A series where we take a #lookback at the stories and history of our community, brought to you by Mick Pryor, Financial Advisor with Edward Jones.
Moneta Shearing Shed Brought Industrialization to Wyoming’s Wool Industry
Wyoming’s sheep industry was based on wool. Valued for its warmth, durability, and water resistance, it was a primary textile for clothing, blankets, and upholstery in the 1800s. For centuries, the best way to remove wool from the animal was by sheep shearing. But as Wyoming’s sheep herds grew, a transition to mechanized shearing sheds marked a turning point in the efficiency of the state’s industry.
In the 19th century, sheep were shorn with large hand blades — essentially oversized scissors that were sharpened using a grindstone. Originally done on the open ground, bands of shearers would move from ranch to ranch at shearing time. A skilled shearer could remove fleece from 40 to 60 sheep per day. The work was tiring and slow. It required precision, stamina, and steady hands. Wounds were common. Speed was limited.
Following the Great Die-Up of the winter of 1886-1887 that decimated the West’s cattle industry, sheep numbers surged in Wyoming. The state was emerging as one of the nation’s top wool producers. Larger bands meant larger shearing crews – and mounting labor demands.
Mechanized shearing systems changed the equation. Invented in Australia, these systems were powered first by gasoline engines and later by electricity. Overhead drive shafts ran flexible cables to individual handpieces with steel combs and cutters that moved faster and cleaner than hand blades, dramatically increasing output.
A good machine shearer could double or even triple daily production. For large Fremont County operators, that efficiency meant survival in a competitive wool market.
Known for being an innovative and progressive businessman, John B. Okie, aka “The Sheep King of Wyoming,” understood that scale mattered. Having traveled to Australia himself and witnessed the sheep shearing sheds there, he was determined to construct his own in Wyoming at the small town of Moneta. By locating the shed there, he positioned his operation — and others in the region — at a logistical advantage.
Initially, not everyone was convinced of the benefits to this “Australian System.” To ease their (and, perhaps, his own) doubts, Okie put up a temporary, experimental shed with mechanical shears at Moneta during the spring shearing season of 1916. At that time, according to a March 8, 1917 article in The Natrona County Tribune, “One well known sheepman said he wouldn’t take his sheep into a modern shearing pen if he could have them shorn free. Another said the wool would never grow again if they were not clipped by hand.”
However, the article continues, “Today these same men are making arrangements to have their shearing by modern methods.” It goes on to state the men who did participate in the experiment were delighted, claiming it “added an increase of two pounds a fleece and in some cases more than two cents per pound.”
Construction on the shed began in 1917. The architect is unknown; however, it is clear the plans were based on an Australian model. Designed to shear several hundred sheep a day, it featured a large room in which all the sheep could be brought. They were then put into pens of five sheep each. A swinging door at the back of each pen allowed the shearer, upon finishing, to push the animal down a chute to a lower level. At this lower level, the sheep were counted and inspected before returning to the outdoor pens and corrals that surrounded the building.
Behind the sheep pens was an additional area for sorting and bagging the wool. Following shearing, it would be graded by staple length and cleanliness, compressed into uniform bales, sewn into heavy sacks, and then taken to the back loading dock for freight shipment.
A Regional Hub for Fremont County Wool
In effect, the construction of the mechanized shearing shed by J.B. Okie turned Moneta into a seasonal industrial hub — modest in size, but significant in impact. It anchored Moneta’s relevance within the regional wool economy. Without it, sheep might have been trailed toward larger centers like Riverton or Casper for shipment.
For much of the year, the town was little more than a rail stop on the high plains. But each spring, when bands of sheep drifted in from their winter ranges and the clippers began to hum, the town transformed.
Shearing season brought people and money. Crews of professional shearers traveled circuit routes across Wyoming, following the thaw north and upward in elevation. When they reached Moneta, they needed meals and lodging, supplies and repairs, and rail freight services.
Local merchants and rail workers saw a reliable spike in activity. Freight agents handled wool shipments. Laborers moved bales from press to railcar. Even small-town stores benefited from increased traffic. For a tiny community, the shed meant predictable annual income tied to the rhythm of livestock.
