Cecil “Ray” Weber

1932 –

Ray Weber began his cowboy career riding a rocking horse and then riding the work horses on the family ranch near Baggs. As a youngster he pieced together scraps of leather and discarded saddle parts to make himself a saddle. He would ride out from the ranch with his brothers Wayne and Boone to Flat Top and Muddy Mountain being gone all day. Ray has roped wild horses, gentled them, and broken them to ride. He has spent a lifetime in the saddle. At age 82 he still rides a horse when working cattle, roping calves at branding, and team roping. He has spent his entire life on the Weber Ranch.

Cecil Ray Weber was born August 19, 1932 in Baggs. His parents were Philip Sidney and Nina Robison Weber. The house that Ray was born in is displayed at the Little Snake River Museum. He married Kathleen Sheehan, a member of another pioneer Little Snake River Valley ranching family.

Ray is someone who epitomizes the “ideal rancher,” say Jack and Diana Berger of Saratoga. He has a rich history and passion for ranching in Wyoming and is someone who has lived the “cowboy life” through not only ranching, but in the rodeo arena as well.

Ray was able to take a small cattle operation and turn it into a respectable sized cow/calf operation with good management and capitalizing on opportunities that came his way. He is a very respected horseman among all who have had the honor of competing with him.

Ray with his family has expanded the early time Weber Ranch with a carrying capacity of 20 cows into an operation running 1,000 cows. This has been accomplished by purchasing and renting more rangeland, developing water, and moving cattle through rotation pastures. Ray has calved heifers, trailed cattle 25 miles from the home ranch to the spring pasture and back again in the late fall every year, branded and shipped calves, doctored cattle…..the life that a cowboy lives day by day! Ray is a flying cowboy, too. He is a pilot of a Cessna 172 aircraft that he uses to check cattle, water holes and fences. All the cattle work was and is still done by horseback. Now Ray is semi-retired and leases out the grazing land. Ray still helps with haying the meadows.

Ray broke his own horses and competed in the Working Ranch Horse contest at the Carbon County Fair winning it on two different horses that he had trained. He also entered the Carbon County team roping, reining, and team penning contests. Ray rode bareback horses and roped from the time he was a teenager. He has competed in college; old-timer’s rodeo, and local rodeos but now only team ropes. Ray had a cutter race team, which he trained and drove.

Ray has also taken time from his ranch and family to help advocate for the ranchers of Carbon County and the state of Wyoming by dedicating his time and knowledge to the Wyoming Stock Grower’s Association, Rawlins Grazing Board, and Savery-Pot Hook Conservancy Board. NCRS (National Conservation Resource Service) named him Landowner Cooperator of the Year and the Wyoming Game and Fish, Green River region, also named him Landowner of the Year. In 2013 he and his wife Kathleen were Grand Marshals of the Carbon County Fair Parade.

Ranching and competing in horse events takes up most of Ray’s time, but he also pursues his interest in sculpting, creating works in both bronze and wood.

He served in the U. S. Army from 1953-1955. He was graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1956, after which time he returned to the ranch.