Conserving family history

The Upper North Platte River Valley, much like the rest of Wyoming, is filled with family histories that are an integral part of the history of the area as well. The descendants of original homesteaders often still operate the very ranches founded by their ancestors. Sometimes, though, a family will find that they are working on far less land than their forebears. Such was the case for Alan Peryam, great-grandson of William T. Peryam.

"Suddenly, you look up and this famous old ranch, one of the original ranches in the Valley, is only down to our 600 acres. That became impetus for us to pursue it. We'd like it to stay. We're proud of the role the family, over generations, has played in that Valley."

The discussion of conserving the family ranch began in the late 1990s with Dr. John Lunt, a founding member of the Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust (WSGLT).

"Two of my three children and my sister and one of her children were in town and my brother was there and we sat outside on one of those summer afternoons that Wyoming is famous for," said Peryam.

According to Peryam, most of the conservation easements with the WSGLT at that time were wealthy landowners who donated their property that would then be used as a tax break. Lunt asked the Peryam family if they were interested in contributing their ranch to the WSGLT. At the time, the Peryams were not interested in contributing it, but were interested in preserving it.

William T, or W.T., Peryam came to the Valley in 1879 with his wife, Alice, and two children. After arriving in what is now Riverside, the Peryam family would increase by five for a total of seven children. Originally from Cornwall, family history as written down in the book "Saratoga & Encampment Wyoming: An Album of Family Histories" states that W.T. was the only son of an "aristocratic" family before being orphaned and forced to work in coal mines by his older sister around the age of 13.

After several years in the coal mines, W.T. joined the Merchant Marines, only to jump ship in 1862 in New York "with the intent to join the Union Army and help free the slaves." He was, instead, sent to Michigan to work in the copper mines before eventually heading west to work, once again, in a coal mine. W.T. would meet his future wife, then Alice Bailey, in Longmont, Colo. and the two were married in 1874.

The Peryam family were believed to be only the third family to arrive in the upper valley and did not wait to begin making their mark on the area. W.T. constructed the Peryam Road House as well as toll-bridge where he charged 25 cents for a team and wagon, or 10 cents for a single rider, to cross the river.

"Unfortunately, the other heirs to great-grandfather W.T. Peryam had inherited and sold various pieces of the land off early, and later," said A. Peryam. "He once had 3,500 deeded acres on the river from our place, upstream to Riverside and clear up to the smelter area. He had other forest permits and he had three sons who homesteaded and added to that, so it was quite a nice holding."

W.T. passed away in 1926, leaving an impact on the Valley. Along with the amount of land owned and the Peryam Road House, there were seven children, 12 grandchildren, 26 great-grandchildren and more.

"The ranch was run as an estate when my father was younger so it was all held together for 15 or 20 years and then finally divided up among the various heirs and some of them ranched for a while and some of them sold early," Peryam said.

Eventually, the WSGLT found ways to fund the purchase of easements instead of relying on the donations of property. This allowed many ranching families to sell portions of their land and use the money while still being able to keep the property for the purpose of ranching and agriculture. The Peryam family, in the 2000s, faced a similar issue. A. Peryam's brother was interested in selling his interest in the family ranch, but neither A. Peryam nor his sister shared that interest in selling.

"By looking to the legacy aspect of it and the financial ability to help my brother liquidate his interest in the ranch to my sister and me, it was a perfect fit. So we made an application seven-and-a-half years ago to get into the process," said Peryam.

Unfortunately, when the Peryam family submitted their application, the Federal Government, specifically the Department of Agriculture, began making changes to the farm bill. Because of this, there wasn't a lot of funding available for conserving ranches and so the family was kept waiting until about a year-and-a-half ago.

"We were very happy when the dam sort of broke a year-and-a-half ago as a result of some things that the land trust directors and board did to break the log jam," Peryam said.

Finally, in February, the WSGLT and the Peryam family announced the conservation of 543 acres of the family ranch. A process that began in the late 90s in a conversation with Lunt was now seeing fulfilment. One of the benefits for Peryam, along with preserving his family's way of life, is preserving the Encampment River as well.

"The Encampment River is well known in many circles and one of the benefits, that goes without saying, is by conserving this particular ranch, and others up and down the river, you're also ensuring that the river isn't overdeveloped. I'm encouraging others, along the river particularly, and not just this river, but the Platte. You're not only saving the ranching, the agriculture part of it, you save the river part of it and the wildlife part of it and the scenic value," said Peryam.

Now that the family ranch is conserved, it means that Peryam's son can continue to bring up his own children to enjoy the property, something which, according to Peryam, his son is very excited about.

"We were talking about this and he was relating his experience as a kid who grew up in Denver and went up there as much as we could take them and the wonderful feeling he had and how he tells people 'Well, I know about cattle. My family owns a ranch' and then taking it to the next generation; his children. He's made a big effort to bring them up yearly to have them experience the ranch, the outdoors and so, there, the next generation is especially happy to be a part of a family that has really conserved it in perpetuity."