Is Heating With Firewood Still Worth It? For Some Wyoming Families, It's Not About Money

Phil Loftus grew up knowing that staying warm through a Wyoming winter requires a little sweat.

Every October, he and his dad headed into the mountains of Sublette County to cut trees and haul logs home for firewood.

The logs would sit until the following summer, when the family would cut them into smaller pieces and split them into firewood.

“I remember sitting on a 5-gallon bucket running the handle on the log splitter,” Loftus said.

From there, the family formed an assembly line, tossing split logs into a trailer. When they got home, they formed another assembly line to unload and stack the wood.

If the woodpile started looking a little thin before winter was over, Loftus and his dad would head back into the mountains for another load.

It was hard, sweaty work. It was also simply part of life.

Today, Loftus is a father himself, and he's still heating his home with wood.

He’s not necessarily doing it because it's cheaper, nor because he has to.

Instead, he said he wants his children to understand something that can be difficult to teach in an age when staying warm is often as simple as adjusting a thermostat.

“There is immense value in working hard,” Loftus said.

But with natural gas and electric heat available at the flip of a switch, rising equipment costs, and the considerable time it takes to cut, split, haul and stack enough wood to last a Wyoming winter, is heating a home with firewood still worth the effort?

That depends on whom you ask.

A Wyoming Tradition

Wood heat may be increasingly uncommon across the United States, but in some parts of Wyoming, it's still a way of life.

Roughly 22% of occupied homes in Sublette County rely on wood as their primary heating source, compared to less than 2% of households nationwide, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data.

Wyoming ranks ninth nationally in the percentage of homes that primarily heat with wood, at about 4.6%, according to a separate report by Arbor Analytics published in 2025.

Across the country, approximately 1.77 million homes rely on wood for heat, although that number has been declining since 2010, the Arbor Analytics report states.

In Wyoming, electricity has gained ground as a home heating source.

Still, for residents accustomed to long winters and ready access to mountain timber, the appeal of a wood-burning stove hasn't disappeared.

Sandy Sletten, owner of Bucky's Outdoors in Pinedale, said plenty of Sublette County residents continue to cut their own firewood.

“Some people do it strictly 'cause they like the wood heat,” Sletten said. “Some people do it because they love going to the mountains and love getting wood.”

Bucky’s Outdoors sells and services chainsaws alongside snowmobiles, ATVs, side-by-sides and lawnmowers.

For some, the choice to burn wood for heat is about saving money. For others, it's about enjoying a day in the mountains, the smell of burning pine or the satisfaction of watching a woodpile grow.

“It really comes down to preference,” Sletten said.

Sletten knows the appeal firsthand. He used to head into the mountains every year to gather firewood.

These days, though, he doesn't have the time.

He switched to a gas fireplace years ago and said he loves the heat it produces — and how easy it is to heat his home.

What Does A Cord Really Cost?

For Wyoming residents who still want to heat their homes with wood, there are a couple of ways to go about it.

They can head into the mountains, cut their own timber and haul it home. Or they can buy wood from someone else.

Either way, there's a cost.

A standard cord of firewood measures 8 feet long, 4 feet high and 4 feet deep, totaling 128 cubic feet of stacked wood.

Loftus has found a compromise between cutting all his own timber and buying firewood that's already split and ready to burn.

He and a friend have been purchasing truckloads of logs and splitting the wood themselves.

A truckload contains roughly 16 to 20 cords, at a cost of about $150 per cord, Loftus said.

The logs come from Wyoming, often from the Upper Green River area north of Pinedale.

At that price, a full truckload represents $2,400 to $3,000 worth of wood before the first log is split.

And that's where the math gets interesting.

Wood Heat Is A Commitment

For someone gathering their own firewood, the costs can include fuel for the truck, fuel and maintenance for a chainsaw, equipment, and the expense of getting to and from the mountains.

Then there's the labor.

Trees must be felled, logs cut to manageable lengths, wood hauled home, split and stacked.

It’s often an all-day activity.

And when winter arrives, someone has to carry that wood into the house and keep the fire going.

Unlike natural gas, which flows through a pipe and keeps a furnace running with little attention, wood heat demands a commitment.

