Greenwood Ranches—More Than a Century of Family Ranching

Newland family roots in the Dakotas go back to 1875. They came West with the gold strike at Deadwood, S.D., homesteaded, and ranched. Government homestead laws gave free land to settlers. It was too little land to support agriculture and there was no water. The family raised hay which they sold to Homestake mine for their mules. Hay commanded $100 a ton, a mighty price at the time. The miners had gold but everything else had to be hauled in by wagon. The Newland family irrigated land, ranched, and ran freight wagons to the miners. When the depression came along in the 1930s, hundreds of homesteaders from Alzada (Stonecreek), Mont., Hulett, Wyo., and Camp Crook, S.D., sold out or gave up. The Newlands bought up homesteads for as little as 25 cents an acre. Greenwood Ranches became a big spread in the corners of Montana, Wyo., and South Dakota. Headquarters became known as Greenwood Ranches. Remains of 40 homesteader’s cabins have been counted within the present borders. “If you take the ranch road, it snakes over 22 miles,” Wilbur Henry Newland said. Newland was born to Jim and Velma in 1950. He is named for his grandfather and family friend, Henry Davenport. His father was a legend in his own right. Look Magazine sent a team of photographers to the Newland Ranch in 1959, to cover branding. Jim appeared in the Jan. 6, 1959, feature story. When Jim died in 2003, Wilbur took over the ranch. “There is 250 miles of fence.” Newland considers it an unending task, mending it so cattle don’t stray...more