Carey Ranch of Boulder Awarded 2022 Great Montana Ranch Award

At the 2022 Montana Pro Rodeo Hall and Wall of Fame Scholarship Fundraising Banquet and Gathering on Saturday, October 1, the Carey Ranch was honored as the 2022 Great Montana Ranch of the year.

"Chris & I felt so honored that the organization chose the Carey Ranch," said Sandy Carey. "We feel like it is a great tribute to Chris's dad, Tom, and the generations before him."

Carey had put together a brief history of the Carey Ranch for the event, which is shared here.

"We wouldn't be where we are now without the help of our children and all the generations," Carey said. "They are and always will be an integral part of moving the ranch forward."

1892: As Montana was participating in its first presidential election 130 years ago, Bartholomew Francis (Bart) Carey (1848-1916), born in Innishannon, Cork, Ireland, and Ellen (Murphy) Carey (1849-1908), born in Vermont, were making the move from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, to Montana with their young family. Joining the state's estimated population of 130,000, they sought the opportunities of this new state first by settling in the Lump Gulch & Wicks areas south of Helena. There, Bart worked in the gold mines until earning enough money to purchase land-the beginning of a dream that, through much hard work, would become a lasting legacy.

1896: Bart and Ellen Carey and family moved to the Boulder Valley south of Boulder, Montana, buying their first land and raising cattle. They had five children, two sons and three daughters. Their two sons, Frank and Vinte Carey, worked in mining and milling operations around Wallace and Coeur d'Alene Idaho when they were not home ranching with their father.

Early 1900s: Bartholomew Franklin (Frank) Carey left home, chasing fortune in the Alaskan Gold Rush. When Frank returned to the Boulder Valley, he bought land and continued ranching with his father and brother. In 1908, his mother, Ellen, passed. His father, Bart, passed away in 1916. 

1910: Bartholomew Franklin (Frank) Carey (1877–1957) married Mary Ellen Gallagher (1888–1967), who grew up in Finn near Helmville, Montana. They had 12 children, five sons and seven daughters. Thomas Gilbert Carey was the youngest. 

1928: The Careys raised many hundreds of sheep, and put up all of their own hay. When Tom was very young, he drove horses and teams in the hayfield. Tom said that in 1936 they bought their first tractor, a Farmall F20. Before this, everything was done with a team of horses or by hand. Moving into the 1940s tractors were used to put up loose hay with overshot stackers and buck rakes. In 1940, Careys had their first grazing permit in the Lockharts on the Whitehouse Allotment for 1200 head of sheep. After a few years, they changed to cow/calf pairs. The family has made and adapted to many ranching changes and technological improvements through the years, but the cowboys today still camp out for nights at a time in the Lockharts for fall gather. This aspect of work for the cowboys and their horses in the mountains is timeless, unchanging.

1952-1954: Along with willing service to ranch and family, the Carey family also honors strong values of service to country and community. Tom said being served his draft papers for the army during the Korean conflict changed his life the most. After leaving his home, his livelihood, and going halfway around the world for two years, Tom returned home to the ranch, which had been changing from a sheep operation to a cattle operation. He then attended two winter sessions at the business college in Butte. 

1957: Bartholomew Franklin (Frank) Carey passed. Frank was known to be a kind and self-made man. From buying shoes anonymously for children in need to helping neighbors in difficult times by aiding them in making payments so those neighbors could retain ownership of their land, he was known to be generous. Frank's sons Martin, John, and Tom continued to ranch after their father's death. The ranch was raising Hereford and Shorthorn cattle, and at this time Tom began introducing Black Angus cattle into his herd. After John and Martin's passing, John Carey's sons, Frank, Pat, Vince and Mike, continued to operate the John Carey Ranch. John's sons bought Martin Carey's and they operate this as Carey Brothers Partnership to this day.

