Craig Boesel

Rancher

Winthrop, WA

August 28, 2024

We’re sitting in the shade of a tree overlooking part of the Methow Valley, talking to Craig Boesel, a down-to-earth rancher with a shy smile and an eagerness to share. Craig has been ranching in the Methow Valley since the 70s, after cutting his teeth smokejumping in the North Cascades. He still proudly wears his big silver smokejumper belt buckle. He emphasizes the importance of the lessons he learned smokejumping; being alone, doing the hard things you think you cannot do, and working with people of differing opinions and perspectives in order to do good for the greater community.

We lean in as he talks and talks, eager to hear his richly nuanced love for all things living and his clear passion for “protecting the dirt.” As we delve into his relationship with the Methow, he talks about the onset of rapid development and urbanization in his beloved valley. Craig decided he wanted to protect his ranch by creating a family trust for agricultural use so that “potentially some little boy or girl that wanted to be something on the land” could be able to live with the same values and lifestyle that he holds dear. While chasing cows around his land, he often doesn’t see a soul, “just the birds and the animals and maybe a new baby fawn that was born that day or something, and it can make my day.”

by Antonia Prinster