Idaho Rocky Mountain Ranch

Idaho Rocky Mountain Ranch

The Idaho Rocky Mountain Ranch is a guest ranch located in central Idaho’s Sawtooth National Recreation Area [1] and is situated between the Sawtooth and White Cloud Mountain ranges. The 900 acre ranch property is located sixty miles north of the Ketchum, ID and Sun Valley, ID resort area, and 9 miles south of Stanley, Idaho, which according to the United States Census Bureau had in 2000 a population of 100 year-round residents.

Visitors often access this remote area by either the Boise Airport or by the Friedman Memorial Airport in Hailey. Visitors typically rent cars to better access to the many activities of the SNRA such as hiking, mountain biking, river rafting on the West Fork and Salmon Rivers, and family recreation sites such as Redfish Lake.

History

The Ranch property was originally part of Stanley Basin pioneer and Swiss guide Dave Williams’ homestead. Williams came to the Sawtooth Valley and opened his own dairy and butcher shop, delivered the mail up and over the 9000 ft. Galena Summit, and worked the Vienna Mine south of Stanley near the Smiley Lodge. Nearby Williams 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 Mr. 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, Idaho, 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 owners purchased the IRMR. Their investment ensures preservation of the Ranch history and guest operation, and continuing family adventures.

National Register of Historic Places

In 1994 the Idaho Rocky Mountain Club was placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior, and contributed to Custer County's 37 nationally registered historic places.

External links

• http://www.stanleycc.org/
• http://www.sawtoothcamera.com/
• http://www.visitsunvalley.com/
• http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/sawtooth/recreation/recreport.htm