At the beginning of the summer, Ken Mirr and Haley Mirr packed up the Airstream and made their way north to show some Wyoming ranches for sale. Their big target on this trip? Heading to Big Piney, Wyoming for a tour of The Cottonwood.
After a successful day of touring, the Mirrs were joined by the owner of The Cottonwood, Freddie Botur, and their dear friends Jayne Thompson from Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust and her fiance Max Nolan. Freddie gave each of us a lay of the land and some insight into what makes The Cottonwood a one-of-a-kind ranch for sale in Wyoming.
Watch the following video of the interview, or read the full transcript of the interview below.
WATCH: Touring The Cottonwood with Freddie Botur
Water Rights on The Cottonwood
FREDDIE:
You start setting those parameters and say, “I want to be close to a national park. I want wildlife, I want water.” All of a sudden, that market is just, like how many ranches are actually there in this large landscape with lots of water, lots of wildlife? And then within an hour and 15 minutes of Jackson Hole in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem and…
JAYNE:
Pine Coffee.
FREDDIE:
Pine Coffee.
KEN:
Well, on top of it, you sit there and look at it. The length of this ranch too, heading to the Wyoming range. And you’re looking at the water that provides the snow that provides the water for this ranch.
FREDDIE:
Oh, absolutely.
KEN:
It’s the headwaters.
FREDDIE:
It’s a direct correlation of… These are the snows that create the Green River and the Colorado River and Lake Mead and Lake Powell and deliver the necessary water for almond trees in Southern California or Central Valley, for LA, Phoenix, San Diego, like it starts here with snow.
KEN:
By the way, my bees are from the almond trees in California.
FREDDIE:
Oh really?
KEN:
So somehow my bees get back here.
JAYNE:
Somehow.
KEN:
They’re migrating. Without this County Road, we would be going five miles an hour.
FREDDIE:
Right.
KEN:
Going through these little…
FREDDIE:
Totally like we would not even consider traveling up the ranch if this County road was here, and this County road is here because of oil and gas.
KEN:
Yeah.
FREDDIE:
Because of energy, the energy of Wyoming, it creates the revenue that makes the state what it is in terms of infrastructure and no state income tax and all that.
JAYNE:
I was just going to ask are all the fences on the ranch wildlife fencing?
“There are 200 miles of fence. And I have rebuilt 35 miles.”
Freddie Botur
FREDDIE:
So, there are 200 miles of fence. And I have rebuilt 35 miles.
JAYNE:
… that’s a lot of fence. We were driving and I was like, “Max, this is wildlife… This is really good fence. It’s not like our shitty fence.”
FREDDIE:
Yeah. So, here where we went from the wire top this is because there’s a double gate here that sometimes gets opened because there’s a valley.
JAYNE:
Yeah. Room for animals to scurry under.
FREDDIE:
And moose to drag their stomachs over the top of it because that’s how they like to travel over a fence. They just kind of like drag their hind end over.
KEN:
I am getting that way.
JAYNE:
Do you have any sage grouse out here?
FREDDIE:
Ground zero, like the largest lek.
HALEY:
Those colorful things on top of the fence?
FREDDIE:
That’s for sage grouse.
JAYNE:
So they can see it.
FREDDIE:
The largest lek in Wyoming.
JAYNE:
Get out of town. What?
FREDDIE:
Yeah.
KEN:
Largest lek? That’s L-E-K.
JAYNE:
If you have to get up in the morning and go watch them. Right? Are they strutting their stuff right now? I think they are.
HALEY:
Wait, I would love to see that.
JAYNE:
You would have to get up at like 4:00am.
KEN:
Yeah. It’s really cool to watch them.
JAYNE:
Is that part of the conserved property?
FREDDIE:
It’s actually on the BLM line.
JAYNE:
Oh, okay.
KEN:
The conserved property is the oasis for them.
FREDDIE:
Yeah, for sure.
JAYNE:
Yeah, absolutely. Wow, that’s very cool. Yeah. Haley, if you’ve never watched Sage-grouse, they have a dance and they like… I don’t even know how they make the sound that they do. It’s weird.
Ken, can you get me a refill?
KEN:
Is there any left?
JAYNE:
Oh yes.
FREDDIE:
Left, after you pour me one.
