Cristen Wohlgemuth
Many of us grew up watching the great American westerns. They featured stars like John Wayne, Gary Cooper, and Clint Eastwood, fighting for justice, settling the wild frontier, and roaming free on the range. These stories captured something unique about our history and who we are as a people. Westerns became popular because they touched somewhere deep within the American heart.
Did you know that, today, a little piece of that history lives on?
In Wyoming’s gorgeous Bridger-Teton National Forest, cowboys still drive thousands of cattle across the range every year, just as they have done since the 1800’s. The Green River Drift cattle drive has been going on, more or less the same way, for well over a century.
In much of the American West, unfortunately, this fabled aspect of our history has been all but lost. In fact, the Green River Drift cattle drive is so unique and important that the National Register of Historic Places listed it as a “traditional cultural property.” It’s the first ranching-related entity to be recognized in this way. The Green River Drift cattle drive is truly a national treasure.
But today this cattle drive is endangered. I’m sorry to report that a band of outlaws—in this case radical environmentalists—have filed a federal lawsuit to close down the range land. Wyoming ranchers now ride knowing that their next cattle drive could be their last.
MSLF attorneys filed a motion in court just a few days ago to defend these hard-working ranchers. To use the Hollywood analogy, the Rangers have just arrived on the scene—that’s you, MSLF’s faithful supporters—and the outlaws are about to face the fight of their lives in court.
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