The barbs directed toward the Prairie Reserve echo many of the same complaints that accompanied the creation of some of America’s national parks and monuments. Former President Bill Clinton’s 2001 designation of the nearby 375,000-acre Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, for instance -- which limits both cattle grazing and oil development -- is still bitterly resented in the region.
Grand Teton
Few national parks can match the history of rancor that accompanied the creation of the now-hallowed Grand Teton National Park in neighboring Wyoming. Smitten by the scenery after visits to a small precursor to the park in 1924 and 1926, Standard Oil Co. heir John D. Rockefeller Jr. created Snake River Land Co. as a purchasing agent to mask his involvement and keep land prices down.
“Local park supporters often faced hostilities and boycotts of their businesses throughout these turbulent years,” according to a U.S. National Park Service history.
Even after Rockefeller bought 35,000 acres for $1.4 million and offered to donate the land to the park service, it took more than two decades before Congress officially expanded the park in 1950.
‘Land Grab’
Fear that the Prairie Reserve will obtain similar federal protection is evident in the bright-green signs posted around the area, with “Don’t Buffalo Me, No Federal Land Grab!” painted on one side and “Monument Wildlands Reserve” inside a circle with a slash through it on the other.
Prairie Reserve President Gerrity characterizes the ranchers’ complaints as a response to a diminishing way of life. “There was a dream of a pastoral existence and tight communities and that together we would have a very honorable lifestyle,” he says. “Well, that dream began to come apart right around World War I, and since then, the population decline has been 10 percent per decade in these areas. That is just how things are.”
The population of Phillips County fell 21 percent to 4,267 from 1970 to 2010 and dropped by another 139 people as of 2012, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
“We’re not responsible for the underlying changes,” says Pete Geddes, a Prairie Reserve managing director. “But we are responsible for being at the forefront of environmental change. We have a different idea of what this land should be used for.”