Wi******er Beef™ is a subsidiary business of Wi******er Land & Cattle Co. was started in 1912 by John Wi******er. Wi******er learned that the Wyoming Arapaho and Shoshone Indian tribes were offering land at a very minimal price. He bought 80 acres and started the Wi******er Land & Cattle Co. Being allowed free range for his
cattle on the Wind River Indian Reservation, Mr. Wi******er began to add to the 80 acres. When the time came that he was no longer allowed to run his cattle on the reservation, he started purchasing land in the mountains northwest of Dubois, Wyoming. After John’s death, his son Albert took over the responsibilities of the ranch and continued to purchase land. With the private land, forest permits, and other leases, the Wi******er ranch had grown to around 70,000 acres, and around 1000 head of cattle. A five day cattle drive was required to move the cattle from the summer mountain range to their winter range on the original homestead. After Albert's sudden death in 1985, his son Jack, who had been working on the ranch since the 50’s, took over. Jack and his younger brother Jerry, who had worked on the ranch off and on since the 60’s, worked together until 1992 when Jerry sold his shares in the company and started his own ranch. Jack's son, Larry started working full-time on the Wi******er ranch in 1983, making this the fourth generation for the Wi******er ranch. After the 1988 Yellowstone fire, numerous grizzly bears were forced over the mountain from Yellowstone to the area of the Wi******er's summer range. The Wi******ers dealt with the grizzlies killing and eating their livestock for several years. As the bears grew in numbers, the Wi******ers lost more and more livestock, making it virtually impossible to make a living in the cattle business. It only took a few years of losing cattle to the bears for the Wi******ers to decide to sell and move to an area that was free of the grizzly bear and wolf competition. In 2000, the Wi******ers sold the Wyoming ranch to Nature Conservancy, and purchased property near Parma, Idaho where their Black Angus cattle graze peacefully near the Boise River.
