The Ewing-Snell Ranch was established between 1896 and 1898 by Erastus Ewing in Carbon County, Montana, on Layout Creek between

Bighorn Canyon Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area is a national recreation area established by an act of Congress on October 15, 1966, following the construction of the Yellowtail Dam by the Bureau of Reclamation. It straddles the border between Wyoming ...

and the Pryor Mountains in a region called

Dryhead Country Dryhead Country is a region in Carbon County and Big Horn County in southern Montana between Bighorn Canyon and the Pryor Mountains. The locale was named after the piles of dry bison skulls that accumulated at the base of a local buffalo jump. The ...

. Ewing took up ranching after failing as a gold miner. Erastus Ewing was born in Tennessee about 1846, arriving in Montana in the 1880s to look for gold. He staked numerous claims, one of which controlled the water rights for Layout Creek. After giving up prospecting, he used the rights to establish his ranch, digging a ditch to his homestead from the creek. Ewing's place was designated a post office in 1898, operating until 1906 as Ewing, Montana before moving to the Caroline Lockhart Ranch. Erastus died in 1904. His son Lee sold the ranch to Clint Hough in 1911, who sold it to Philip Snell in 1918. The shop building operated as the Dryhead School in 1945–57. Snell's descendants sold the ranch to Newell K. Sorenson in 1964. Sorenson sold to the Bureau of Reclamation for the construction of

Yellowtail Dam Yellowtail Dam is a dam across the Bighorn River in south central Montana in the United States. The mid-1960s era concrete arch dam serves to regulate the flow of the Bighorn for irrigation purposes and to generate hydroelectric power. The dam an ...

in 1968. The ranch is part of Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area. The Ewing-Snell Ranch was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 12, 1977.

References

External links

Ewing-Snell Ranch
at Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area

at Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area {{authority control National Register of Historic Places in Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area Houses completed in 1896 Ranches on the National Register of Historic Places in Montana 1896 establishments in Montana National Register of Historic Places in Carbon County, Montana Log buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Montana Houses in Big Horn County, Montana Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Montana