www.youtube.com/.../watch?v=ILjS56Qm0as

Well, I saw a sheep camp out here in Elko
at the Gathering last year

so we were thinking we could
show some sheep camps out here now.

[Home on the Range]

Over the years, cowboys
and drovers of all sorts

have implemented a wide variety of ways
to provide food and shelter.

Over the trail ...

or on the range.

We've seen everything,
from a bedroll and chuck-wagon,

to a bunkhouse.

Another home on the range
is the sheep camp.

My name is Frank Kaningham,
we're in Spanish Fork, Utah.

My family started in
the sheep business in the 1800s.

That's my grandpa, Fred Ludlow, sitting.

And Viv Patton there, his partner.

They didn't shave their beards off

all winter while they were out
with the herd on the desert.

It'd take them three days on horseback
to get out to the winter range.

They'd stay the night at Cherry Creek,

at Porter Rockwell son's ranch.

And then in Joy - that was a post office
and a road house run by old May

and Madam Max.

But that's another kind of story.

The modern day sheep camp
evolved from a tent and stove

on a pack horse.

Then came the first camp wagons

which were horse drawn,

and covered with a layer of canvas

stretched over wooden staves.

Eventually, the canvas gave way to metal

on the upper section.

The basic wagon-type design

lends itself to traveling
over rough country.

Sometimes where there's no road at all.

(Bleating)

This isn't our oldest camp,
but it's one of the older ones.

I'm not exactly sure when it was built,

but the frame is from a Model A Ford truck

so that would be late 20s or early 30s.

When I was a kid growing up,

we had two camps.

This was the one that I grew up in.

A lot of times in this camp.

In the other camp we had, the window here

was over the bed

and I was about eight years old

laying in there one day,

and there'd been a bear in the herd

and we'd gone out in the morning,
looking for it

and I came back in and fell asleep.

Little Joe shot the cub of this bear

and they loaded it onto a big blue horse

and I was awakened

with the bloody bear head coming
through the window on my young nose.

And I raised up and hit
my head on the shelf there

and went back and forth
and they all had a good laugh.

My name's Joan Jarvis,
Jarvis Sheep Company.

This is an old camp that we bought
from an old sheep herder

and we used it one season
with a little Indian herder in it.

But now it's a playhouse
for our grandkids.

And they love it.

Out here on the outside you see a hook.

That's where the sheep herders
hung their meat, at night

they'd chill it,
then they'd roll it in a blanket

and put it in their beds
[unclear] the day to keep it cool.

FK: This one's got a place up here

you put your hat.

Keep it out of the way.

Down at the Jarvis',
we got talking about lambing time.

When the storm was spooking the herd.

I come out and there were three lambs

and one was over there [unclear],
I didn't know who -

and then I got that straightened up.

And there was another one
that had a foot sticking out.

So I thought, well let's get this
taken care of, you know,

and there was a foot,

and I reached in there,
and there was a head

and I pulled the head out.

And I reached back in for the other foot -

JJ: And it was back here!

FK: My finger went into a mouth!

When I reached in, I though,
oh, it's a two-headed lamb!

And I'd worked and worked.

I thought it was
a two-headed lamb, for sure.

I went and woke old Carl up
in the middle of the night,

he had to get dressed - it was twins,
he pushed one back.

(Laughter)

JJ: It's quite a different life.

Lannie Daybell: Where'd my dog?
Sadie, come here.

Get up here and say hi.

Get up here, come on.

Say hi to these guys.

Be on TV.

Made us some pork chops one day
and sourdough,

it was the best meal I ever had.

FK: Yeah, that sourdough
is pretty good, isn't it?

LD: Yeah, it is.

FK: When I was a kid we just had
sourdough, we didn't have bread.

And I remember coming back one day
and it got too active

and you know, there was a blob,

the stuff was all over the place.

The modern sheep camp offers

a wide variety of modern conveniences

not found in the old camps.

There are propane stoves and refrigerators

two beds,

solar panels

with electric lights and television.

I'm happy to just tell a little bit about

my family,

and sheep camps.

It's something that not only
has been a big part of my life

and my family’s

but there are getting to be
fewer and fewer of them.

Fortunately, people are starting
to pick the old ones up and restore them.

They can't hardly beat them

for something that will travel
over rough ground

and keep you warm on a cold night.

Well with all these solar panels
and TVs in that,

who is watching the herd
if the herder's in there watching TV?