Antique Photos from Cow Creek and Pioneer Sheep Company

This page is a collection of some very antique photos from Cow Creek and Pioneer Sheep Company. These come from a family album and the captions say as much as I know about them.

Winters in Southwestern Wyoming

During the seven months of winter, the sheep were kept in their home state of Wyoming in the Rawlins/Snake River/Red Desert region. What a step-back-in-time from our phones being cameras and computers.

Cow Creek and Pioneer Sheep Company truck hauling supplies in winter.  From L to R: Harold Spragg and Aunt Etta Spragg
Loading wool at Wamsutter, Wyoming
Possibly shearers quarters at Dad, Wyoming 
This tent from Cow Creek Sheep Company is on display at the Little Snake River Museum in Savery, Wy. This photo was taken August of 2023. It looks similar to the tents in the photo above.

Summers at Hahns Peak

Hahns Peak Basin was the summer hunting grounds of the Ute Indians until gold was discovered in the early 1860’s.  For the next forty odd years there were miners, logging camps and a few scattered ranches.  By 1911, the Cow Creek and Pioneer Sheep Companies moved the summer headquarters from Baggs Wyoming to Hahn’s Peak Basin.  By the late 1950’s the era of the large sheep outfits was over and the US Forest Service turned it into recreation areas.  Pearl Lake was built in 1962 and Steamboat Lake (in Hahn’s Peak Village) in 1968.   

Old time sheep wagon – horse drawn with iron rimmed wheels with Hahns Peak in the background

Hahns Peak Basin was the summer hunting grounds of the Ute Indians until gold was discovered in the early 1860’s.  For the next forty odd years there were miners, logging camps and a few scattered ranches.  By 1911, the Cow Creek and Pioneer Sheep Companies moved the summer headquarters from Baggs Wyoming to Hahn’s Peak Basin.  By the late 1950’s the era of the large sheep outfits was over and the US Forest Service turned it into recreation areas.  Pearl Lake was built in 1962 and Steamboat Lake (in Hahn’s Peak Village) in 1968.   

Newer type of sheep wagon compared to the previous photo.

If you are interested in the old sheep wagons – please see my blog post about my trip to the Little Snake River Museum summer 2023. The sheep wagon displays are amazing.

Sheep Wagon Postcards

https://artfromthehartt.etsy.com/listing/1612721182/hahns-peak-souvenir-postcards-historicI have a retro postcard version of Hahn’s Peak with the sheep wagon in my Pearl Lake Gift Shop. Click this link or the photo for the listing.