297: Eamon O'Toole - Running on Grass

So is this, my assumption or understanding is this is a fairly multi-generational operation built over quite a while.

Is that

right? Yep.

And my kids who are 15 and 13, and then my sister has the youngest is I think 15 and the oldest is 22.

So we've got, you know, six kids that are all hanging out between 15 and 22.

And we're hoping that...

At least two or three of

them want to come back, so we'll see.

That's awesome.

Wow, that's so cool.

I'm curious if you know much on the history.

I'm always fascinated by, and you kind of mentioned this is a ranch of a bit of scale and stuff.

What's the story behind ranches that managed to grow when a lot fell out? They made it through tough times and managed to hang on, I guess, through a lot of tough times.

Is that something you can share a little bit of the history on how your family kept it going and growing?

Yeah, we've gotten bigger and smaller over different generations and every generation has added another piece.

And so I would say every generation has gotten a little bit bigger.

My grandfather got really large for a while and then the 80s hit and 23% interest in those things.

So he sold down a lot of ground he'd put together just to keep the base together.

And then my parents came along and they added a lot of federal land, BLM and forest permits.

As a lot of people got out of the sheep business, really, my parents were able to put those permits together and purchase those operations so that was an opportunity that my parents put on a growth side and then even in my generation we purchased two ranches one is adjacent to us just across the street our cousins sold their place and then and then we were able to purchase another cousin's operation down river so in those two things we've been able to grow a little bit in our in our generation which is difficult with the prices of things and you know the high cost of land so Yeah, Logan and I talk about that a lot of how our families have been able to grow.

But the real growth happened that was at scale was the really important land that is our home bases and our headquarters was done in the 1880s when land was $1.75 an acre and they were able to put a lot of it together, which was a lot of money at that time.

But you look back now and that $1.75 ground is $10,000, $20,000 an acre ground now.

Crazy.

Yeah.

Yeah.