Dorr Ranch

Last updated
Dorr Ranch
USA Wyoming location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Nearest city Bill, Wyoming
Coordinates 43°23′15″N105°10′56″W / 43.38750°N 105.18222°W / 43.38750; -105.18222 (Dorr Ranch)
MPS Ranches, Farms and Homesteads in Wyoming, 1860-1960 MPS
NRHP reference No. 14001080
Added to NRHPDecember 22, 2014 [1]

The Dorr Ranch was established by William and Mabel Dorr in 1910 in Converse County, Wyoming along Woody Creek. William had left home at the age of 8 or 9 and worked for the 71 Quarter Ranch and as a horse wrangler at Pony Express stations in Wyoming. He met Mabel McIntosh and married her in 1904. Mabel's parents had established the successful Hat Ranch near Split Rock and had significant resources to assist the young couple. The Dorrs filed for their first homestead in 1910 and expanded it in 1915, and again in 1917 and 1919, with a separate 1919 filing by Mabel. The Dorr's properties were not contiguous, and the present ranch house on Woody Creek was not built until 1915. In 1919 the Dorr School was built on the ranch. The same year the community of Bill was established, named after the shared name of four of the founders. The main ranch house was built in 1926–27.

Contents

The Dorrs raised cattle and horses, running up to 700 horses for sale to the U.S. and Mexican armies. From about 1929 the property was leased and sold to a series of companies associated with the Dorrs, apparently to cover financial trouble. In 1939 the Dorrs moved to Miles City, Montana and the Morton family operated the ranch as part of their extensive holdings, using the Dorr ranch house as an overseers residence.

The ranch was finally sold to the Mortons in 1947, part of a 16,464-acre (6,663 ha) transaction. [2] [3]

Description

The ranch includes the 1925 main house, two 1915 log cabins, a stable, corral, windmill, cistern and the site of the schoolhouse. The main house is a two-story frame house on a sandstone foundation, with nine rooms, measuring about 36 feet (11 m) by 32 feet (9.8 m). One log cabin has two rooms, the other one. The windmill has a functioning Aeromotor. Other structures include a two-seat privy. [2]

The Dorr Ranch was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in on December 22, 2014. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murie Ranch Historic District</span> Historic district in Wyoming, United States

The Murie Ranch Historic District, also known as the STS Dude Ranch and Stella Woodbury Summer Home is an inholding in Grand Teton National Park near Moose, Wyoming. The district is chiefly significant for its association with the conservationists Olaus Murie, his wife Margaret (Mardy) Murie and scientist Adolph Murie and his wife Louise. Olaus and Adolph Murie were influential in the establishment of an ecological approach to wildlife management, while Mardy Murie was influential because of her huge conservation victories such as passing the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 and being awarded with the highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, for her lifetime works in conservation. Olaus Murie was a prominent early field biologist in the U.S. Biological Survey and subsequent U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service before retiring and becoming the president of the Wilderness Society, He was a prominent advocate for the preservation of wild lands in America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cunningham Cabin</span> Historic house in Wyoming, United States

The Cunningham Cabin is a double-pen log cabin in Grand Teton National Park in the US state of Wyoming. It was built as a homestead in Jackson Hole and represents an adaptation of an Appalachian building form to the West. The cabin was built just south of Spread Creek by John Pierce Cunningham, who arrived in Jackson Hole in 1885 and subsisted as a trapper until he established the Bar Flying U Ranch in 1888. The Cunninghams left the valley for Idaho in 1928, when land was being acquired for the future Grand Teton National Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Menor's Ferry</span> United States historic place

Menor's Ferry was a river ferry that crossed the Snake River near the present-day Moose, Wyoming, United States. The site was homesteaded by Bill Menor in 1892-94, choosing a location where the river flowed in a single channel, rather than the braided stream that characterizes its course in most of Jackson Hole. During the 1890s it was the only homestead west of the river. Menor's homestead included a five-room cabin, a barn, a store, sheds and an icehouse on 148 acres (60 ha), irrigated by a ditch from Cottonwood Creek and at times supplemented by water raised from the Snake River by a waterwheel. Menor operated the ferry until 1918, selling to Maude Noble, who continued operations until 1927, when a bridge was built at Moose.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">4 Lazy F Dude Ranch</span> United States historic place

