Cattle Drive Through Park Set For Saturday

An old-fashioned cattle drive will take place in the park this coming Saturday morning as wranglers move 250 head of cattle from the Pinto Ranch along two of Grand Teton’s main highways and “push” across the Buffalo Fork bridge near Moran Junction to reach summer pastures on the Elk Ranch within the park.

During last year’s cattle drive, a few unruly steers with minds of their own took off from the herd and slogged through a swampy area adjacent to the road. Wranglers on horseback chased the steers, lassoed them, and led them—roped and bawling—back to rejoin the herd. 

Increased grizzly bear presence and an active wolf den in the Pacific Creek drainage prompted park officials to ask that Pinto Ranch move its cattle from a historic, free-range grazing allotment north of Moran Junction to the fenced Elk Ranch pastures to the south of Moran. The change was made to reduce potential conflicts between these predators and the livestock.

A compromise in the park’s 1950 enabling legislation allowed ranchers with lands adjacent to the park to retain grazing privileges within the newly expanded park boundary. Since that time, the fenced and irrigated Elk Ranch pastures have been used for cattle grazing.

The Pinto Ranch in Buffalo Valley, Wyoming, began operating in 1938. The ranch has used legislated grazing allotments since that time.