Three Ranches

The Western ranch is an American icon that few people experience first-hand. In Three Ranches, Will and Deni McIntyre present an intimate, well-researched, visual story that includes historic photographs and excerpts from the personal memoirs of people who have called these ranches home. In this full-color photo narrative, Three Ranches brings a sense of humor, friendship, and personal appreciation of these ranches to this wonderful book. If you only buy one photo book about ranching in the West, this should be it. From the Jacket Cover: How, in this day and age in the United States, do you run a successful guest ranch, manage thousands of acres of land for livestock and wildlife, and raise top quality beef cattle?This is the story of three Western ranches, two in southern Wyoming and in northern Colorado. They have been owned since the 1960s by the extended family of Charles C. Gates Sr. One is a guest ranch; the other two are working cattle operations. All three confront a daily challenge to survive and thrive. Will and Deni McIntyre have photographed at the A Bar A guest ranch almost every year since 2002. For this project they brought in their scope to include the Big Creek and State Line Ranches as well, recording a year in the life of all three spreads. "For the text, we had access to wonderful archives both private and public," Deni McIntyre says. "They held documents going back to when these ranches were homesteaded. I selected excerpts that helped tell the story, and they became the background of the book." Life on a ranch can be lonely, hard, breathtakingly beautiful, often ironic, and sometimes downright hilarious. Welcome to one family's three ranches.