1958: Thomas Gilbert Carey (1928 - 2022) married Helen Greutman (1938 -      ). Helen was from Williston, North Dakota. They had eight children, two sons and six daughters. Like their father, the children all attended Cardwell Grade School and Whitehall High School. If Tom and Helen were not at home working the family ranch, they could often be seen at rodeos where their eight children participated in many events. Their two sons, Chris and Tom Jr., worked full time alongside their parents. In the early 1960s, the family could be seen loading saddle horses and riders into a stock truck to drive closer to the summer mountain pastures to ride through and move their cow/calf pairs. In years prior to this, Tom Carey along with his father and brothers would ride many long miles to their summer mountain ranges; at the time it could be 35 miles round trip to the Elkhorn Mountain pastures. The Bull Mountain summer range was a closer ride but still a full day on horseback. Covering many, many miles in the saddle, these men earned the title of cowboy, even after the arrival of the ranches first stock/horse trailer in the 1970s, which allowed for more efficient travel to pastures. 

1980s: In 1979, Tom Carey & Sons bought their first round baler and their first air-conditioned tractor, a Ford TW10. This tractor is still being used today by Chris Carey's family. During the mid-1980s, wheel lines replaced some of the flood irrigating, and in 1990 Tom Carey Cattle Company purchased their first pivot. Tom Sr. was the main flood irrigator, constantly putting around with his shovel mounted to four-wheeler with his cow dog following after him. In the Lockharts, Tom Carey Cattle Company started grazing their cow/calf pairs on the Indian Creek Allotment in addition to the Whitehouse Allotment. Over the years, Careys developed many water sources for the cattle on these allotments. One ranching operation change at this time included the implementation of an AI program to improve herd genetics. In an effort to protect open lands and ranching in the Boulder Valley within Jefferson County, the Carey Ranches entered into an Agricultural Zoning with Jefferson County that is current today. 

1982: Chris Franklin Carey (1962 -      ) married Sandra Davis (1962 -     ). Sandy was from Butte and graduated from Whitehall High School. They had 4 children, three sons and one daughter. After attending college, their sons Bo and Justin returned home to make their career in ranching like their forefathers. 

2000: Tom Carey Cattle Company (Tom and Helen's family) formed two more ranch corporations. These were XC Ranch, operated by Tom Jr. and Lorie and family and Dunn Canyon Cattle Co., operated by Chris and Sandy Carey and family.

2022: Thomas Gilbert Carey passed. Helen currently lives on the ranch in the family home where Frank and Mary Ellen Carey also raised their family. Like Tom's father, Frank, Tom was known as a very hard worker, a generous and kind man and also a devout Catholic. Tom served on many boards and stayed active and involved in agricultural organizations. He enjoyed inventing & modifying equipment and passed this love on to both of his sons. As with Frank, Tom's sons, Chris and Tom Jr., carry on his ranching legacy with their families. 

Chris Carey and sons, Bo and Justin, continue modifying and building equipment, new fence/corrals and whatever is needed. Dunn Canyon Cattle Co. has added more pivots and, being conscientious to genetics, still raises Black Angus cattle; Bo and Justin look forward to the process of preparing the yearlings for artificial insemination each spring.

Along with working full-time with Dunn Canyon Cattle Co., the brothers also operate their own cattle operation, Devils Fence Ranch. The boys and their wives, Kelly and Brittani, have also founded a new business, Devils Fence Beef, selling retail and wholesale beef as a way to diversify in current times. Their children are now the sixth generation of Careys living on this beautiful ranch in the Boulder Valley. 

The generations past worked relentlessly to survive the tough times and thrive in good times, employing adaptability and ingenuity within the long days and many facets of ranching-all to build a family ranching operation that could be passed on through the generations. This lifestyle is one that involves sacrifice, of family and for family, which presents many challenges and is, in these ranchers' opinions, still the best way to raise a family. Chris and Sandy's wishes are that their descendants will be proud of their heritage and appreciate the hard work and sacrifices of the Carey families that preceded them, contributing blessings to this day. They express gratitude to any Carey men and women who had a hand in this legacy.