There are ashes to clean out, chimneys to maintain and woodpiles to replenish.

And the work doesn't stop just because the temperature drops below zero.

Loftus said the financial equation changes considerably when a homeowner puts a value on the time spent doing all that work.

After all, nobody is paying him to split firewood.

By the time he factors in his labor, equipment and fuel, the savings over natural gas might not amount to much at all.

But Loftus isn't convinced the value of wood heat can be measured in dollars.

“I think money has little to do with it,” he said.

Firewood Is Still Big Business

For Wyoming residents who don't have the time or equipment to cut their own firewood, people like Andy and Nikki Ward of Sheridan are happy to do the heavy lifting.

The couple are in their second season of selling firewood through Bear Claw LLC, taking over a business from a longtime Sheridan firewood seller who had built up a regular customer base.

The Wards also operate a handyman business and initially thought selling firewood would provide some supplemental income during the colder months.

“We really didn't know what our winter was going to look like,” Andy Ward told Cowboy State Daily.

But what started as a way to fill a gap in their schedule has turned into a regular fall activity.

Bear Claw serves more than 50 customers, most of whom depend on wood to heat their homes.

Ward estimates about 90% of his customers burn wood as a heat source, while the remaining 10% use it primarily for the aesthetics and ambiance of a fireplace.

Getting that wood from the mountains to a customer's woodpile is no small undertaking.

A logger from Buffalo cuts timber in the Bighorn Mountains using heavy equipment, then hauls the logs to the Wards' property in Sheridan by semi.

The logs arrive measuring 16 to 19 feet long, Ward said.

From there, the Wards cut them into manageable pieces and feed them through a wood processor, which cuts the logs into 16-inch lengths. Conveyors move the processed firewood into a trailer for delivery.

Most customers order between one and three cords at a time, Ward said.

The Wards deliver throughout the Sheridan area and as far south as Kaycee. But demand isn't necessarily limited to their immediate area.

Ward said he recently heard from a man in Thermopolis who was having trouble finding anyone locally who sells firewood.

The inquiry illustrates another challenge for Wyoming residents who want to heat with wood but don't cut their own: finding someone to supply it.

Ironically, the Wards don't heat their own home with traditional firewood.

Instead, they use two pellet stoves, which were already installed when they purchased their house.

Still, Ward's growing customer base suggests that, at least in northern Wyoming, plenty of people remain committed to heating their homes the old-fashioned way – even if they're willing to pay someone else to handle the cutting, splitting and hauling.

More Than Just Keeping Warm

Loftus understands the convenience of natural gas.

In fact, when the 40-year-old wood-burning fireplace in his home needed replacing, he had an opportunity to rethink how his family heated their home.

They decided to stick with wood.

Part of the reason was simple.

“We’ve always enjoyed the feel of wood heat, the ambiance,” he said.

But Loftus had another reason, one that had less to do with heating his house than raising his children.

He remembered those long days in the mountains with his dad, the hours spent cutting timber, running the log splitter and stacking firewood.

He remembered how much work went into keeping the family warm.

And he wanted his children to have a similar experience.

In an age when so many conveniences are available at the push of a button, Loftus wanted them to understand the concept of sweat equity.

“I wanted my children to grow up with something like that because not many things are like that,” he said.

There's something satisfying about standing beside a woodpile in the fall, knowing that every log represents a little bit of effort invested in the months ahead.

And there's something valuable, Loftus believes, about teaching children that the warmth they enjoy in January is the result of work done on a hot summer day.

These days, Loftus doesn't take his young children into the mountains while he's felling trees. That's one reason he prefers to purchase logs and split them at home.

But the work remains part of family life.

The wood still has to be cut, split and stacked. The pile still has to be built high enough to carry the family through Wyoming's long winter.

And when the cold weather settles in, the family can enjoy the rewards of that work.

For Loftus, the question isn't whether heating with wood saves him a few dollars compared to natural gas.

It's whether the experience is worth the time and effort.

Contact Kate Meadows at kate@cowboystatedaily.com

Kate Meadows can be reached at kate@cowboystatedaily.com.