About the National Bighorn Sheep Center

The National Bighorn Sheep Center is operated by a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. (Our tax id# is 83-0301605). The Center is governed by an all-volunteer Board of Directors, and financial support from members, donors and foundations. Gift shop sales, admissions from visitors to the Center and our Annual Fundraiser, the “Bighorn Bash” are important fundraising efforts as well. Volunteers are critical to our success, and we depend on volunteer support for programs, outreach and more.

photo: Stephen Jay Lunsford

History

The citizens of Dubois have always felt great pride in the proximity, accessibility and successful endurance of “our” herd, the Whiskey Mountain herd of Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep. In the late 1980’s, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department was considering building some type of small-scale sheep observatory with interpretive signage in the Whiskey Basin Wildlife Habitat Management Area. At about the same time, the Louisiana-Pacific lumber mill, which had been the primary engine driving the Dubois economy for decades, was faltering.

The mill was forced to close in 1988, leaving the town to wonder if their economy was facing imminent failure. Dubois needed something to encourage tourists to stop and stay in Dubois. The Wyoming Game & Fish Department also wanted an avenue for public education. A suggestion was made to construct a bighorn sheep-themed visitor center directly in town rather than in the Whiskey Basin Wildlife Habitat Management Area. In a rather remarkable effort of co-operation, a partnership developed that included a broad spectrum of private- and public-sector groups.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department, the town of Dubois, the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Wild Sheep Foundation (formerly the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep), the Nature Conservancy, the National Wildlife Federation and many other entities and individuals contributed dollars, resources, talents and guidance to construct the National Bighorn Sheep Center. The Center was opened to the public on July 3, 1993.

Partners

The National Bighorn Sheep Center is not alone in what we do. We are a part of a much larger “ecosystem” of organizations and agencies that we collaborate with locally, regionally and nationally to advance bighorn sheep conservation.

Bowhunters of Wyoming

Boys and Girls Club of Dubois

Destination Dubois

Dubois Chamber of Commerce

Dubois Historical Museum-Fremont County Museums

Town of Dubois

U.S. Bureau of Land Management-Lander Field Office

U.S. Forest Service-Shoshone National Forest, Wind River District

Wild Sheep Foundation

Wind River Visitors Council

Wyoming Community Foundation

Wyoming Department of Education

Wyoming Game and Fish Commission

Wyoming Game and Fish Department-Lander Region

Wyoming Office of Tourism

Wyoming Wild Sheep Foundation

Meet our Board of Directors

Kathy Treanor

President

Growing up on a sixth-generation family farm in Maryland, Kathy learned to love the outdoors, gardening, riding her horse over rolling hills and hunting with her Dad. She earned her degree at Guilford College in Biology with a minor in Environmental Studies.

Lary and Kathy married in 1980. The year of the Yellowstone fires ‘88, they horse packed in the Bridger Tetons. It was the best vacation even with bears, run-away horses, clouds of dust and smoke. They continued to ride in Wyoming wilderness for the next 22 years. Favorite trips include Heart Lake to Meeteetse and waking up in a field of wildflowers looking at the full moon setting beside Gannet Peak. They moved to Dubois in 2010.

Lora Engleman

Lora was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, but at the age of 8 moved to Casper, WY where she attended grade school, graduated from KWHS, and then earned her Bachelors Degree in Wildlife Biology and Fisheries Management from the University of Wyoming in 2000. She grew up training racehorses (primarily Arabians) with her family for 13 years all over the US. Some of her other accomplishments are competing in the Bighorn 100 endurance race, teaching Centershot-an archery program through Mountain Grace Church, and starting the Christ for Community here in Dubois, where she serves as President.

Kate Falco

Kate grew up in Scotland, attended Middlebury College in Vermont, completed an MBA at Emory University, GA, and ended up working as a bank examiner for the Federal Reserve Bank in Philadelphia. She first came to Wyoming in 1972 when the family came to the CM Ranch here in Dubois. Her parents returned for 35 summers consecutively – Kate, Jerry and their family started coming for annual family reunions in 1994. After 18 years of being “dudes”, she and Jerry started working at the CM, which led to moving to Torrey Valley in 2016 where the Whiskey Mountain bighorn sheep became neighbors. After realizing that Kate saw more sheep than people on many days, she decided it was time to get more involved with the National Bighorn Sheep Center, and became a member of the Board of Directors.

Carolyn Gillette

Vice President

Carolyn grew up across the street from Central Park in New York City; this was her first wilderness area. The family camping and canoe trips of her childhood helped her to find a trail to Wyoming, where she encountered the Fitzpatrick wilderness area. It was after 5 continuous weeks of backpacking in the Wind River Mountains with National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) her course changed.

