The Idaho Rocky Mountain Ranch is a guest ranch located in the

Sawtooth National Recreation Area The Sawtooth National Recreation Area (SNRA) is a national recreation area in central Idaho, United States that is managed as part of Sawtooth National Forest. The recreation area, established on August 22, 1972, is managed by the U.S. Forest Ser ...

of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

, between the Sawtooth and White Cloud Mountain ranges. The ranch property is located in Custer County, sixty miles north of the

Ketchum Ketchum may refer to: Towns, cities, and, geographic features * Ketchum, Idaho, United States * Ketchum, Oklahoma, United States * Lake Ketchum, Washington, United States * Ketchum Glacier, a glacier in Antarctica * Ketchum Ridge, a large ridge i ...

and Sun Valley resort area and south of Stanley, Idaho, which had a population of 100 at the 2000 census.

History

The Ranch property was originally part of Stanley Basin pioneer and Swiss guide Dave Williams’ homestead. Williams came to the

Sawtooth Valley The Sawtooth Valley is a valley in the Western United States, in Blaine and Custer counties of central Idaho. About long, it is in Sawtooth National Recreation Area (SNRA) in the Sawtooth National Forest. It is surrounded by the Sawtooth Mounta ...

and opened his own dairy and butcher shop, delivered the mail up and over the . Galena Summit, and worked the Vienna Mine south of Stanley near the Smiley Lodge. Nearby

Williams Peak (Idaho) Williams Peak, at high is the 6th highest peak in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho and is located within the Sawtooth Wilderness portion of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. The peak lies north-northeast of Thompson Peak, the highest peak ...

is named after the pioneer, who was a part of the first ascent team in 1934. In 1929 the property was acquired by Winston Paul, a New York Frigidaire distributor, who began building the Idaho Rocky Mountain Club to serve as a private hunting club. Ranch Construction began in the fall of 1929 with the snaking of logs up Williams and Gold Creek, to the Big Meadow chosen as the Lodge site. A crew of 60 men, among them a blacksmith and stonemason, camped on the Ranch property for 3 months until they were forced to leave by severe winter weather. The crew returned in the spring of 1930 to complete construction, and the Idaho Rocky Mountain Club opened that summer as an invitation-only guest facility. A hydroelectric plant, the log structure still standing at the willowed bend in the pond, generated power for the IRMC, providing the first electricity in the Sawtooth Valley. The construction project proved a welcome source of income for the men during the years of the Great Depression. Austrian clothing manufacturer Josef Lanz purchased the IRMC from Paul, but the guest ranch was forced to close at the outbreak of World War II. In 1951, Edmund A. Bogert, an automobile dealer from

Pocatello Pocatello () is the county seat of and largest city in Bannock County, with a small portion on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation in neighboring Power County, in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Idaho. It is the principal city of the ...

, purchased the lodge and changed the name to the Idaho Rocky Mountain Ranch. Mr. Bogert began a program of leveling, fertilizing and planting, and earned the 1958 Custer County Grassman of the Year Award. In 1977 Edmund's daughter Rozalys Smith began her proprietorship of the IRMR. The 54 year stewardship of the Smith family continued until February 2005 when a new family of preservationally concerned owners purchased the IRMR.

National Register of Historic Places

In 1994, the Idaho Rocky Mountain Club was placed 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 v ...

as a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

. Twelve buildings and two other structures at the club qualified as

contributing properties In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...

. It is currently one of thirty-seven places listed on the Register in Custer County.

References

External links

Idaho Rocky Mountain Ranch
- official site {{National Register of Historic Places Buildings and structures in Custer County, Idaho Economy of Idaho Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Idaho Farms on the National Register of Historic Places in Idaho Tourist attractions in Custer County, Idaho Ranches in the United States National Register of Historic Places in Custer County, Idaho