The Ainsworth House, also known as the Greet Ranch, was built in 1886 by homesteader Frank S. Ainsworth and his wife in

Big Trails, Wyoming Big Trails is an unincorporated place in the eastern part of Washakie County in north-central Wyoming. Wyoming Highway 434 leads north 21 miles to Ten Sleep, and south over mountains to Lost Cabin, Lysite, and Moneta. Barnum and Mayoworth are ...

, in the Nowood Valley of Washakie County. The Ainsworths built the frame house after living in a tent and a log dugout. The house was one of the first permanent habitations to be built in the

Bighorn Basin The Bighorn Basin is a plateau region and intermontane basin, approximately 100 miles (160 km) wide, in north-central Wyoming in the United States. It is bounded by the Absaroka Range on the west, the Pryor Mountains on the north, the Bigho ...

. The 1886 section of the house is a 1½ story framed and clapboarded building, to which was appended a 1½ story log house built in 1890 and expanded upward in 1911. Ainsworth was born in

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

in 1857. He went west to

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, then hunted and trapped in northwestern

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

. By 1879 he was trapping in the Bighorn Basin. In 1885 he returned to Iowa to marry Lucy Ann Albee and brought her back to the Bighorn Basin where they built their house. They subsisted by cultivating the native hay of the region, which allowed them to grow sufficient fodder to withstand the severe winters. Ainsworth also worked as a carpenter in the area. The house was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1986.

References

External links

Ainsworth House
at the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office * Houses in Washakie County, Wyoming Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Wyoming National Register of Historic Places in Washakie County, Wyoming {{Wyoming-NRHP-stub