Time moves slowly in Winifred, Montana.

Except for Main Street, paved in 1988, no side streets were paved until a 2025 project that continues through 2026. Rudy Stulc recalls monitoring how busy Winifred was on weekends by the amount of dust circling into the air, viewed from the Stulc Ranch ten miles distant. “When I got to high school, I started adding to that dust,” he laughs.

The small town in north-central Montana is wheat and cattle country, a gateway to the Upper Missouri River Breaks, and home to several Minuteman III missile sites, currently being upgraded to the multi-billion-dollar Sentinel ICBM project.

Life here still moves with the seasons. In late September and early October, Winifred comes alive when shipping cattle provides the payoff for a year of work and risk by local ranchers.

October 7 was the date for the Stulc Ranch last year. They were joined by brother-in-law Mark Heggem and his son Logan. The Stulcs shipped out 180 steers and the Heggems another hundred head. At the Winifred Stock Yards, cattle are unloaded, sorted, weighed, and loaded onto semi-trucks bound for feedlots in Nebraska, where they will be finished for market.

It is a family event, attended by everyone from grandchildren to grandparents.

There is a certain frenzy to it that fills the air with excitement. Food and refreshments are available throughout the affair, including plenty of adult beverages when the work is done. The handmade meatball and mozzarella sandwiches by Mary Lou Stulc and Marita Heggen and her sister Teresa were legendary, as were the homemade cinnamon rolls and cookies. After all the work is done, the families gather at the Winifred Tavern to celebrate and enjoy each other’s camaraderie.

“This is a special time of the year for us,” says TJ Stulc, the youngest of five brothers. TJ and Mary Lou own the bulk of the 7,000-acre ranch, with some acreage belonging to their son Luke and his wife Dancye. Luke is TJ’s right-hand man. “We get one paycheck a year, and today was the day. Cheers!”

Older brother Rudy chimes in, “Na zdraví!” in homage to their Czech ancestry.

The days leading up to shipping day are roundup days.

On the bottomland along the Judith River, 400 mother cows and their calves are gathered across roughly 2,000 acres. Riders push cattle through cedar and pine breaks and up steep country lined with prickly pear and yucca.

The ascent is not for the faint of heart.

The cattle travel five miles during the gather the first day, moving from river bottom to higher ground near the main ranch, and then one mile on shipping day.

The Stulc story reaches back more than a century, with the first family member, Uncle Joe, coming to Winifred in 1914. Brother Louie soon followed, homesteading in the breaks near where the ranch sits today.

“Homesteaders had to build a home and show that they could make a living from the land,” says Rudy, who along with wife Mary Lou is considered the family historian. “Times were tough.”

Louie Stulc supplemented ranch income by making moonshine. His delivery car, a 1922 Studebaker, became known as the “Whiskey Six.” No vehicle could outrun it in its day. A neighbor once asked Louie how his rye crop was doing. “About two gallons an acre,” he answered. The Whiskey Six still sits on the ranch today.

Vincent and Marie Stulc were born in Czechoslovakia and migrated to South Dakota in 1884. Most of their children eventually made their way to Montana. TJ and Rudy’s grandfather, Rudolph, joined his brothers in Winifred in 1934, beginning what would become the modern ranch.

Tony Stulc, TJ’s father, built the cattle business on what had been a dryland wheat farm. They raised swine as well; “that paid the grocery bills,” Rudy recalls.

“We grew up like pioneers,” he says. “Nothing fancy. Mom and dad’s first residence was a log cabin without water, insulation, or electricity. We packed our water from the well. We did our own butchering. We worked a lot. We kids were mom and dad’s hired men.”

Three kids to a bed. A mile-and-a-half walk to a one-room schoolhouse. Long winters. Today, three generations are still tied to the ranch.

TJ and Mary Lou run the operation alongside their son Luke and his wife Dancye. Luke, TJ, and Mary Lou work full-time on the ranch. Dancye works in Lewistown. The extended family remains closely connected, with siblings pitching in when needed.

“Since then, we have put this ranch together one piece at a time,” says Rudy. “The ranch is cohesive, all hooked together. We don’t like windshield time.”

There is pride in that. “It will always be a Stulc property,” he adds.

Basketball runs through the family just as strongly as cattle. The Stulcs are tall—Rudy stands 6-foot-3, TJ 6-5, Luke 6-5—and the game has long been a winter staple. In a place where winter stretches long, the gym becomes part of ranch life.

“Our long and sometimes brutal winters make basketball a favorite small-town sport,” Rudy says.

Mary Lou was a standout player at Rocky Mountain College and later coached Winifred High School girls basketball, helping lead teams to three state championships. She coached for 25 years.

TJ played at Northern Montana College. Luke helped lead Winifred to state titles in both basketball and football.

The ranch itself operates on a steady, seasonal rhythm. Mary Lou explains it best:

The ranch produces its own hay, alfalfa, and mixed forage and feeds it all on-site.

They’ve added solar pumps, built reservoirs, and improved water distribution across the property. Native grasses are encouraged. Invasive species are pushed back.

It is constant work and the land can be unforgiving. The bottomland lies along the Judith River floodplain. In 2014, floodwaters stretched four hundred yards wide, uprooting cottonwoods and washing away ground.

Winters are no easier. “In 1967 it hit minus 55,” Rudy recalls. Access roads turn to slick clay in wet weather. Travel becomes difficult. Conditions can change quickly.

Still, the ranch remains. Even with the challenges, you won’t hear the family complain. Theirs is a view with great perspective.

“Things are not as rough as they were when growing up,” TJ says. “As a family, we worked together, and we made the best of our situation. Eventually all of that hard work has paid off and continues to pay off and we live a happy life.”

Rudy sees it the same way. “Air, water and food are essentials for life,” he says. “If things go to hell in a handbasket, we can grow corn, potatoes and other staples along the river. We’ll survive.”

From the Old Country to the New Country, from their beginnings in Eastern Europe to the breaks of Montana, the Stulc family built their ranch one piece at a time. Together, as a family they built the American Dream.