blackfoot-valley

The following year, he bought about 12,300 acres of property tributary to nearby Nevada Creek that had been previously acquired through foreclo- sure by the Aetna Life Insurance Company. This spread comprises the bulk of the Ranch’s southern sector, including the Ranch headquarters area near Helmville. Other adjacent acquisitions in both sectors have brought the to- tal deeded acreage of the Ranch to 22,107 acres. Additional adjacent land leased from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Plum Creek Timber Co., and the State of Montana adds 11,448 acres, for a total acreage of 33,555.5 acres, or 52.4 square miles. (These figures are as of the year 2000.) Meyer engaged Ray Killian, a close friend and fellow outdoor enthusi- ast, to preside over ranch business and operations from the first Ranch office. Since then, Ray has headed the Ranch from his office in Missoula, and was intimately involved in subsequent land purchases, during which the newly es- tablished Ranch took on its present size the year after the Wales acquisition. At that time in 1991, with the land purchase from Aetna, it expanded nearly threefold. After several piecemeal acquisitions, the deeded land was rounded out to its present shape on the map by late 1993. Only a few comparatively minor purchases have taken place since then, but the acreage leased from the BLM, Plum Creek Timber, and the State, has given the Ranch the right to graze back-country areas that augment its owned acreage by one half its size again. The largest part of the leased land lies in the hilly forested areas in the western reaches of the southern sector. This is mostly BLM land drained by upper Murray and Douglas creeks. Ray is now the president as well of the two more recently established Meyer firms: Meyer Natural Angus in Missoula, and the Meyer beef processing plant in Lincoln, Nebraska, which he frequently visits. 169 The number of peo- ple employed on the Ranch varies according to season, and from year-to-year. Ranch manager Jim Phil- lips, who grew up on a ranch in Nebraska, heads the hands-on ranch operations and lives on the Wales Ranch. His brother Mike is in charge of animal husbandry, the