BEAVERHEAD COUNTY — A Southwest Montana ranching family is sharing the story of how they rescued hundreds of cattle from the path of two wildfires burning in the Pioneer Mountains this summer.
Watch the Hollands evacuating their herd here:
As he leans against a weathered post with a barn bearing his family name in the background, Bryce Holland talks about his experience as a rancher in training.
Even though he's only 13-years-old, Bryce knows a thing or two about moving cattle around the valley, but he's never seen anything like the wildfire season that hit his little valley over the summer and cut their family's cattle grazing operation short.
"It just seemed weird because we start....we go in with a foot of snow, and you come out in just...flames. We had to bring ‘em out in fire," said Bryce.
Grasshopper Valley ranchers Mandy and Ken Holland are Bryce's parents. Along with other members of the family, they run cattle in several allotments on public land outside of Dillon. In late June, a portion of their herd of 500 mother cows and their calves were put out to pasture in a wild landscape between Wise River and Polaris in the Pioneer Mountains. After just 40 days of grazing, wildfire threatened the herd.
Jamie Lode, the Holland family's range rider, was living with the herd in the mountains — as she has for the last five summers — when she spotted smoke.
"I was in there ridin', and I saw the plume, and I thought it was the Bobcat Fire," Lode said.
The plume was actually a new start that would become known as the Sand Creek Fire, a fast-moving wildfire that eventually threatened a ski hill, a hot springs, and homes in Polaris. When it began, Lode and the cows were sandwiched between two wildfires.
"So, we had it on both sides. Literally on both sides of the allotment," Lode said.
Lode said her first instinct was to stay calm.
"Well, I don't like fire," said Lode with a sigh, despite the fact that her first instinct was not panic.
"Try not to panic, and just kinda keep your head aboutcha, cause you can't just move 500 cows out of there right now," Lode said.
It typically takes days to move 1,000 animals from that location. Lode knew it would take people and planning to get the herd to safety. From the valley, the Hollands, along with other ranch families and local cowboys, headed up to help.
"It was one of the most harrowing things we've ever done, and we had horses lay down with people on 'em because they were so tired. We had dogs quit," Mandy Holland said.
That first day, the group was able to move 600 head of cattle 26 miles in an initial rush to safety.
"At the end, we started using a couple of four-wheelers, and we were walking behind the cows," Mandy said.
A few days later, Mandy and three others returned to save more cattle when U.S. Forest Service Smokejumpers, including congressional candidate Sam Forstag, dropped from the sky to protect three historic cabins.
"(The area) was gonna see fire in an hour when we got there, and we had 'em gathered up.... They started dropping Smokejumpers," Mandy said.
From the sky, six Smokejumpers with red, white, and blue parachutes floated to the valley floor. At first, Mandy worried that her cows — accustomed to fending off predators — might harm the Smokejumpers.
"There's this one cow that's headed for the gate, and all of a sudden she looks up, and I'm like, 'Oh, my god! Somebody's gonna get smoked!'" Mandy said.
The arrival of the Smokejumpers allowed the cowboys to focus on moving the herd.
"Smokejumpers were great. I mean, I met Josh and Sam, and they're very nice. They know how to do their job very well," Mandy said.
Mandy said she was relieved when the Smokejumpers arrived.
"I was happy to see them, honestly, because I was like, you guys go there. We're leaving. When you see those guys come in, it's like, alright. In my mind, it's like they're not gonna let anything happen to us, and now we can focus on the cows and get 'em out instead of spending all our time lookin' over our shoulder," Mandy said.
Back at the ranch, 13-year-old Bryce Holland — Mandy and Ken's son — was also hard at work feeding animals and watching over equipment. He is expected to one day take over as the fourth generation of Holland family ranching.
"Soon. Very soon," Bryce Holland said.
As of Sept. 2, the Bobcat Lakes Fire, 13 miles southwest of Wisdom, has burned 10,828 acres and is at 54 percent containment. The Sand Creek Fire, 7.5 miles southeast of Wisdom, has burned 34,733 acres and is at 15 percent containment.
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