Ranchland

Anouk Krantz’s newest work, Ranchland: Wagonhound, takes a deep dive into one spectacular working ranch in Wyoming.

Her stunning photographs provide an outsider’s perspective into the American West spirit and its enduring strength that is alive and well in today’s contemporary world. The ranch was named after a creek which runs through the property, Wagonhound Creek, which received its name due to the number of wagons on the nearby Oregon Trail that, while crossing the creek, broke their hounds, the part of the wagon that connects the tongue and axle.

The Wagonhound owners took the reins of the historic ranch in 1999. The ranch works to honour and preserve the values and heritage of the American West, and return the land to a pristine condition, utilizing conservation methods to ensure a balance between the land, livestock, farming, and wildlife to steward the ranch into the future. Wagonhound is a historic working ranch spanning over 300,000 acres in Wyoming, where the elevation ranges from 5,000 feet to 9,000 feet; where talented, strong, and steady quarter horses supplied by the ranch-owned remuda are required to help the cowboys manage the herds in a spectacularly rugged terrain.

Catherine and Art Nicholas, who took the reins of the historic ranch in 1999, take the stewardship of the land very seriously—their vision has been to honor tradition, preserve the land, which is steeped in history, and return it to a pristine condition. In Ranchland: Wagonhound, Anouk Krantz’s beautiful photography reveals the daily and seasonal rhythms of the ranch and the daily lives of its men and women cowboys, whose long hard days—starting in the dark and finishing in the dark—involve everything from cattle driving to branding to training the best quarter horses in the country and more. Set in a stunning large-format book, these photographs and the stories offer an inspiring new perspective into today’s cowboy/ranching culture and land stewardship of the American West.