley. Soon the man would return from a trip to Denver with a new flock of sheep he had purchased on the eastern plain. For now, there were only about one hundred ewes and a few rams to take care of, and the winter chores were easy on the December morning in 1911.

As he walked out to the corrals near the barns, he noticed that the sheep were not making their usual morning racket, demanding their feed. He reached the rail fence, and stood wide-eyed, trying to take in the scene before him.

The corral and an adjoining small pen were littered with the mutilated bodies of sheep that had been bludgeoned and slashed to death. Only nine animals were still standing, and the boy could tell that they wouldn't last very long. Another battle in the range wars of northwest Colorado had been waged and the helpless victims never had a chance.

Cattlemen who came to Colorado loved the wide-open spaces and the seemingly endless range that was there for the grazing. The big outfits let their large herds wander over the territory, and the cattlemen didn't want any competition - especially from a species they considered less than desirable.

George Woolley had been one of the pioneers of Routt County, arriving with his brother Charles, mother Hannah and their sisters in 1893. The men began their joint ranching business with the purchase of 320 acres on the Yampa River east of Craig. Within a few years, they had enlarged their land holdings by another 200 acres and were considered pillars of the community. The family was close-knit, and enjoyed the company of each other and their neighbors.

George served as a Routt County commissioner and was devoted to the community. His marriage in September 1901 to Catherine Finley ensured that his name would become part of Routt - later Moffat - County history. They settled down to raise a family on their riverside ranch. Charles was content to remain single and share the ranching responsibilities with his brother.

The brothers ran beef cattle for several years, before deciding to try their hands at sheep raising. The men knew that thousands of sheep had been slaughtered by cattlemen in 1897 and 1898, and that the cattlemen had passed resolutions at their spring meeting in 1911 that condemned the "encroachment" of sheep.

When young Louis Eberle finally got over the shock of his discovery in the corrals, he tried to telephone Charles, who was at the family's South Side Ranch. He soon discovered that the same men who had killed the sheep had cut the phone lines.

Young Frances Woolley posed with her pet lamb shortly before the massacre that wiped out her father's flock in December 1911. Frances later became Mrs. Neal Kennedy.

The sheep were dead or dying; there was nothing he could do for them, so Louis finished his remaining chores, including milking the cows. Among them, he found the lone survivor of the slaughter, a pet lamb belonging to Woolley's young daughter Frances. When Eberle had finished his work, he rode to tell Charles Woolley what had happened.

If the town had been torn over the earlier sheep killings, it was galvanized in anger over the latest showing of force by the cattlemen. The sheep this time didn't belong to a stranger, but to one of the town's founding fathers, a man who was held in high esteem.

The Moffat County Courier of December 7, 1911 gave the story the top center of its front page - a place reserved for breaking news. "Saturday's night's action has aroused the people generally. Public sentiment is strong although none are found in the Bear Valley near Craig who are willing to say that the slaughtering of the sheep was the best thing to do. The case is now up to the ranchmen for settlement and everyone is expressing the hope that amicable terms may be agreed to and no further loss of property result and no lives by endangered."

No one was surprised when all attempts to track down the killers failed. It was learned that five mounted men made their way to the Woolley ranch that night, and that they took their time to finish their deed. Muddy boot prints in the outbuildings gave proof that they were determined to find every ovine on the place.

This incident did cause the cattlemen to rethink their actions. As the area became more popular and more fences went up across the once open spaces, sheep became more and more acceptable, although at least one more large sheep massacre was reported several years later near Agner Mountain.

George and Charles left Craig soon after the massacre, and took up sheep ranching in Ft. Morgan. They had made a lasting impact on the area - an impact that would help to change agriculture in the high country.