Jen Hazeldine

Bio Coming Soon!

Jessica Shuler

Jessica was born and raised in Powell, Wyoming, where she developed a love for hunting and the outdoors as part of a family devoted to conservation, including supporting Ducks Unlimited and multiple trips to the National Bighorn Sheep Interpretive Center with her father. After college, her professional careers have included retail banking and real estate.

Bill Sincavage

Treasurer

Bill was born in Southern New England, where he earned a Mechanical Engineering Degree in 2004. Bill was self-employed as a contract design engineer for several OEM Medical Device Manufacturers and has always had a knack for the mechanics as he started building racing engines at the age of eighteen. Among many other awards and recognitions for his talent and work, Bill won a gold medal at the U.S. Skills Olympics in 1979 in machine processes and an honorable mention at the International Skill Olympics in 1980. Bill retired in 2015 and moved permanently to Wyoming that year, and he continues to work part-time from his home here in Dubois. He has four children and in 2011, he married Lori and increased the child count to six.

Cindie Watson

Cindie was born in Utah, but moved to California at the age of two. She feels as if she must have imprinted upon the Utah mountains as a toddler because although she had access to the lovely beaches of southern California while growing up, the mountains were always calling to her.

Her father loved all animals, domestic and wild, and he passed on this appreciation and respect for wildlife to his daughter. Cindie would enjoy teaching about animals and nature to children, after earning her Bachelor of Science in Child Development from California Polytechnic State University and earning a Teaching Credential. She taught grades K-5 as a classroom teacher for 14 years, and for 10 years as a specialist in mathematics.

Ian Watson

Ian grew up in Southern California. He’s been coming to camp in the Tetons every couple of years since he was a child, first with his parents, two brothers and sister. Then with his wife Cindie, who he met in high school in Corona Del Mar California. And then he and Cindie brought their two boys. They love camping, hiking, backpacking and exploring in the Tetons.

It wasn’t until 2016 that he and Cindie found out about Dubois. They were in Moose eating pizza at Dornan’s when a nice couple walked by and started telling them how they often drive over to Moose for lunch. Ian and Cindie looked into Dubois and before they knew it, they had bought their new home on the Wind River. They moved permanently to Dubois in 2018.

Meet our Staff

Sara Bridge

Executive Director
sara@bighorn.org

Sara Bridge previously worked at the Jackson Hole Community Foundation and now has a home in Dubois, WY. Before moving West to Wyoming Sara worked in New York where she earned a degree in Economics from Columbia University and spent five years at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. in strategy and wealth management. She also enjoyed volunteering as a co-leader for a non-profit group in Manhattan.

Sara is a leader who has been successful with team building and brings deep commitment to mission and to those who support it. She loves hiking and skiing, drift boating and is a rider and hunter.

Kellyn Chandler

Intern

Kellyn’s Bio is Coming Soon!

Mackenzie Davis

Public Relations Manager

Mackenzie was born in Bozeman, Montana, and has since spent a life in the outdoors in Alaska, Wyoming, and the Eastern Sierra Nevada of California. Earning a degree in Parks, Tourism, and Recreation Management from the University of Montana, Missoula, Mackenzie has a passion for all things wildlife and wild places. She hopes to share this passion with the people she encounters in her lifetime. While working at the National Bighorn Sheep Center, Mackenzie aspires to educate people on all matters of bighorn sheep, wildlife, and wildlands. Observing Dall Sheep in Alaska with her dad and Desert Bighorn Sheep in the Mohave region of California has given Mackenzie a scope of how tough and enduring bighorn sheep can be.

Bernadine (Bernie) Rose

Gift Shop/General Manager

Born and raised in rural Cumberland County, southern New Jersey, Bernadine grew up among small, family-operated vegetable and dairy farms and horses. Being outside, all year long, was a given.

Karen Sullivan

Education Manager
karen@bighorn.org

Karen was born in Texas, but she spent most of her life living in Louisiana. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Nicholls State University and a PhD in Microbiology from Louisiana State University. She spent almost twenty years teaching biology and microbiology at LSU. She married Troy in 1993 and raised two sons in Baton Rouge. Collectively, she and Troy have four adult children and three grandchildren. One son and two grandchildren live in Dubois and she is hoping to lure the rest of the family to the area.
After coming to CM ranch to visit Troy’s son, Karen and Troy fell in love with Dubois and the surrounding area and decided to make the big move from Louisiana to Wyoming.