Wyoming
Wyoming’s Pioneering ‘Sheep Queen’ Faced Down Cattlemen And Mountain Lions
The woman who became known as Wyoming’s “Sheep Queen” understood the perils of the frontier.
She faced mountain lions, dealt with threats from cutthroat cattle ranchers, protected her children from perceived American Indian threats and went on to become one of the most successful ranchers in her day.
Lucy Morrison Moore knew how to live in a “man’s world,” taming a hardscrabble Wild West frontier while famously never putting up with any profanity.
“She was a force to be reckoned with. In a time when women weren’t really forward, she was living in a man’s world,” said Terri Geissinger, a descendant and researcher who is writing a book about Morrison and her family. “When we think about what she was faced with, with men fighting with their guns and reputations, they came up with the name ‘Sheep Queen.’”
It wasn’t meant to be a compliment, and while Morrison would’ve never chosen the nickname for herself, she owned it.
“She said at first it was probably kind of sarcastic, but she ended up wearing that crown,” Geissinger said.
California Start
The future Sheep Queen was born in 1857 in Pacer County, California. At age 5, she would ride a pack mule with her family from California to Illinois, and then to the Bannock and Virginia City area in Montana as gold was making a lucky few rich and a lot of dreamers miserable.
Her family moved to the Soda Springs area of what is now Idaho, where her father had a freighting business serving the gold fields. At 16, Lucy married Luther Morrison, who was 44 at the time. Morrison had traveled the Oregon Trail at 20, was well educated, had been a legislator for Idaho Territory and had a successful sheep operation.
“They were great friends. Luther had known her all of her life,” Geissinger said. “It worked, and they built a huge business and were very successful.”
The Morrison’s moved to Wyoming Territory in 1881 into South Pass City. They brought 2,000 sheep and were convinced to stay there for the winter because they had an infant daughter and two other small girls. By the end of the winter, they had survived, but had only 200 sheep left.
When spring came, they chose to move forward and spent the next few years grazing their sheep through the interior of what is now Wyoming. Their range included the south the Casper area and Thermopolis to the north, and eventually Luther built a cabin at the base of Copper Mountain about 1884.
Morrison was an expert with a broad axe, and the cabin survives. It’s now in Cody as part of Old Trail Town.
Alone On The Frontier
During the early years on the range with their sheep, Luther would go to Rawlins twice a year for supplies. Lucy would be left alone with her children, three girls and a boy.
Geissinger said that during these times, Lucy afraid of encounters with tribal members, and when she saw them coming, she would dot their faces with flour and have them lie down in the tent. When the natives arrived at the camp, she would tell them, “small pox.”
But there’s only so many times a family can have small pox in the 1880s and survive.
“She did it one time too many and the kids are back up playing and doing their thing and the Indians came back around and said to her in English, ‘Smart woman,’” Geissinger said. “And then they never bothered her again. That was one of her stories.”
On another occasion with Luther gone, she was faced with a mountain lion “who nearly got her” and killed many of her sheep one night, Geissinger said. The weapon available was too heavy for her to shoot, so she ground up glass and put the shards in the sheep carcasses.
Her tactic was successful.
“That mountain lion was dead within a few days,” Geissinger said.
As the Morrisons built up their herds, mainly for wool, prosperity followed.
Luther had built a stone ranch that featured the first reservoir in Wyoming outside of Casper. That feat is mentioned on his gravestone. He also became a commissioner for Natrona County and the couple would build one of the first homes in the city.
Opposition
Prosperity also brought opposition from Wyoming’s cattlemen.
Lucy preferred to live out with the sheep on the sheep wagon built for her by Luther. During the range war years, they were not immune to threats.
On one occasion, she returned from a trip to Thermopolis and discovered that all of her horses had been shot. The Natrona County Tribune on Sept. 23, 1897, stated she was offering a reward.
“She had quite a few entanglements and she was afraid for her life,” Geissinger said. “I have a letter from her thinking that she is going to end up like another sheep owner who was killed. They served beef in their camp because they did not want any kinds of accusations that they were stealing cows. They were pretty straightforward.”
Faith For The Family
Even though sheepherding kept the family out on the range for much of the year, Geissinger said Lucy paid attention to education and to her faith. The children were taught to read and write, and when older were sent to private schools in Nebraska.
