Ranch A
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Ranch A
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| Location | Crook County, Wyoming, USA |
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| Nearest city | Beulah, Wyoming |
| Coordinates | 44°29′27″N 104°6′53″W / 44.49083°N 104.11472°WCoordinates: 44°29′27″N 104°6′53″W / 44.49083°N 104.11472°W |
| Area | 410 acres (170 ha) |
| Built | 1932 |
| Architect | Ewing,Ray; Juso Bros. |
| Architectural style | Rustic |
| NRHP Reference # | 97000227 |
| Added to NRHP | March 17, 1997 |
Ranch A, near Beulah, Wyoming, was built as a vacation retreat for newspaper publisher Moses Annenberg. The original log ranch structures in Sand Creek Canyon were designed in the rustic style by architect Ray Ewing. The principal building, a large log lodge, was built in 1932. Other buildings constructed at the time included a garage with an upstairs apartment, a barn, a hydroelectric power plant, stone entrance arches and a pump house. The lodge was furnished with Western furniture and light fixtures made by noted designer Thomas C. Molesworth. Many of these furnishings, among the first of Molesworth's career, are now the property of the state of Wyoming and are in the Wyoming State Museum.
Annenberg bought the property around November 1927 from Frank LaPlante. Annenberg and his son Walter were going to Yellowstone National Park and stopped to eat in Beulah. Impressed with the trout he was served, Annenberg inquired after the property where the trout was raised. He bought the 650-acre (260 ha) ranch from LaPlante on the spot the next day for $27,000 [today worth around $303,000 in 2010 dollars] in cash, which Annenberg produced from his pocket. Annenberg added more parcels to bring total acreage to more than 2,000 acres (810 ha). Moses and Walter Annenberg were the chief users of the ranch; Sadie Annenberg and her daughters came to the ranch only once. Guests arrived by rail at Aladdin, Wyoming, where the tracks ended, on private railcars owned by Annenberg. As publisher of the Daily Racing Form, Annenberg had a telephone communication center installed in the basement for coordination of horse racing information.
The design work was done by South Dakota architect Ray Ewing, who hired the Juso Brothers to build the structures. The Jusos were Finnish immigrants who used traditional Finnish log building practices to fell, trim and erect the logs for the lodge and supporting structures. Work took place during the Great Depression, employing sixty to seventy workers, a significant project for the local economy. Site planning and landscape architecture were done by South Dakota landscape architect J.R. McKay.
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Wikipedia