2 Burst results for "Jamie Burgess"
60 Minutes
"jamie burgess" Discussed on 60 Minutes
"Subdivisions, just wide open range. Now, ranchers drive their cattle to U.S. forest service land. The largest grazing allotment in the country, 127,000 acres of the bridger teton national forest. Last summer, they paid the federal government $1 35 cents a month for every cow and her calf. Summers. Price. How much each rancher will owe is tallied at a place called the counting gate. It's Jamie Burgess job to read brands or ear tags and call out which cows belong to which ranch. While his wife Rita adds up the totals. When the cows finally reach mountain pastures, they're handed off to range riders. Bring them. Like Britney heseltine, whose job is to watch over them all summer. And you're up here by yourself? Yes. Just be my horses, but three dogs and a cat. How long altogether? It'll be about 5 months. Every day for those 5 months, Brittany is out at dawn to check on the 600 or so cattle in her care. First thing in the morning, you come out on a rise and especially in the fall, the Elk are bugling and just talking to each other. Brittany earned her degree in veterinary science in 2019. This was her third summer as a range rider. It's really hard work. What's the attraction? What's the draw? Something about it speaks to my soul. I really can't describe what, but all winter long. I'm like, oh, a couple months more. A couple months more. And then I'll be up at home. Her home for the summer was a small trailer in an isolated camp, off the grid, no running water, no cell service. At the start of last summer, four of the 5 drift range riders were women. You told us that you thought women made the best range riders. Why would that be? Their hard workers. And I can't say that they're, you know, the men aren't good, but the women don't go to town. And as much as some of the men kind of have a tendency to visit the tavern. Yeah, they'll go. On the other side of the mountain. So what happened to the cowboys? I don't know. Maybe they're just not cut out for it. There's beauty up here. And danger too. Since listed as endangered species, wolf and grizzly bear populations have exploded in these mountains. Britney keeps track of the calves they kill. If it was actually killed by a predator, then there will be bruising on the hide on the inside. And it's very obvious. You know, like last year we lost 24 calves. They didn't come home. Now we lose between ten and 15% of our calves. It sounds like a lot. It's a lot. It would break us if it weren't for compensation program by the Wyoming game and fish department. So you get paid for every animal you lose. We do. Predators aren't the only threat to these ranchers, a growing chorus of critics argue cattle shouldn't graze on public lands at all. Consumption of beef is declining, and so is the number of ranches on the drift. There were more than 20 in the early 1990s, today just 11. The green river drift is so iconic that the cattle drive has earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places. These remaining ranchers are determined to see that it's not just relegated to history books. So what does it mean to you to be doing what your father and your grandfather did? On the same list. That's my duck. Means a lot. It means a lot. Albert summers has no children, so to preserve this land and its tradition, he set up what's called a conservation easement. Preservationists have paid him to agree that his ranch will never be developed or subdivided, and to allow the public to use the land for recreation. That agreement will also apply to his partner ty swain as he takes over. And to his son's shed when and if he picks up the rings. So with the conservation easement, this land will not change. It will stay the same. It will stay the same. Well, no land stays the same. But this land will not be developed. And I will go to my grave peacefully with that knowledge. But just not tomorrow. Many traditions have left their mark on this land, Native Americans were forced to give way to fur traders, pioneers, and homesteaders. Today, it's the cowboy way of life that is fighting to hold on. Oh yeah. It's tied every year. I mean, we're down to the last dime at the end of the year. It sounds like you're not in it for the money. No, sir. No, we're not. You know, and if somebody says, you know, you're a rich rancher. Only rich in the fact that we're get to do what we do and we live where we live. And we get to see the sun come up over those mountains. That's the rich part of this job. It's not the money. Jeannie lockwood and her family are driving their cattle on the drift again this summer. So is Albert summers, though after 31 years in charge of the drive, he's handed that responsibility off to someone else, and Brittany hazel time, the young woman we met up in the high country, she's also back in the saddle this summer, and this year she was put in charge of hiring all the other range riders. When workers broke ground on an underground parking lot in the heart of Rome 15 years ago, they had no idea what their backhoes were about to unearth. The site turned out to be what Italian archeologists believe was once the pleasure gardens of the Roman Emperor Caligula, where some 2000 years ago all sorts of lavish parties, royal intrigue, and debauched behavior likely took place. Caligula became the third emperor of Rome in 37 AD, and he reigned for barely four years. He's been portrayed in history as one of the most deranged and despicable Roman emperors ever to rule, but as we first reported, last fall, scholars have been reexamining Caligula's story for years to see if history has it right. Could we discover some new fragments of truth and Caligula's gardens? We were more than happy to go to Rome to find out. The temples and palaces of Ancient Rome may have crumbled long ago, but the legend of one of its oddest emperors lives on. I saw sever each one at the neck. What most people know about Caligula comes from this iconic BBC series I Claudius, which was based on two historical novels by Robert graves. In the show, Caligula turns his palace into a brothel. Makes his horse a high ranking senator and declares himself a living God. It's a torrid tale of incest. Infanticide..
