Lightning Strike Kills Colorado Rancher and 34 Head of Cattle

Cattle eat in a grazing area on a mesa where grasses would normally be waist high but are instead much shorter following a lower snowpack and lack of rain during the historic western Colorado drought in Mesa County near Whitewater, Colo., on June 30, 2021. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

DENVER—A lightning strike killed a Colorado rancher and 34 head of cattle over the weekend, officials said Sunday.

Mike Morgan, 51, was feeding his cattle from a trailer when he was struck and died on the scene despite life-saving efforts, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office said.

The lightning bolt struck on wide open pasture outside the town of Rand, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) northwest of Denver, said George Crocket, the county coroner.

The strike also bowled over around 100 head of cattle that had bunched around the trailer loaded with hay, said Mr. Crocket. “All but the 34 got up,” he said.

Morgan’s father-in-law and wife were nearby but survived the blast, said Mr. Crocket.

The incident stunned the small, tight-knit community where most everybody knows everybody, Mr. Crocket said.

By Jesse Bedayn