Holscher's Hub: Lost Cabin, Wyoming

Yesterday, we were wondering around and took some photographs of: Lost Cabin

I'd never been to Lost Cabin before, even though I've lived in the county  my whole life for the most part.  Very interesting little town, pretty much abandoned now.

I guess this fits into the theme of this page in a fairly significant way.  J. B. Okie, the founder of the town, wasn't a poor man to start with, but he became a very rich man due to sheep and businesses that he created that were in some ways connected with agriculture.  There are several instances I'm aware of where young men from wealthy families (or poor ones) came West, worked as cowhands initially, and then went on to build huge economic enterprises out of it, becoming very wealthy in the process.  Even starting with similar financial advantages today, a person could simply not do this now.

And this certainly shows the the economic importance of sheep in the pre synthetic era.  Okie converted an initial investment from his mother, which allowed him to buy a band of sheep, into a fortune, building this town, and the mansion depicted below.  And he wasn't unique in this fashion, although this story isn't common either.  One very large house in Casper was built in a similar fashion by an Irish immigrant who rose from sheepherder to Governor.

Big Horn Sheep Company bunk house.

One of the nicest bunkhouses I've ever seen.

 Big Horn Sheep Company headquarters.

 I can't imagine a modern ranch company having a headquarters anything like this.  Most ranch headquarters now are simply the ranchers house.

 J. B. Okie mansion.

This was Okie's private residence.  This is the only example of an out in the prairie ranch house of this type I've ever actually seen.  There were a few more in the region, I know, but in reality ranching mansions are exceedingly rare.  It's telling, fwiw, that the two significant examples of early 20th Century mansions, in Natrona County, which are attributable to ranchers are both attributable to sheepmen, not cattlemen, contrary to the widespread view of how things worked.

 Big Horn Sheep Company headquarters.

As noted in the original blog entry, all of these photographs are from the town of Lost Cabin.  Lost Cabin was a company town, with that company being the enormous Big Horn Sheep Company.  The company, founded by J. B. Okie, the son of a prominent Washington D. C. physician, owned vast numbers of sheep as well as a small chain of stores located in small Wyoming towns.

Okie was a financial wizard, making and losing fortunes over time but generally coming out ahead, but perhaps his life is a cautionary tale as his personal life was turbulent.  He was sued by his mother over her being bought out of this company. She was a Washington D. C. real estate businesswoman who, as noted had provided the seed money for the company and who had an ownership interest in it for many years.  The fact that Okie was funded is not insignificant in and of itself, as the initial investment did allow Okie to get a running start, although the investment was a loan, not a gift.  And Okie was married three times.  He died rather tragically when he fell into a pond near Lost Cabin during the winter, while duck hunting.

Today the Okie mansion belongs to Phillips Conoco Petroleum, which has a major gas plant in the near vicinity.  The town, however, is a shadow of its original self.

Somewhat related to this story, is that of the railhead at Lysite, which is featured on our companion Railhad Blog here:  Railhead: Lysite Wyoming:

One additional item of interest here  is that the railhead photos show a structure built in 1919.  Okie's sheep and store empire rose with the fortunes of the sheep industry, and were always based on it, but his era included the early petroleum era in the region. The 1919 structure was undoubtedly devoted to his sheep enterprise, but today Lysite is thought of as the location of a gas plant.  Sort of interesting example of change over time.  Sheep are now much less common than they once were in Wyoming, with natural gas being more present than ever.  Even perhaps the common associations with the Okie name show this.  Okie Draw is a major older oil field in the area.