Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico
Taylor Haynes
Dr. Haynes put himself through college and post-graduate studies by working as a laborer on a freight dock and as a stevedore. He married Barbara Brumfield in 1968 and began raising a family of four children. In 1969, after graduating with a mechanical engineering degree from Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., he accepted an engineering job in Salt Lake City at the Kennecott Copper Corp.
In a search for greater autonomy in his career, Dr. Haynes left his engineering position and began medical school at the University of Utah while also supporting his young family. After completing his surgical residency in urology, he moved to Cheyenne, Wyo., to open his medical practice.
Subsequent to his first wife’s death in 1998, Dr. Haynes married Elisabeth Wasson in 2002, and she joined him on his ranch, Thunderbasin Land Livestock and Investment Co. The ranch is certified organic, and the cattle are all natural, grass-fed. He direct-markets organic beef all along the front range of Wyoming and Colorado.
Haynes is sure that closer contact between producers and consumers will provide a secure future for ranchers and all of United States’ agriculture.
Dr. Haynes has worked to inform and educate his fellow ranchers about issues such as eminent domain legislation, endangered species activities and protection of private property rights by holding “town hall” meetings in his community and throughout Wyoming.