Ranch is the Striegels’ showplace, and they love to share it …

RANGELY — Bud and June Striegel are generous people. Just ask Pete Kiser.
Kiser’s son Josh and his wife, Jessica, had their wedding in August at the Striegels’ Campbell Creek Ranch upriver.
“They don’t charge anything for it,” Kiser said. “I think they just love to make people happy. They enjoy watching other people enjoy themselves. Both of them are some of the nicest people I’ve been around. They are very giving people.”
The wedding took place outside.
“The ceremony was in front of their house,” Kiser said. “It was just a great place to have it. It’s this big open area, and they have a gazebo. The best part is, you walk down the hill and there’s a pond there. It’s a beautiful setting. The waterfall is what makes it. It’s just a beautiful place to get married.”
Not only was the wedding held at the Striegels’ ranch, but there were also sleeping quarters for the wedding party and guests.
“They have accommodations for people to stay,” Kiser said. “I think we slept like maybe 40 people.”
The Striegels’ daughter, Teri Wilczek, handles the reservations for the ranch.
“She’s booked up through this summer, I know, and the next,” Bud said. “I can only do so many a year. My problem is everybody wants to have them on weekends, and I don’t have enough weekends.”
More than 70 weddings have been held at the ranch since the mid to late ’90s.
“I can’t give you a total count, but my wife said it was 70 something,” Bud said. “We lost track.”
Bud’s wife, June, said they enjoy attending the weddings at the ranch.
“We go to all of them, and every one is different,” June said. “They are a lot of fun. We’ve had people married in tennis shoes, no shoes, in kilts, and we even had one where they rode in on horses.”
The Striegels have only one requirement for people using the ranch.
“We don’t charge for it, but we tell them they’ve got to clean up after themselves,” Bud said. “I know there’s been way more than 7,000 people up there, and I’ve never missed one item. If somebody took something, I must not have needed it, because I’ve never missed it. And I’ve never had one (group) that didn’t clean up. It’s just fun like that. These young couples are just so happy. They feel good; we feel good about it.”
Kiser, a carpenter from Meeker, is doing cabinet work for the Striegels’ main guest house.
“Every year he (Bud) adds something else to it,” Kiser said of the ranch, which the Striegels bought in 1993 and was previously owned by Harry and Cleo Jordan.
Kiser said Bud, despite being president of the family business, is not at all pretentious.
He’s got money, but you would never know it,” Kiser said. “He’s just a hard-working guy.”
While working at the ranch, Kiser enjoys spending time around Bud when he’s there.
“He’s a great story teller,” Kiser said. “He just loves to show you around and tell you stories. The guy is just a character. What did he tell me? He loves having weddings (at the ranch), because he gets to kiss the bride.”