60 Minutes
"jamie burgess" Discussed on 60 Minutes
"Walk out. Move cows, but it's not quite as good as little shed swing, the son of Albert's ranching partner, tie. Jazz 5 years old? Yes. SHAD, if you can do this, I can do this, okay? SHAD got to do it with a sour apple lollipop in his mouth. All of us, with the help of some fearless herding dogs move cattle over hills across creeks. Through shimmering groves of Aspen, along what cowboys call driveways. And across highways, north toward those distant mountains. How long does it take you to get them to the summer feeding area? So it takes about 13 days from when we start to when we get up there where we want to be. We travel up to about 60 to 70 miles. Albert summers is one of 11 ranchers who work together to drive more than 7000 head of cattle on the green river drift. Those 11 ranches all lie in Wyoming's green river valley, south of Jackson hole. Here the Wyoming ranges to the west, the wind river range is to the east. The valley between is part bone dry high desert and verdant river drainage, where Native Americans once hunted buffalo. Today, the green river runs through Albert summers ranch. And your family's been doing this how long? My family's been doing this. Since mount 1903 Albert's neighbor, Jeannie lockwood's family has been at it even longer. This was my granddad's branch. He homesteaded this in 1889. Her ranch is about 20 miles south of Albert summer's place. We joined her on horseback before dawn, the day she started moving her cattle north. There's that sun. It's gonna pick up over the hill. Along the same path her family has trek for 125 years. So you're gonna be doing this for the next two weeks. Yes. Getting up at four o'clock in the morning or three or two 30 or two 30. Yeah. Those early starts barely compare to what old timers endured when cowboys stayed out under the stars all night and the sun all day until they got the herd to high pastures. Well I think we can go home. What do you think? Today, they go home after each day's drive. The next morning they trailer their horses back to where they'd left the cattle. Round up those that have strayed and move them out again before dawn. The old chuck wagon, it's been replaced by a cooler and the tailgate of a pickup truck. But compared to what you're grandfathering, yeah. This is easy. Yeah, we have it easy. Only ranchers would call this easy. Driving cattle is hot, dusty, demanding, and they'll be lucky to make a $50 profit per cow when they finally send them to market. Jeannie's daughter Hayley and son in law France help wrangle the herd. Her husband milford shuttles the horse trailers. They all left regular jobs and moved back to the ranch several years ago after Genie's brother who had been running the police died in an accident. It takes all of us to do it, it seems like. Jeannie was a librarian. So what is it about this place that makes you give up regular normal American jobs and come back here to do this really hard work? Well, first of all, it was home to me. And it was hard work for my parents and I know it was hard work for my grandparents and I just couldn't see letting it go. Labor of love, it's called. Yeah. Where's the emphasis? Labor or love? Love. Love might sustain the green river drift, but it was born in crisis. The winner of 1889 90 is really what started the drift. Clint gilchrist is in astorian who grew up in this valley and has written about that harsh winter. The vast majority of the cattle herds that were here because they weren't prepared for a bad winter. Nobody had prepared for a bad winter. White settlers were not prepared. Native tribes which the U.S. government drove off the land to make room for homesteaders knew that winters in the green river valley could be merciless. The shoshone Indians and the crew Indians were one of the dominant tribes in these areas. And they didn't win her here. They wintered over on the other side of the mountains where it was less elevation. After that brutal winter, ranchers realized they had to move their cattle out of the valley long enough to grow a crop of hay. So while the cattle are up in the uplands, you're able to grow, hey. And that feeds them all winter long. Right. And so that was the genesis of what we call the drift. The drift Albert somers says. Because when the first fall frost chills the mountains, the cows instinctively head for home. Just on their own, turn around and start coming back. Turn around and start. We opened gates, drift back, and they drift back. In the spring, we drive them in the fall they drift. When the drift began 125 years ago, there were no regulations, no subdivisions, just wide open range. Today, the 11 ranches drive their cattle to lands controlled by the U.S. forest service, the largest grazing allotment in the country, 127,000 acres of the bridger teton national forest. They pay the federal government 1.35 a month for every cow and her calf. 7. Right. Right on. How much each rancher will owe is tallied at a place called the counting gate. It's Jamie Burgess's job to read brands or ear tags and call out which cows belong to which ranch. Price. While his wife Rita adds up the totals. When the cows finally reach mountain pastures, they're handed off to range riders. Ring up. Like Brittany hesel time, whose job is to watch over them all summer. And you're up here by yourself? Yes. Just theme, my horses. Three dogs and a cat..