The Sweeney family of the Quaking Aspen Mountain District in southwest Wyoming had suffered through typhoid fever, tragedies from tick bites and the ups and downs of Cowboy State ranching. As the children left home one by one, a bachelor son remained on the family ranch until he, too, was gone.
A new family now owns the ranch, and the Sweeney family would have been lost to history except for a veterinarian and his camera.
“I was practicing veterinary medicine for 30 years in Wyoming,” Larry Friedman said. “I got very interested in photography as I was about ready to quit practice and relax a little bit because the pressures of medicine can get to people.”
He had discovered a passion for photography beginning in 1977, and he became a common sight around Sweetwater County at the ranches and homesteads he visited.
A Bachelor’s Ranch
Sometime around 1980, Friedman met Barney Sweeney on his ranch when he was starting to wind down his veterinarian practice and could spend more time focused on his photography.
“I took pictures of what he called his junk,” Friedman said. “I made a black and white print for him, and he said, ‘you know, somehow it doesn't look like junk on your picture.’ And that's how I got started with Barney.”
Over the years, Friedman developed a friendship with the older man and visited whenever he could.
“I started going out there every three or four weeks when I could get away and visiting with him and occasionally taking some pictures,” he said. “I took pictures of the house that he lived in until 1948.”
Sweeney was a bachelor and, by the time Friedman was a regular visitor, the rancher lived alone tending to the homestead that had been in his family since the late 1800s. His many nephews and nieces would occasionally visit, and he kept busy with the daily chores.
“When I met him, he was in his 70s and I was out there once when he was chopping all tons of wood out in front of that old building, getting ready for winter,” Friedman remembered. “He was a hard-working old man that lived there all his life, until he finally moved into Rock Springs when he was 82 or 83 years old. I don't know what how they convinced him to leave the ranch.”
The family ranch never had any electricity during Sweeney’s lifetime but that didn’t stop his love of reading and learning new things. He had filled his ‘new’ ranch home, which he had finished building in about 1954, with piles of books.
“It was just stacked up with junk and books everywhere,” Friedman said. “The man read voraciously. He had a portable radio and a bunch of batteries, and he listened to nothing but the news and cowboy games.”
The Sweeney Family
Barney Sweeney was named after his father who had been a well-respected sheep inspector in 1887 before focusing all his energy on his ranch and growing family. The elder Barney hosted picnics and celebrations on his ranch located below the southeast corner of Quaking Aspen Mountain, 22 miles south of Rock Springs.
Barney Junior grew up on this ranch where his father raised cattle, sheep and grew hay. The Rock Springs Miner reported his father’s monthly jaunts into Rock Springs and his updates on his ranch. In 1896, years before his son’s birth, he participated in a program to cultivate trout in the creek flowing through his property.
In 1917, tragedy struck the family. The elder Barney was bit by a tick and the bite became fatal. He had contracted the dreaded Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and passed away at Wyoming General Hospital. He left behind his grieving widow and six children, four girls and two boys.
Mrs. Sweeney returned to the ranch where she raised her children alone. As they left home one by one, one son, Barney, stayed and continued to help his mother. When she was gone, he remained a bachelor and kept the ranch in the family.
The Barney Sweeney Ranch in Sweetwater County, 22 miles from Rock Springs. (Courtesy Photo by Larry Friedman) 
While in his 70s, Barney Sweeney continued to tend to the chores such as chopping wood at the family ranch. He never had electricity until he moved away in the late 1980s and was surprised at the convenience of the technology. (Courtesy Photo by Larry Friedman) 
Larry Friedman began taking photographs of the Sweeney ranch in 1980 and many of the buildings and wagons he captured are no longer there. (Courtesy Photo by Larry Friedman) 
This wagon from the Sweeney family ranch was used to take the family to Rock Springs, 22 miles away. They would go for social gatherings and monthly supplies. (Courtesy Photo by Larry Friedman) 
The Sweeney family ranch boasted corrals, pastures and fields of hay. Six children were born and raised here. (Courtesy Photo by Larry Friedman) 
Left, In 1917, Barney Sweeney Sr. died, leaving his widow and six children to continue living on the family ranch. His son and namesake lived on the ranch his entire life until he was convinced to move into Rock Springs to live. Right, Barney Sweeney spent his entire life on the family ranch, raising cattle, sheep and hay. (Courtesy Photo by Larry Friedman) 
The Sweeney Ranch is located beneath the Quaking Aspen Mountains in Sweetwater County. It was founded in the late 1800s and Barney Sweeney lived there from the time he was born until he was in his 80s. (Courtesy Photo by Larry Friedman) 
The 1893 Rock Springs Miner would report the local gossip such as this tidbit that Barney Sweeney’s father was hosting a picnic on his ranch. (Cowboy State Daily Staff)
The Memories
During his visits with Sweeney, Friedman would hear stories of his youth and growing up on the ranch. As he walked around the property, taking photographs, Sweeney would share his memories such as the ones about the wagon that Friedman photographed before it disappeared.
“For years, every Saturday, they would take that wagon, and the family would go into Rock Springs,” Friedman said. “That was 22 miles to pick up supplies, and then they carried them back in that wagon.”
As Friedman studied the pictures he had taken decades before, another memory surfaced.
“There was a potato cellar further ahead of the building in the photo,” he said. “You couldn't see it through the trees and the building, but there was a potato cellar there. Barney told me the Sweeney ranch is at the southeast tip of quaking Aspen Mountain, south of Rock Springs. In the fall they'd have a big powwow of all the Indians in Montana. He said every year the Indians would come across the hill and down the hill there through their valley, and they would steal their potatoes out of the potato cellar.”
The pictures that Friedman took are among the only remnants remaining of a by-gone era. He donated the negatives to the American Heritage Center in Laramie and is grateful for a hobby that helped him capture a little piece of Wyoming’s history.
“Most of the pictures I did there and all my other historical images were done starting in 1977,” he said. “I had sold my practice in 1984 and was filling in part-time, so my time was available for photography.”
After Sweeney moved off the ranch, he was tickled with the convenience of electricity and he told Friedman, “Hey, this TV stuff and electricity is kind of nice.”
Friedman laughed at the memory and added, “Barney showed the world what a person could become despite growing up with all the inconveniences of life and still being self-educated. He lived a good life and was a voracious reader. He was a great guy, and you could just talk to him about most anything.”
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