Unfortunately, the shed did not turn Moneta into a boomtown. At the time of its construction during World War I, wool and lamb prices spiked, creating a few years of prosperity in the industry. The end of the war caused them to fall flat. Additionally, stricter grazing regulations against sheep implemented in the 1920s and ‘30s made it harder for people in the industry to thrive.
Okie was able to keep his empire alive during the 1920s, but died by drowning in 1930 during a duck hunting incident. His son, Van Guelder, took over management of his Big Horn Sheep Company, but gradually began liquidizing its assets. In 1935, he sold the Moneta sheep shed, along with the Moneta store, to Walter Graham. The facility was still being used by local ranchers when it and the store were again sold in 1955 to William “Bill” Clark.
After three years, Clark sold the sheep shed. It was briefly owned by William Madden, owner of the Merriam Sheep Company, before it came into the possession of Ben Roberts – a legendary Wyoming sheep and cattleman and one of the largest individual land owners in the United States.
It was around this time that operations at the shed ceased. As rural populations of sheep dwindled, it became harder to staff large, stationary plants like the one in Moneta. It also was now cheaper and more convenient for ranchers to bring in a mobile shearing crew rather than trailing thousands of sheep across the plains. Now abandoned and unused, the shed changed ownership one more time – in 1964 to the Matador Cattle Company – before it was taken down in 1974.
Though the Moneta shearing shed eventually fell silent, its story reflects a pivotal chapter in Wyoming’s agricultural history. It stood at the intersection of innovation and necessity. It represented the willingness of ranchers like John B. Okie to look beyond tradition, to adopt global ideas, and to adapt them to the high plains of Fremont County. Its demolition may have erased the physical structure, but not its significance.
Rather, the Moneta shearing shed remains a reminder that Wyoming’s sheep industry was not static or quaint—it was industrial, international, and constantly evolving. In the rise and fall of that single building, we see the broader arc of Wyoming wool itself: expansion after hardship, prosperity tied to global markets, adaptation to new technology, and eventual transformation as rural life changed.
Today, the memory of the shed endures as part of the larger story of how innovation on the frontier shaped both landscape and livelihood.
Next up for the Fremont County Museum
March 6, 6:30pm at the Dubois Museum, “Life in Crowheart w/ The Haslam Family” Wyoming Community Bank Discovery Speakers Series
March 12, 9am at the Dubois Museum, “Crowheart Store & Haslam Family Ranch Trek” Wind River Visitors Council Adventure Trek Series
March 14, 10am at the Dubois Museum, “Kids Corner: Saddle Making & leather carving w/ Steve Mecum” Bailey Tire/Pit Stop Children’s Exploration Series
March 21, 6pm at the Dubois Museum, “Homesteading Series: High Altitude Bread Baking w/ Barb Lorentzen” Wyoming Community Bank Discovery Speaker Series
March 21, 1-3pm at the Pioneer Museum, “Women’s Tea” Wyoming Community Bank Discovery Speakers Series
Daily through December at the Pioneer Museum, “Sweetwater Ranch Life, The Paintings of Jack Corbett” Exhibition Opening
Call the Dubois Museum 1-307-455-2284, the Pioneer Museum 1-307-332-3339 or the Riverton Museum 1-307-856-2665 for detail regarding their programs.
The Dubois Museum, the Pioneer Museum in Lander and the Riverton Museum need your financial support. In the current economic environment, the museums are more reliant than ever on donations from the private sector to continue to provide the quality programs, collections management, exhibits and services that have become their hallmark over the last four years. Please make your tax deductible contribution through the Wind River Cultural Centers Foundation https://windriverccf.funraise.org/ or by sending a check to Fremont County Museums 450 N 2nd Rm 320 or taking it directly to the museum you choose to support. 
-Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/wy0066/
Interior:
A general view of the sheep holding room with the swinging doors and chutes where the shearer could push the animal down into the lower level to be counted and inspected. – Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/wy0066/