Absaroka Alpaca Ranch officially started on February 21st of 2010 when we purchased our first package of four. Our story is not much different from so many others of average, everyday people and how they ended up in the Alpaca business. We were first introduced to Alpacas in 2003 and visited a couple of local ranches here in Colorado where we were truly impressed with the opportunity and lifestyle that came with raising Alpacas. However, the timing for us was just not quite right and we decided to have another small “cria” of our own, a little beige (haired) boy with lots of spunk and no crimp whatsoever!! Then, in early 2010 we found ourselves at the National Western Stock show in Denver, looking at llamas and remembering the business opportunity that we had heard about previously with Alpacas (truthfully, we were thinking how much cuter the alpacas were than the llamas!). Fast forward a few weeks and there we were setting up our first page on Open Herd and declaring ourselves in business!
Every year at the Stock Show, someone from Wyoming or Montana has asked us if we are from their state. Recently though, people locally have begun asking us “why Absaroka?”. Scott discovered the TV show (Longmire) last year (2014) so we understand why we are getting the question now but it had nothing to do with our choice of ranch names back in 2010.
Absaroka Range near Dubois Wyoming
Mary Ann grew up on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming and spent many, many days fishing, hunting, camping and roaming the mountains above Dubois (which includes the Absaroka range). When her Dad passed away in 2009 and left us what became the start up funds for our endeavor, we wanted to honor his memory with the naming of our ranch. He loved the West and new adventures and we are certain he would love the alpacas too!