KEN:
We are drinking with Freddie. Fill it up to the rim.
How many ranches are actually there in this large landscape with lots of water, lots of wildlife? And then within an hour and 15 minutes of Jackson Hole in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem?
Freddie Botur
What I like is the fact that it’s going to push people into local producers more, and that I think there’s going to be a lot more local processing.
Freddie Botur
MAX:
Where are we going?
KEN:
I don’t know. We’re just going to go for a view.
FREDDIE:
Watch your… Everybody watch your drink.
JAYNE:
Yeah.
FREDDIE:
We’re going fencing.
MAX:
So question, you guys do the cattle operation obviously?
FREDDIE:
Yeah.
MAX:
You also hay or what else do you do?
FREDDIE:
Yeah, just hay and yearlings… We’re stockers, not producers.
MAX:
Okay.
FREDDIE:
Great. It’s going to get bumpy for a second everybody.
JAYNE:
What an interesting time to be in the cattle industry. Anyone else concerned about our beef production system?
HALEY:
I worry about the sheep too.
JAYNE:
Well, I guess any meats.
FREDDIE:
What I like is the fact that it’s going to push people into local producers more, and that I think there’s going to be a lot more local processing.
HALEY:
Yeah.
FREDDIE:
Kind of showing up.
JAYNE:
Yeah, like right now, if you wanted to… If Freddy wanted to sell beef directly, at Oboe’s, at their meat market, he would have the process the beef in a very specific way.
FREDDIE:
In a USDA certified plant or a small producer. But getting them getting certified is really hard. And there’s one over in Utah. But, even… But their packed. Like, I can’t even get an appointment for months.
JAYNE:
But if they relax their regulations, you could get meat processed at plants that don’t have all the foods, to get as many, I guess, certified credentials. And you could still sell direct like, farm to table beef, essentially.
HALEY:
Yeah.
KEN:
Look at the Meanders.
JAYNE:
Wow.
MAX:
Yeah, shit. The drone will be so dope for that.
HALEY:
That is your range, The Wind River.
JAYNE:
Oh. There’s my range.
KEN:
Oh God. Look at those oxbows. That one is like almost a full circle, right?
JAYNE:
That is so crazy.
MAX:
It might be someday.
JAYNE:
It will be.
KEN:
The thing is there is so much of it, we just bypass, because I mean, it goes on that. You’re right. So we filmed this with the drone and it was, yeah, these guys were having so much fun. And then there’s a scene in one of our brochures. It was further downstream and it was a shooting up. And it was at a nice level where you could just pick up because beyond the main stem here on the right hand side, in the far North, there. There’s even still drainage coming down there. So there’s more of this water coming down then you see them just in that oxbow meander.
JAYNE:
Ken, did you do get my save the date for our wedding?
KEN:
Yes, it was darling with the skiers.
MAX:
Did you like the touch on the addressing? Remember the YNWA.
JAYNE:
Oh yeah, that picture we put in. You’ll never walk alone. He’s like, “Wait, is that for Ken?” You need to put this on there.
MAX:
Yeah yeah, you got to put it on there. He’ll appreciate it. They’re both Liverpool soccer, fans. He’s die hard.
FREDDIE:
You’ll never walk alone. What does that mean?
KEN:
It’s this is song.
MAX:
It’s like the club slogan.
KEN:
It’s a great song. It’s actually… It’s very fitting for this company. I went to a game with the family last year.
FREDDIE:
All right. Get out the fencing stretchers.
KEN:
Oh my, we got to get to work.
FREDDIE:
Jayne, get your ass out of the car and fix that fence.
JAYNE:
I don’t have a good…
FREDDIE:
Shh, no excuse. Get out and fix that damn fence. We’ll be back in a half hour. Pinedale girl, aren’t you?
JAYNE:
That’s true. I am, I am.
MAX:
She is, but she actually… It’s the first time I’ve heard her say anything where she said… She was like, “I don’t really know how to do fencing.”
JAYNE:
I don’t know… I’m not good with the fence stretching.
Be sure to check out our other videos of Wyoming ranches for sale on YouTube.
Thank you to Max Nolan for the beautiful photography above during the interview and tour. Follow him on Instagram at @maxshreds.