A lightning strike from one of the devastating storms that rolled over the U.S. during Memorial Day Weekend killed a Colorado rancher and over 30 head of cattle.
According to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, the 51-year-old rancher was feeding cattle from his trailer at about 2 p.m. after a day of branding when lightning struck.
Despite life-saving attempts by first responders, Mike Morgan died at the scene. The strike also hit about 100 head of cattle gathered around the trailer.
“The 32 cattle did not get back up,” coroner George Crocket told The Colorado Sun. “As best I can tell, it hit him on the trailer. The cattle were bunched up around the trailer, and it hit them all.”
Morgan’s father-in-law was driving a tractor and hauling the trailer while his wife was about 200 feet away on horseback. The strike knocked her off of her horse and killed nearly three dozen cows and three calves (the number of cows killed is listed between 32 and 34).
“Our western ranching community will feel this for a long time. We all know what we do has a high degree of risk. We do it anyway. We do it for the livestock. We do it for the landscape. We do it for food security. We do it for our family — past, present, and future. We do it because it feels right. We do it because it is right,” a nearby ranch posted on Facebook.
Morgan was a member of the North Park Stockgrowers Association and was known for speaking up for ranchers after the reintroduction of wolves, which recently killed another calf on May 25 in Jackson County. He told Steamboat Radio in 2022, “We need to get our way of life out to the people because they don’t understand our livelihood, the emotional and financial impacts.”
He leaves behind his wife, Niki, and 17-year-old daughter Dallas. According to His Cavvy Foundation, his family had just purchased 300 pairs of their own, while Morgan worked for nearby Silver Spur Ranch.
A Meal Train was set up for the family. So far, $13,725 of a $5,000 goal from 87 people has been raised.
Lightning causes two deaths and 12 injuries per year in Colorado, according to the National Weather Service.
An additional 21 people are also reported to have passed away in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kentucky over the weekend, while over 11 tornadoes swept through the central U.S. An estimated 120 million were in the path of large hail, damaging winds, and storm systems toward the Gulf Coast and the East Coast.