The Cottonwood Ranch is an historic site near Studley in Valley Township, Sheridan County, Kansas, United States. The ranch is now preserved as a Kansas State Historic Site. The ranch was built by Abraham Pratt, an Englishman who first came to the United States during the years of the

Colorado Gold Rush The Pike's Peak Gold Rush (later known as the Colorado Gold Rush) was the boom in gold prospecting and mining in the Pike's Peak Country of western Kansas Territory and southwestern Nebraska Territory of the United States that began in July 1858 ...

. After returning to England, he immigrated to Kansas with his sons John Fenton and Tom and settled in the Studley vicinity. Beginning in 1885, the men built a one-room stone house with a

sod roof A sod roof, or turf roof, is a traditional Scandinavian type of green roof covered with sod on top of several layers of birch bark on gently sloping wooden roof boards. Until the late 19th century, it was the most common roof on rural log house ...

and dirt floor. After it proved inadequate for shelter from the winter conditions, it was re-roofed with wood, and it was expanded in later years. Other buildings at the ranch included a sod stable, a sod-walled

corral A pen is an enclosure for holding livestock. It may also perhaps be used as a term for an enclosure for other animals such as pets that are unwanted inside the house. The term describes types of enclosures that may confine one or many animal ...

, and a wood-framed outbuilding with a toilet. A storage cistern was constructed to store water from a natural

spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season) Spring, also known as springtime, is one of the four temperate seasons, succeeding winter and preceding summer. There are various technical definitions of spring, but local usage of ...

on the property.Cottonwood Ranch State Historic Site History
Kansas State Historical Society, 2009. Accessed 2009-05-07 In 1983, the ranch property 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 ...

as the John Fenton Pratt Ranch.

References

External links

Cottonwood Ranch State Historic Site
Kansas Historical Society. {{National Register of Historic Places Agricultural buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Kansas English-American history Historic house museums in Kansas Kansas state historic sites Museums in Sheridan County, Kansas Ranches on the National Register of Historic Places National Register of Historic Places in Sheridan County, Kansas Ranches in Kansas