Biblical standards and Lucy’s Methodist ways were enforced inside the camp and business. No swearing, no drinking, and no abiding those who do.
Success meant the couple would also ship lambs back East, as well as shear their flocks. Geissinger said her research shows shortly before his death in 1898, Luther was involved in creating and leading a state wool growers association.
After his death Lucy, then 42, married a sheepherder, Curtis Moore, 39, in 1902. He had been in her employment. Before they married, she gave him a band of sheep, 1,000 head.
“The reason she said she married him was that he didn’t drink, he didn’t cuss, he was clean cut, and he had a family back where he came from,” Geissinger said. “She gave him the band of sheep because then she could say that she married a ‘stockman’ not a sheepherder.”
Moore kept the books for the business and would be beside her until she died.
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Luther Curtis Morrison was a true pioneer in his own right, he traveled the Oregon Trail at 20, became an Idaho legislator, successful businessman, and served as a Natrona County commissioner. Lucy Morrison Moore the “sheep queen” of Wyoming left a legacy of success behind in her 75 years of life. (Courtesy Terri Geissinger) -
Lincoln and Lovisa Morrison, children of Luther and Lucy Morrison, work at shearing sheep. (Courtesy Terri Geissinger)
A Lot Of Groceries
In 1902, an ad dug out by Geissinger from a Natrona County newspaper shows Lucy ordered 16,000 pounds of groceries for her herders and company supplies from the general store in Casper.
In 1904, the Sheep Queen faced down more intimidation from cattlemen. In May that year, her 21-year-old son Lincoln was standing on a sheep wagon tongue near Kirby Creek and was shot in the stomach area.
She kept pouring the only antiseptic she had, vinegar, on his wound. He would heal.
“She ended up hiring Joe LeFors, a famous detective, to find the shooter,” Geissinger said. “They did apprehend that man, but it was 10 years later. He was found in Montana.”
As the new century moved on, Lucy Morrison Moore would continue to assert herself. The home she and Luther built in Casper would need to be moved for a post office. She negotiated the terms.
There were trips to Europe with her children, but she would always return to her sheep.
Geissinger said when automobiles started arriving in the region, Lucy was an early buyer.
“She got a brand-new car, probably from Casper. The first thing she did was there were a couple of lambs that needed help, and she put them in the back seat,” Geissinger said. “And her son gave her a hard time about it … and she turned to him and said, ‘The sheep paid for this car, they can dang well ride in it.’”
‘Fighting Shepherdess’
Famous author and later Cody newspaper publisher Caroline Lockhart spent a summer in the sheep camp with Lucy and her family in 1919. That experience stirred her imagination to write a fiction book that became a best-seller titled “The Fighting Shepherdess.”
“When Lucy read the book, she hated it because it’s just was kind of about a grumpy woman on a sheep ranch defending herself against the cattlemen,” Geissinger said. “So, it is kind of based on her, but it is not her. It kind of shot her reputation up.”
In 1920, MGM Studios made a movie based on the book, but it didn’t do well, Geissinger said.
Lucy and her husband would buy property in the Los Angeles area to spend the winters, and she owned other property across the state. But one bad winter, Geissinger said the Moores returned to take care of the sheep.
At her death Sept. 24, 1932, at her daughter Elma Butler’s home in Casper, the “Sheep Queen” was remembered as a Wyoming pioneer.
“Mrs. Lucy L. Moore, Pioneer Wyoming Resident, Succombs,” reads the Casper Tribune Herald headline on Sept. 25, 1932. A few days before her death, the same paper reported, “Mrs. Lucy L. Moore, known as Wyoming’s sheep queen, is in critical condition at the home of her daughter …”
Geissinger said her great-great-great-grandmother’s legacy includes her faith, love of family and love for her sheep.
“What stands out is her dedication to taking care of her animals and to them taking care of her,” she said. “She was very God-fearing, and she loved the open land.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at: Dale@CowboyStateDaily.com
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The cabin built by Luther Morrison at the base of Copper Mountain still stands in Cody, Wyoming, at its Old Trail Town. (Courtesy Terri Geissinger) -
The interior of the Morrison cabin building depicts what home was like for a pioneering Wyoming family. (Courtesy Terri Geissinger) -
The Platte County Attorney’s Office has nearly doubled the possible penalties for a Wyoming reporter accused of forging exhibits in an environmental case tied to her staunch opposition to a wind farm.
