Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range, WY - Not-Quite-The -World-Traveler: Places I've Been
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| "Last of the Wild Ones" by Bristol MacDonald, June 2008. http://www.bristolequinephotography.com |
The wind rustles the sage and rabbitbrush that nod in the breeze, and gently lifts the strands of the mustang's mane as he eyes us warily. His band is scattered up the hillside, a smattering of mares and several yearlings in a variety of coat colors who nibble at the stray strands of grass peeking out between boulders.
Welcome to the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range in Wyoming. A place of high desert, an eye-catching canyon carved into sinuous lines, and the refuge of the wild horses. The wild horse has an interesting interrupted storyline across this landscape.
Ancient horses once roamed the North American continent, though around 10,000 years ago, they were all extinct with no clear explanation as to precisely why. While this page of history remains a mystery, the horse would be grazing the grasses of North America once again. With the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the 1500s, the wild horse once again roamed the grasslands. Now managed by the BLM, the mustang became symbolic of the "Wild West" and the quintessential cowboy icon.
While the human history in the area is extensive, the mustang is a more recent inhabitant. Roaming an extensive network of federal and publicly-owned land, the Wyoming range allows the maintenance of a relatively large population of feral horses.
The Arrowhead Mountains surround the area and the deep curve of the canyon creates a funnel for the high desert wind ruffling the pale green waters of the river. Throughout the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area a variety of wildlife can be found, though the major visitor draw is for the chance to see the wild horses. In fact, the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range was the first such established public protection area for wild horses, even predating the Wild Horse & Burrow Act of 1971 .
While modern politics and opinions swirl around the wild horses, they live their lives much as their mysteriously disappeared ancestors, traveling to waterholes, grazing the native grasses and keeping a wary eye on outsiders.
With the popularity of such programs like Cloud: Wild Stallion of the Rockies, which documented the horses of the Pryor Mountain Range, more recent attention has been paid to the lives of the horses living on the range. While the BLM continues to actively manage the herds that call this area home, the lives of these animals continue to be documented and studied.
If you ever find yourself in the neighborhood of Lovell, WY, it "behooves" you to stop by the Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center and find out how best to see these remnants of ages past, still living their lives, romanticized in documentary, novel and film. The wild horses of the Rockies.
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| "A Winter Stroll" by Bristol MacDonald, June 2008. http://www.bristolequinephotography.com |
For more information on the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range, please see:
The Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center is located just east of Lovell, Wyoming on Highway 14A.
The Center is east of the Cal S. Taggart Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area Visitor Center.
For information on the Cloud Foundation, please go to:
For the Wild Horse & Burro Act of 1971:
*Please note these are not my photographs. All material copyright the photographer: Bristol MacDonald,
http://www.bristolequinephotography.com
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