A JOURNAL BY SHINOLA DEDICATED TO JOY OF CRAFT

Makers Monday: Imperial Stock Ranch

BY Taylor Rebhan

In the high desert near Maupin Oregon, Jeanne and Dan Carver have built a life around listening to the land and stewarding its resources. Carrying on a ranching legacy that stretches back over 140 years, the couple guards and guides a harvest that continues to flourish.

Only four individuals have owned and operated Imperial Stock Ranch since its founding during the western migration in 1871; Dan Carver is the fourth –- taking ownership in 1988.

Running a heritage ranch that spans 32,000 acres has been humbling for the two Oregon natives. “You often wonder if you’re up to the task. You consider your decisions and hopefully make them very intentionally for the good of everything,” Ms. Carver said.

The couple’s decisions have demonstrated an impactful commitment to sustainability. In many ways, they look to the land as a guide.

“We pay attention to how Mother Nature does things and hope to do our best to replicate that,” Ms. Carver said. 

Which is why the Carvers were grievously alarmed when, in 1999, only two salmon returned to spawn in a major creek on the ranch. “It was a giant wake-up call that all was not well,” said Ms. Carver. 

Mr. Carver made made modifications in practices at the ranch, moving to a broad-based rotational grazing system, strategically placing salt and mineral supplements in new locations and developing off-stream, high-up watering points for livestock and wildlife. By converting to a new style of farming that builds soil instead of losing it, the Carvers began reversing the effects that were destroying the habitat for spawning fish. In only a little over two decades, the salmon returned to the creeks in record numbers. 

 

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Mr. Carver’s lifelong commitment to “see the earth win,” has been a beacon for the Carvers. In the 1990s, dramatic shifts in favor of industrialization, consolidation and offshoring shook up the market for raw wool and threatened their sheep operation. By the end of the decade, around 26,000 sheep producers in the US were out of business.  

Ms. Carver felt the impact personally.

“In 1999, we called our long-time wool buyer to sell the wool as we always had,” she explained. “That’s when we heard from him, ‘Gee, I’m really sorry, folks, but we’re not buying any more. We’re heading offshore like everybody else.'”

In an instant, a 100-year business relationship came to an end. The buyer was gone. 

“We had a year’s harvest — a beautiful, natural, renewable, sunlight harvest that’s been giving warmth to man, clothing and shelter to man since 10,000 B.C., but people were telling us they didn’t want it anymore,” Ms. Carver said. 

The pair faced a choice: find a new market for what the sheep provided or see them removed from the landscape.  

Ms. Carver was devastated at the thought of banishing creatures that preceded them on the earth by tens of thousands of years. She was determined to find a solution, realizing that while the wool buyer was gone, the market for wool products was not. She didn’t need to abandon the harvest; she needed to get creative. 

Ms. Carver established a partnership with a tiny textile mill, the closest operation to the Ranch (180 miles away).  

“We became their biggest customer immediately. I got some yarn made. I only had one color, natural, and I tried to sell by word of mouth,” Ms. Carver said. “I didn’t know anything about the apparel industry. I didn’t know anything about trade associations. I only knew that sheep mattered; that the ranch’s history mattered. The land certainly mattered and we needed to find a way forward.”

This shift was monumental. The Carvers were no longer strictly providing wool as a commodity resource but now in the form of a manufactured product –- yarn. Customers gravitated to Ms. Carver’s efforts. Even those with no use for yarn wanted to purchase her products because they believed in what she was doing. This created a new opportunity that spurred Ms. Carver to begin looking for craftspeople to make goods from the yarn.

“I said, ‘let’s just put it in a few stores,'” Ms. Carver explained. A few stores led to boutiques across the region which led to a national clothing retailer. In the 2014 Winter Olympics, the US team wore sweaters by Ralph Lauren knit from Imperial Stock Ranch yarn.

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Today, the Carvers have become the ambassadors of slow-wear to the fashion industry. Blazing new territory in consumer-resource connectivity by connecting the tactile experience of running the ranch to the consumers who purchase their wool and other products made from their harvested fibers. 

By hosting ranch tours and producing goods that enter the market still carrying the story of the ranch, the Carvers are sharing the richness of a life connected to the earth and its resources with consumers who live far from the high desert. 

“For us, it’s never been different. all these harvest gifts of creation, whether you eat it, or wear it or live in it, you recognize it’s a gift.” Ms. Carver explained. “It’s life to all of us, but it’s even deeper. It’s life to the spirit.”


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