The story of the Lazy E-L Ranch is a story of the old west, of settling a piece of land at the turn of the century, driven by youth and adventure. It is the story of a ranch that has survived more than one hundred years of dramatic changes. It is the story of a family who progressively adapted through the years without sacrificing their ranching way of life.

Malcolm S. Mackay was just nineteen when he first veiwed the foothills of the Beartooth Mountains and began the century old legacy of the Mackay ranch. Son of Donald S. Mackay (then president of the New York Stock Exchange,) Malcolm was a young East Coast man from New Jersey who longed for adventure. On his first trip west, Malcolm became entranced with the open country full of wildlife, and he began buying up old homesteads and investing in the cattle business.

glorious summers. During the 1930's Malcolm died suddenly, leaving behind his wife, his three young sons and one daughter. The oldest son, "Bud", took over the family business on Wall Street, trying to salvage what remained after the Depression. There was much discussion about selling the ranch at this time. The Lazy E-L had served mainly as a hobby ranch for their father's hunting and was not yet a true business investment. The second son, Bill, decided to move to the ranch and transform it into a working cattle ranch.

For the next forty years, Bill Mackay, Sr., managed the ranch, hiring local ranchers as foremen while raising his own herd of registered Herefords. In the early 1970's, this role was passed on to his son, Billy Jr., who managed the ranch through the 1970's and 1980's. The economics of agriculture changed dramatically during this era, forcing Billy to be innovative in order to survive. Under Billy's leadership, the ranch switched from running Hereford cow/calf pairs to Angus yearlings, and began practicing intensive grazing methods. In the late 1980's Billy Jr. established the ranch's guest program. Original homestead cabins from the land purchased by Malcolm Mackay were renovated to become guest accomodations. It was soon aparent that the Mackay family shared a dream many others appreciated as well, in the shape of a twelve thousand acre ranch nestled between two rivers, sheltered in the shadow of the Beartooth Mountains. "Outsiders" loved spending a week on a working cattle ranch, nestled between the East and West Rosebud Rivers and shadowed by the Beartooth Mountains. By the third generation, the Lazy E-L had become one of the last great havens for more people than just the Mackay family.