*Please Note: This is a SPECIAL SOP Pop-Up Event. It will take place at the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center & Museum (gorgediscovery.org / 541-296-8600)

ARRIVE EARLY! All attendees will be able to visit the NEW, permanent exhibit exploring the story of the Imperial Stock Ranch and Shaniko Wool - including the Olympic uniforms and hands-on wool samples.

Event Description: The story continues with American Wool, Regenerative Agriculture, and the Future of an Industry with Jeanne Carver. Join us for a follow-up conversation to her sold-out Sense of Place talk Woven in Place. Building on the story of her family’s historic Imperial Stock Ranch and the creation of Shaniko Wool Company, Jeanne will delve into how shifts in mindset and ranching practices are transforming both the land and the economics of American wool. Through her work connecting soil health to high fashion, she’s helping to prove that climate stewardship and rural livelihoods can thrive together. In this conversation, Jeanne will share how measurable carbon sequestration, traceability, and renewed markets are redefining what it means to raise sheep, produce fiber, and care for the land—all while inviting discussion on how these ideas can scale across the West and beyond.

Join Sense of Place host/curator, Sarah Fox in conversation with rancher, Jeanne Carver.

Bio: For more than 25 years, Jeanne Carver has been at the forefront of the slow food and slow fashion movements, rebuilding the importance of traditional skills, connections to the origins of food and fiber, and strengthening local, regional and domestic supply chain partners.

Her story is one of successful adaptation to changing markets. From her family’s Imperial Stock Ranch in Wasco County (est. 1871), she and her late husband Dan went from selling commodity lamb and wool in 1999, to selling retail products that were ecologically sensitive. Almost twenty years later, they created Shaniko Wool Company, and Jeanne oversaw the expansion of Responsible Wool Standard (RWS) certified American wool, into a variety of products and markets. Jeanne has built a growing network of ranchers, designers and brands, working exclusively with U.S. supply chain partners for 25 years. In an era of outsourcing and disconnect, she led with traceability and accountability. In 2014, Jeanne became the source and voice of American wool for Ralph Lauren’s first Made in America Team USA Winter Olympic uniform program, and again in 2018, 2022 and for the summer Olympics in Paris 2024. Since 2020, she has partnered with Oregon State University in a comprehensive research effort to measure and verify results of an even greater story: the net environmental impacts of Shaniko Wool Company ranching operations across a broad piece of the American landscape.

Jeanne is an award-winning agricultural entrepreneur and author, receiving both the American Sheep Industry Innovation Award and the Oregon State University College of Agricultural Sciences Hall of Fame Award in 2023. She was featured in His Majesty at 75: The Leadership and Vision of King Charles III, for her work in regenerative wool production and promoting the provenance of wool in fashion.

Learn More:

WATCH: SOP Season 16 - Woven in Place: A Ranchers Journey from Sheep to Fashion and the Olympics (Oct. 8, 2025)

Shaniko Wool

American Wool, Regenerative Agriculture, and the Future of an Industry

at Columbia Gorge Discovery Center & Museum