The 10 new counts against April Marie Morganroth, also known as the Wyoming-based reporter Marie Hamilton, allege that she convinced her landlords that she’d been approved for a home loan to buy their property, and grants to upgrade it.
Hamilton was already facing 10 felony charges in a March 9 Wheatland Circuit Court case, as she’s accused of submitting forged documents and lying under oath before the Wyoming Industrial Siting Council.
That’s an environmental permitting panel that granted a permit to a NextEra Resources wind farm, which Hamilton has long opposed. She’s also reported on NextEra’s efforts and the community controversies surrounding those.
Then on Wednesday, Platte County Attorney Douglas Weaver filed 10 more felony charges: five alleging possession of forged writing, and five more alleging forgery.
The former is punishable by up to five years in prison and $5,000 in fines; the latter by up to 10 years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines.
Hamilton faces up to 65 years in prison if convicted of all charges in her March 9 case. The March 25 case would add up to 75 years more to that.
Both cases are ongoing.
Hamilton did not immediately respond to a voicemail request for comment left Thursday afternoon on her cellphone. She bonded out of jail earlier this month. The Platte County Detention Center said Thursday it does “not have her here.”
The Investigative Efforts Of Benjamin Peech
Converse County Sheriff’s Lt. Benjamin Peech investigated both cases at the request of Platte County authorities, court documents say.
When he was investigating evidence that Hamilton submitted forged documents and lied under oath for Industrial Siting Council proceedings, Peech also pursued Hamilton’s claim that she owned property on JJ Road, and that she’d bought it with a U.S. Department of Agriculture loan.
The property, however, is registered under Platte County’s mapping system to a couple surnamed Gillis, says a new affidavit Peech signed March 19, which was filed Wednesday.
Peech spoke with both husband and wife, and they said they had the home on the market to sell it, and Hamilton contacted them in about July of 2025.
Hamilton told the pair that she and her husband wished to buy the property and were pre-qualified for a USDA loan through Neighbor’s Bank, wrote Peech.
But the property didn’t meet the standard of the loan, Hamilton reportedly continued. Still, she’d been approved for a USDA grant to work on the problems with the property and bring it up to the standards to qualify for the loan, she allegedly told the homeowners.
Papers
Hamilton provided the couple and their realtor with letters from USDA showing her loan pre-approval and grant approvals, the affidavit says.
During the lease period that followed, Hamilton was late “often” with rent and didn’t provide the couple with work logs until pressed, Peech wrote.
In early 2026, the lieutenant continued, the homeowners became concerned and asked Hamilton about her progress improving the property.
Hamilton reportedly sent the homeowners two invoices from contractors, showing she’d paid for work to be done. She said the wind had delayed that work, wrote Peech.
The affidavit says the Gillis couple sent Peech the documents Hamilton had reportedly given them, along with supporting emails showing those had come from one of Hamilton’s email addresses.
The Loan approval documents showed the respective logos for USDA Rural Development and Neighbor’s Bank at the top of each page, the lieutenant wrote, adding that the documents assert that Hamilton and her husband had been approved for the loan.
“There was then a list of items that needed to be completed — 14 items — prior to Final Loan Approval,” related Peech in the affidavit.
A signature at the bottom reportedly read, “Sincerely, USDA Rural Development Neighbors Bank Joshua Harris Homebuying Specialist.”
Grant Document
The documents purporting Hamilton had received a grant also showed the USDA Rural Development logo at the top of each page, with the names of Hamilton and her husband, other boilerplate language and a description of a $35,000 home buyer’s grant.
The project was about 65% complete at the time of review, the document adds, according to Peech’s narrative.
Peech describes more documents: a January notice, an invoice bearing the logo and name of “Cowgirl Demolition and Excavation, LLC,” and another invoice bearing the logo and name of “Pete’s Builders Roofing and Restoration.”
