2012 cattle branding (136 images)

Every late winter and early spring in the Sierra Nevada Foothills for the past 160 years the local cowboys of Italian and German descent have branded and marked their new crop of calves. Many came during the Gold Rush and found a different kind of gold in the Mother Lode in both feeding the miners and in the land. Today the sixth and seventh generation cattle men and women are still working the land and keeping it in trust for the next generations.