The Terra of Niobrara

We’ve been fortunate to spend a little more time with the new world champion steer wrestler since the national finals and it’s my pleasure to report you can peel away the nice and calm and quiet and respectful layers of Jason Miller to discover only more of all of those qualities. He carries himself, and Wyoming, with pride but he is not prideful.

Jason is traveling again for the warm weather state rodeos coming up in Texas and Arizona. He did not finish in the money at the stock show in Denver but he sure represented his sport well during a live television segment on Channel 9 News (KUSA) there. When we walked into the newsroom early in the morning – around 6 a.m. – Miller looked over the setting and said, “Boy, this is a lot bigger than Casper.” And indeed it was yet Jason sat there and did a fine job talking to an automated camera, lights gleaming at him, and a reporter’s questions filling his ear.

View the 9News Video: http://www.9news.com/article.aspx?storyid=84936
The dogger is not living high off the hog after netting winnings of close to $117,000 at the NFR alone. He stays in what Jason calls a “camphouse” near a shop he has with his brother on the outskirts of Lance Creek. When at his parent’s ranch the pride of Niobrara County is working cattle, fixing fence, or doing some other chore that needs done bouncing around in a beater Toyota pick-up. When home, Jason reads. He does not have a television. The engraved world champion’s gold buckle arrived at the house a week or so ago and is now with Jason as he begins the new season. I spoke with the champ yesterday as he neared a Texas rodeo after many hours of driving. “Even now looking at this buckle while I’m doing my least favorite part of rodeo (driving) it just goes hand-in-hand. If you want a chance at this buckle you’ve got to take the bad with the good,” he said. “It’s amazing to see my name on there. You look in the mirror and a little smile comes on your face.”

Niorbrara County is the least populated county in Wyoming - the country’s least populated state. There are fewer than ten residents that actually live in the town of Lance Creek. The county seat is Lusk, where there is one stoplight. Only about 23 hundred people inhabit the entire county.

Miller enjoys working on the family ranch where they run about 500 head of cattle. “Taking care of cows is peaceful, rewarding, and quiet work. I don’t ever plan on leaving here,” he said. It is a remote life where the few people there are all know each other. “It’s sort of ‘Nowhere, Wyoming’ but there’s a lot of big, open country and everybody’s good, common ranch people,” Miller said. “We look after one other.”

Jason was a rough stock rider in high school (bucking broncs) but grew too big for that rodeo event and soon turned his sights on steer wrestling. He competed in the College National Finals four years running while a student-athlete at Central Wyoming College in Riverton and the University of Wyoming in Laramie.

Since winning his first world champion’s title Miller has heard from hundreds of people across the country offering their congratulations and well wishes. One 70-year-old Lance Creek, Wyoming native now living in California wrote a letter to say how proud he was of Miller. “To receive that note from someone I don’t even know was pretty neat,” Jason said.

Earlier this month there was a welcome home and congratulations party for Jason in Casper. Close to 300 people showed up to shake his hand and pat Miller on the back. He knew a lot of those folks but many were strangers who just wanted to share a glorious moment in Wyoming rodeo history. He is the first Wyoming native to ever win the steer wrestling average at the national finals. A former national bulldogging champion – Frank Shepperson from Midwest, WY – was there to congratulate Jason. We spent a little time with Frank, away from the crowd, and will report on that chat in a future column.

There was an opening salvo to the evening that captured the mood perfectly. Arlene Rapp of Lusk stood clutching the microphone. “You know there’s an old saying about ‘Where the Hell is Niobrara County?’” “Well,” she continued, “they dang sure know where it is now.”

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