The 4 Lazy F Ranch, also known as the Sun Star Ranch, is a dude ranch and summer residence in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, built by the William Frew family of Pittsburgh in 1927. The existing property was built as a family retreat, not as a cattle ranch, in a rustic style of construction using logs and board-and-batten techniques. The historic district includes seven cabins, a lodge, barn corral and smaller buildings on the west bank of the Snake River north of Moose, Wyoming. The property was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White Grass Dude Ranch</span> United States historic place

The White Grass Dude Ranch is located in the White Grass Valley of Grand Teton National Park. The rustic log lodge, dining hall service building and ten cabins were built when a working ranch was converted to a dude ranch, and represented one of the first dude ranch operations in Jackson Hole. The White Grass was established in 1913 by Harold Hammond and George Tucker Bispham, who combined two adjacent ranches or 160 acres (65 ha) each, and was converted to a dude ranch in 1919. Bispham had worked at the Bar B C before moving out on his own. The dude ranch operation continued to 1985, when the ranch was acquired by the National Park Service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TA Ranch Historic District</span> Historic district in Wyoming, United States

The TA Ranch was the site of the principal events of the Johnson County Range War in 1892. The TA was established in 1882 as one of the first ranches in Johnson County, Wyoming. The TA is the only intact site associated with the range war, with trenches used by both sides still visible and scars on the nearby buildings. The ranch also documents the expansion and development of cattle ranching in Wyoming.

The Goff Creek Lodge is a dude ranch in Shoshone National Forest on the east entrance road to Yellowstone National Park. The ranch was probably established c. 1910 by Tex Kennedy. Built in typical dude ranch style with a rustic log lodge surrounded by cabins, its period of significance extends from 1929 to 1950.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buckner Homestead Historic District</span> Historic district in Washington, United States

The Buckner Homestead Historic District, near Stehekin, Washington in Lake Chelan National Recreation Area incorporates a group of structures relating to the theme of early settlement in the Lake Chelan area. Representing a time period of over six decades, from 1889 to the 1950s, the district comprises 15 buildings, landscape structures and ruins, and over 50 acres (200,000 m2) of land planted in orchard and criss-crossed by hand-dug irrigation ditches. The oldest building on the farm is a cabin built in 1889. The Buckner family bought the farm in 1910 and remained there until 1970, when the property was sold to the National Park Service. The Buckner Cabin was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The rest of the Buckner farm became a historic district in 1989. Today, the National Park Service maintains the Buckner homestead and farm as an interpretive center to give visitors a glimpse at pioneer farm life in the Stehekin Valley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Welty's General Store</span> United States historic place

Welty's General Store is a store in Dubois, Wyoming.

The HF Bar Ranch is located in Johnson County, Wyoming about 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Buffalo, Wyoming in the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains near Saddlestring, Wyoming. The ranch is a working cattle ranch comprising about 36 buildings, built between 1898 and 1921. The ranch is associated with Wyoming state senator and U.S. Congressman Frank O. Horton, who purchased it in 1911 with financial help from his investment banker brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Warren and Demia Gorrell. The Gorrells and their children spent summers in Wyoming, while the Hortons stayed year-round.

The J.D. Woodruff Cabin Site is the location of the first European-American settlement in the Big Horn Basin of Wyoming. John Dwight Woodruff built a cabin on Owl Creek in Hot Springs County in 1871. Woodruff had befriended Chief Washakie of the Shoshone people and gained Washakie's permission to graze six thousand sheep in the area, one of the first large sheep operations in Wyoming. He ran cattle in the area during the 1880s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Circle Ranch</span> United States historic place

The Circle Ranch, also known as the R.L. Miller Ranch has been continuously operated as a working cattle ranch for more than 100 years. Located in Sublette County, Wyoming, it was first occupied as a homestead by Otto Liefer between 1878 and 1880. Liefer sold his claim to James Mickelson in 1895, who developed the ranch into one of the largest ranching operations in the area. The ranch has remained in the Mickelson family ever since.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Historical buildings and structures of Grand Teton National Park</span> United States historic place

The historical buildings and structures of Grand Teton National Park include a variety of buildings and built remains that pre-date the establishment of Grand Teton National Park, together with facilities built by the National Park Service to serve park visitors. Many of these places and structures have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The pre-Park Service structures include homestead cabins from the earliest settlement of Jackson Hole, working ranches that once covered the valley floor, and dude ranches or guest ranches that catered to the tourist trade that grew up in the 1920s and 1930s, before the park was expanded to encompass nearly all of Jackson Hole. Many of these were incorporated into the park to serve as Park Service personnel housing, or were razed to restore the landscape to a natural appearance. Others continued to function as inholdings under a life estate in which their former owners could continue to use and occupy the property until their death. Other buildings, built in the mountains after the initial establishment of the park in 1929, or in the valley after the park was expanded in 1950, were built by the Park Service to serve park visitors, frequently employing the National Park Service Rustic style of design.

