Just outside of Jackson, Wyoming, Brad Mead lives in a quiet home nestled within the pastures of the Charter Place, his 1,200-acre ranch. Mead is well-known; he is the brother of Wyoming governor Matt Mead, a fourth generation rancher, a former insurance litigator and founder of Wyoming Whiskey. Mead’s variety of experience complements his profound understanding of what it means to live and subsist in the New West. Having made his home in Jackson for fifty-seven years, Brad Mead bears witness to its transformation into an affluent tourist and recreation town. Although Mead is well aware of the economic benefits of development, he also recognizes the consequent issues. Speaking on local ranches and landowners, he admits that the encroachment of development means “smaller places, tiny cow herds.” Though grim for local ranchers, Mead knows that the future of the Jackson area is not fixed. Mead ensured that the Charter Place will not be developed; he and his siblings placed the land under a conservation easement that will only allow the construction of three new homes and guarantees that it will remain a ranch. However, the loss of middle-class ranchers and homeowners will not go unnoticed by those who have always called Teton County a home; Brad Mead reluctantly acknowledges that with the presence of only the affluent and disadvantaged seasonal workers, “you lose a little bit of the soul of the place.”
By: Fields Ford