Ian Munsick’s homecoming hasn’t been anything like he’d imagined.
That’s because a fire is raging on the mountains that inspire his Wyoming brand of music, and his own family’s ranch is among the many that now sit in harm’s way.
For Munsick, the Elk Fire that has grown to more than 62,000 acres and is threatening to consume the towns of Dayton and Parkman is deeply personal. These are not just the places where he grew up, these places are the heart and soul of his music.
“That’s my childhood right there,” Munsick told Cowboy State Daily on Saturday. “And when I write music, those are the mountains that inspired me the most.”
Munsick’s Go Fund Me For Elk Fire Takes Off
Munsick has been heartsick seeing the homes and towns he loves threatened by fire. That prompted him to start a gofundme, The Elk Fire Relief Fund, to help all the rural fire departments involved in fighting the fire.
He even kicked it off with a little donation of his own — $15,000 from himself, and $15,000 from his wife, Caroline.
“We have to do our part in helping them, because we physically couldn’t be there helping,” Munsick said. “It’s been pretty crazy to see the small community just rally behind this. And we have raised quite a bit of money in the last 12 hours, which is pretty cool to see.”
The fund has already exceeded the initial goal of $50,000 and had topped $65,000 Saturday afternoon. Munsick was pleased, but not surprised to see the fund grow so quickly.
That’s just the Wyoming that he knows and loves, where there’s always a cowboy ready to lend a hand.
“This is what’s so special about the communities in Wyoming,” Munsick said. “How they rally behind each other for the greater cause.”
Dayton Is Beautiful
Munsick has many fond memories of the tiny towns that surround the ranch where he grew up, but is particularly fond of the nearby town of Dayton, which had the nearest gas station.
“That’s where I spent my weekends with my friends,” he said. “Playing at the park, standing in the mountains, and going to the canyon and stuff like that. So, yea, this is pretty personal.”
Dayton, Munsick added, is just a “beautiful little town.”
“I really love, love the river,” he said. “The Tongue River flows right through Dayton, and we used to go tubing down there all the time. I mean we’d walk down and just go fly fishing in the Tongue River.”
The nearby canyon, too, is a fun adventure.
“There’s just a lot of beautiful spots in that little community,” Munsick said. “It’s a special place.”
Fire Has Threatened Tongue River Communities Before
This is not the first time Munsick has seen fire coming for Dayton and his family’s ranch.
“There was a fire in Dayton about 20 years ago,” he said. “I was about 10 years old, but I remember packing up everything in the horse trailer. I remember my mom crying and packing up all of her pictures, and you know, the things that meant the most.”
The fire didn’t end up making it all the way to the Munsick family’s ranch, but it did burn parts of Dayton, Munsick said.
“I can’t remember how many acres burned, but I specifically remember being out in our yard and being able to see the flames from our property, which was pretty scary,” he said. “But this one is a lot worse. It’s a lot more acreage and it’s still 0% contained.”
In fact, the fire has burned through the 1996 Park burn scar, forcing fire crews to reposition and order more resources, including aerial support on Saturday, according to reports posted on the Tongue River Fire District’s Facebook page.
Headed Home To The Ranch
The concert at Wyoming Ford Center had been a bucket list item for Munsick’s singing career, he told Cowboy State Daily earlier this year, and it’s the last in this summer’s Country & Western tour. But, with fire on his beloved mountains, coming for the place where he grew up, he knows that’s going to be what’s on his mind throughout this milestone performance.
Munsick said he’ll head home to the ranch just as soon as the concert at Ford Wyoming Center ends.
“My brother is at my parents’ ranch right now, watching over the place, because they’re up in Canada,” Munsick said. “I had been expecting him to be at my concert, but he has to be there right now. And he just went up on the mountain, like an hour ago, to help some ranchers get their cows down.”
Munsick said his brother isn’t even really sure at this point how he’s going to accomplish the task. But that’s the thing that’s so special about Wyoming, he added. People are quick to lend a hand, and, just like McGyver, they know they can figure something out because failure just isn’t an option.
“It’s just people like that, the real ranchers, the real communities out there of ranchers helping each other,” Munsick said. “That’s what I think is just very special and very unique to the Rocky Mountains and specifically Wyoming.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
