Tour: A Wyoming Wool Factory

Drive across Wyoming and you'll see more than just cattle ranches.

There are, in some places, sheep, as far as the eye can see.

Much of the wool from these sheep is processed locally, in Wyoming.

If you want to see this process in person and go hands-on with the wool you'll want to pay a visit to Mountain Meadow Wool in Buffalo Wyoming.

They directly oversee the process from working with the best sheep ranches in Wyoming to processing and spinning the yarn to operating our own in-house knitting.

Mountain Meadow is a spinning mill set below the Big Horn Mountains on the Western Plains of Wyoming. It is a family-operated mill, owned by Karen Hostetler and her son, Ben, and dedicated to supporting local ranchers and raising awareness about ranching culture in the American West.

 

Mountain Meadow is committed to revitalizing the American wool industry through eco-friendly operations and fair prices for ranchers.

 

Over 100 years ago Basque sheepherders arrived from Spain and France to settle in the Great Plains of the West. Wyoming was one of the central locations where small ranches started in the late 1800’s. Unfortunately, in the last 20 years, a decrease in wool prices has forced many of these historic ranches to shut down.

 

Concerned with the loss of this way of life, in 2002, Karen Hostetler and her business partner embarked on a journey to preserve and sustain the ranches of the Great American West. In 2007, Mountain Meadow Wool Mill opened their doors as a full-service mill that offered premium prices for wool from local ranches. (Mountain Meadow Wool Website).

Go visit, take a tour, and if you want you can learn how to do some of this work yourself.