J. B. Okie papers, 1893-1921

J.B. Okie (1864-1930) was a Wyoming sheep rancher and businessman. He came to Rawlins, Wyoming, in 1882 and worked briefly as a cowboy before buying his first herd of sheep, which he grazed along the Sweetwater River before moving them to the Badwater Creek in Fremont County, Wyoming, in 1883. In 1884 he built his first home on the Badwater at Lost Cabin, Wyoming. He formed the Bighorn Sheep Company at Casper in 1893 and moved its headquarters to Lost Cabin in 1902. Also in 1893, he bought the Smith Mercantile Company in Casper, Wyoming, and reopened it as the Casper Mercantile Company with his brother Fred as manager; this store was closed in 1898 when Fred Okie left Wyoming. The first Bighorn Sheep Company mercantile store opened in Lost Cabin in 1895, with later expansion into the central Wyoming communities of Arminto, Lysite, Kaycee, Moneta, and Shoshoni. In 1919, Okie bought the Piggly Wiggly stores franchise for Mexico, where he owned six stores.