The Flying Horseshoe Ranch was established in the Centennial Valley of southeastern Wyoming by Danish immigrant Mads Wolbol in the late 1870s. The complex of mostly log structures, about 15 of which are considered contributing structures.

Richardson's Overland Trail Ranch is a complex of seven ranch buildings at the crossing of the Big Laramie River by the Overland Trail. The ranch's main residence was built as a stage station for the trail in 1862. A corduroy road was built at the same time. By 1864 ranching became established around the stage station, primarily by Tom Alsop, Edward Creighton and Charlie Hutton. With Creighton's death in 1874 the land was divided between Alsop on the west side of the river and Hutton on the east side. The ranch on the west side became known as the Heart or Hart Ranch. The ranches at the river crossing became part of the larger Riverside Livestock Company.

The Braehead Ranch is a ranch complex in Converse County, Wyoming, about 17 miles (27 km) southwest of Douglas. The ranch is in a scenic landscape in the La Prele valley with a view of the red sandstone cliffs of Red Canyon. It was founded by George H. Cross in the 1880s. The original log homestead, built in 1883, has been preserved, together with contemporaneous ranch buildings. Contributing structures in the complex include a log barn (1887), a frame barn (1889), a granary (1900), a chicken house (1910), a windmill and a variety of smaller buildings. The main house dates to 1893-1897, of frame construction.

The Brooks Lake Lodge, also known as the Brooks Lake Hotel and Diamond G Ranch, as well as the Two-Gwo-Tee Inn, is a recreational retreat in Fremont County, Wyoming near Dubois in the upper Wind River valley. The complex was built in 1922 to accommodate travelers coming to Yellowstone National Park on U.S. Route 287 from central Wyoming. The buildings are mainly of log construction with Craftsman style detailing.

The CM Ranch and Simpson Lake Cabins are separate components of a single historic district associated with Charles Cornell Moore, a Fremont County, Wyoming dude ranch operator. The CM ranch, named after Moore, operated as a dude ranch from 1920 to 1942 and resumed operating in 1945. The Simpson Lake Cabins were purchased by Moore in 1931 and were operated as a hunting camp, continuing until 1997 when the CM ranch was sold to new owners and the Simpson Lake property was taken over by the U.S. Forest Service.. The sites are separated by 13 miles (21 km).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Torrey Lake Historic District</span> Historic district in Wyoming, United States

The Torrey Lake Club or Torrey Lake Ranch, also known as the Boardman Ranch or Murdock Ranch was built as a resort in the 1920s about 8 miles (13 km) southeast of Dubois, Wyoming. at an elevation of about 7,400 feet (2,300 m).The club is on about 603 acres (244 ha), centered on a complex of nine cabins, a bunkhouse for ranch hands and staff, and supporting structures. The log cabins were built by club members from local materials.

The Huxtable Ranch Ranch Headquarters District, also known as White Creek Ranch, comprises a complex of ranch structures in Converse County, Wyoming. It was part of a dispersed community known as Boxelder, established by settlers in the 1880s. The ranch was established in 1893 by Charles Smith who built a one-room and later a three-room cabin on the property, as well as a barn. Three years later he sold the homestead to Willard Heber White. White and his wife lived on the ranch until 1928 when they moved to Douglas. On White's death in 1929, the ranch was purchased by Lloyd Huxtable and Charlie Olin. Lloyd and Olin built the present ranch house for Charlie and his wife Najima, Olin's sister, from 1933 to 1935. The Huxtables operated the ranch until his death at 86 in 1976. Huxtable served as a Converse County Commissioner from 1948 to 1956.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. 1 2 Ruth, Bridget (2014). "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Dorr Ranch" (PDF). National Park Service.
  3. "Dorr Ranch". Wyoming State Preservation Office.