The country that raised us – After nearly a century, the Willadsens remain rooted on Wyoming’s Pole Mountain

Jim and Iris Willadsen, 91 and 90, spent their lives watching the landscape around Pole Mountain change.

They remember when the road across the mountain was gravel. When cowboys slept at a nearby camp and poker games could be heard until daylight. They remember when the mountain belonged largely to the military, not the public, and recreation was limited.

Through all those changes, one thing remained the same: they continued stewarding and working the land.

Their story is part of a relationship between ranching families and public lands that has evolved for more than a century across the landscape between Cheyenne and Laramie, two of Wyoming’s largest cities. Livestock grazing overlaps wildlife habitat, watershed protection and recreation, such as mountain biking, hunting and fishing.