Real Estate Agent
Peech spoke with the Gillises’ real estate agent, Kay Pope, and she said she’d tried to verify the USDA grant and pre-approval by calling Susan Allman, who was listed in the documents as the Casper-based USDA agent. Pope left several messages without response, the affidavit says.
Pope spoke with Hamilton’s real estate agent, and he said he’d spoken to Allman, and he gave Pope a phone number.
Cowboy State Daily has identified Hamilton’s real estate agent and tried to contact him for further clarification.
Pope called that number and left messages without response, wrote Peech.
Peech then called a USDA Rural Development office and spoke with a Janice Blare, deputy state director, he wrote.
Peech sent the three USDA letters to Blare and gave her “all of Hamilton’s names and aliases,” he added.
The lieutenant wrote that Blare later told him the USDA investigated the letters and determined no evidence existed to show the USDA had issued them.
No records existed either, of Hamilton “using all her alias permutations” or her husband within either the USDA loan program or grant program, wrote Peech.
The USDA didn’t have an office at the address listed in two of the letters. The address pertains, rather, to a dirt lot. The USDA Rural Development office didn’t have a program titled “Rural Communities Home Buyer Program” as listed on two of the letters.
On Nov. 6, 2025, the date of the first letter purporting Hamilton had been approved for the grant program, all U.S. government offices including USDA were on furlough, noted Peech from his discussion with Blare.
A person named Susan Allman didn’t appear in USDA’s employee records, Blare reportedly added.
The Phone Call
Peech called the cellphone number one of the letters listed for Allman, “and this was disconnected,” he wrote.
The number Hamilton’s real estate agent had given was a voice over internet protocol number that Bandwidth LLC operates but is assigned to Google, added Peech.
Meanwhile, Converse County Investigator Amber Peterson spoke with the construction and roofing companies listed in the documents.
Chad Derenzo of Pete’s Roofing confirmed the logo and name listed on the documents were his company’s own — but said his company hadn’t issued the bid listed in those documents, according to the affidavit.
“Their company had never contracted to do work for Hamilton or at the… JJ Road address,” the document says.
The invoice also bore an address in Torrington, Wyoming, and his company doesn’t have a Torrington office, said Derenzo, reportedly.
Jessica Loge of Cowgirl Demolition and Excavation gave similar statements, saying the documents bore her logo, but her company hadn’t issued the bid or contracted with Hamilton.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
Wyoming
Wyoming State Parks announces pause on potential visitor center project at Sinks Canyon State Park
Wyoming
Coyote Flats Fire near containment as critical fire danger hits Black Hills, Wyoming counties
RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – The grass is starting to return in the Black Hills, but the damage left behind by last week’s wildfire is still visible beneath the surface. The Coyote Flats Fire is now almost completely contained, but fire officials say the work for crews who battled the flames is far from finished.
“It’s been a long week,” said Gail Schmidt, fire chief for the Rockerville Volunteer Fire Department. Schmidt said firefighters worked the Coyote Flats Fire for multiple days as the blaze forced hundreds of people to leave their homes.
Schmidt also warned the timing is concerning.
“It’s early,” she said. “It’s early — and that’s the more concerning part. We haven’t even hit summer yet.”
Some of the same crews, Schmidt said, have moved from the Black Hills to a second wildfire — the Qury (pronounced “Koo-RAY”) Fire. That fire has burned nearly 9,200 acres and was holding at 70% containment as of Monday.
Between multiple wildfires and routine emergency calls, Schmidt said the pace doesn’t slow down.
“The world does not stop just because there was a fire,” she said. “Life continues. We still have our day jobs that we need to go take care of.”
Another challenge arrives Wednesday, with critical fire danger forecast across the Black Hills and into parts of Wyoming, including Sheridan, Campbell, Crook and Weston counties. Forecast conditions include wind gusts up to 40 mph and humidity as low as 12%.
Schmidt said she believes fire lines are in good shape, but she’s watching the weather closely after recent high-wind events.
“Saturday night, 50 mile an hour winds — that was multiple days ago, and there’s been a lot of work done since,” she said. “I personally am pretty confident that we’re going to be able to hold this fire through today.”
While spring is typically the region’s wetter season — which can help reduce fire behavior — Schmidt urged residents not to become complacent as wildfire season ramps up.
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