Snake River Ranch facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Snake River Ranch
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
Location in Wyoming Show map of Wyoming Location in the United States Show map of the United States
Location	Moose Wilson Road, Jackson Hole, Teton County, Wyoming, USA
Nearest city	Jackson, Wyoming
Built	1929
NRHP reference No.	04001089
Added to NRHP	November 26, 2004

The Snake River Ranch is a very large ranch located near Wilson, Wyoming. It's the biggest privately owned ranch in the beautiful Jackson Hole area. The ranch has many buildings, split into three main parts: a headquarters, homes, and shops.

This ranch was created by joining two smaller farms. It was first owned by Stanley B. Resor, who worked in advertising, and his wife, Helen Lansdowne Resor. The Resors used the ranch as a vacation spot. But it was also a busy, working ranch that could produce its own food, water, and electricity. The Snake River Ranch became famous because the Resors hired well-known architects, like Mies van der Rohe. Many famous people also visited the ranch. In 2004, the Snake River Ranch was added to the National Register of Historic Places, which means it's an important historical site.

History of the Ranch

The Resor family usually lived in Greenwich, Connecticut, which was close to Stanley's job in New York City. In 1929, their 12-year-old son, Stanley Rogers Resor, spent part of his summer in Jackson Hole. He stayed with the Huyler family, who had a ranch on the Snake River. Young Stanley loved his time there so much that his father bought 400 acres (160 ha) of land in the area without even seeing it first!

In 1930, the whole family came to see their new ranch. It had one old cabin, a barn, and two other small cabins. The family was excited about the ranch, though Helen preferred New York City. To make the ranch bigger, the Resors hired architect Paul Colborn. He designed a new main house for them. Work on the house was going well by the end of that summer. The Resor ranch was special because it had the first flush toilets and its own electricity in Jackson Hole.

Stanley Resor was very keen on making the ranch fully functional. By 1931, he had set up the ranch to be self-sufficient. He tore down the old barn and hired a landscape designer, Isabelle Pendleton. She helped plan the main headquarters area. In 1933, a water wheel was added to the ranch's pumphouse. This wheel helped provide power, but it had problems freezing in winter. So, in 1938, a better turbine was put in to make electricity. This turbine worked until 1955. In the late 1930s, more buildings were added, like the shop complex.

Mies van der Rohe's Design

In 1936, the Resors built the White Cabin for their guests. This cabin was designed by Philip Goodwin, a famous architect. Soon after, Helen Resor asked another architect, Mark Peters, to design a building. She wanted it to be in the style of Le Corbusier, another well-known architect. This new building, called the dining room, was meant to stretch over the mill stream. This stream was an arm of the Snake River that powered the ranch's turbine.

However, Helen Resor wasn't happy with Peters' design. She asked Alfred Barr, a director at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), for advice. Because of some disagreements within the MOMA board, Helen Resor ended up hiring Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. He was a very famous architect, and this was his first project in the United States! The Resors also thought about hiring Walter Gropius, but chose Mies.

In the summer of 1937, the Resors met Mies in Paris. He traveled back with them to the United States, visiting Chicago before heading to Wyoming. Mies stayed in the White Cabin, even sharing it for a while with artist Grant Wood. Mies stayed for two months before moving back to Chicago. There, he was offered a job as the director of the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Back in Chicago, Mies created detailed plans for a two-story building. It would have huge floor-to-ceiling windows and connect the banks of the stream. Mies usually used steel and glass, but for the first and only time, he planned to use wood for the outside of this building. He chose cypress wood, not the local lodgepole pine the Resors preferred. However, he did use local fieldstone for the lower walls, fireplace, and stairs.

By March 1938, Mies was on his way back to Germany. He then received a message from Stanley Resor that the project was canceled. Stanley said it was due to "business conditions." The project was going to cost more than twice its budget. There were also some technical problems with the large windows. By the fall of 1938, Mies was back in Chicago and started working on a smaller version of the project. But it was finally canceled for good. Even though it wasn't built, this project was important. It played a big part in Mies leaving Germany just before World War II began. The government there didn't like his modern style of architecture.

Ranch Operations

Stanley Resor made the ranch very efficient. It could run well even without him being there all the time. By 1938, Resor owned many properties. These included the Lower Ranch and four more in the main valley. All together, his land totaled 5,100 acres (2,100 ha). This made his ranch the second largest in the area.

In 1943, a major flood happened. Water was accidentally released from Jackson Lake Dam. The flood destroyed the millstream headgate and the power house. The White Cabin was also flooded with 2 feet (0.61 m) of water. The concrete piers for the planned dining room were damaged. If the dining room had been built, it would have been ruined. After the flood, Resor hired an engineer named C.C. Chambers. He designed a system of dikes to protect the ranch. Building the dikes was hard because there weren't enough workers during the war. This also affected how the ranch operated. So, Resor started using more machines on the ranch.

By the time Stanley Resor passed away in 1962, the ranch was fully developed and running smoothly. The Snake River Ranch is still owned by the Resor family today.

Ranch Sections

The Snake River Ranch is divided into three main areas, each with different buildings.

Shop Complex

This area is at the north end of the ranch. It's where the water from the Snake River enters the ranch's irrigation system. Buildings here include:

• Cowboy Barn (also called Harnessing Barn), built between 1931 and 1937
• Scale House
• Dipping Vat, from the late 1930s
• Snake River Dike and Heagate, built after the 1943 flood
• Calving Barn (Vet Shack)
• Fuel Shed (Turkey Coop), from the early 1930s

Ranch Headquarters Complex

This is the next group of buildings to the south. They are arranged in a rectangle around an open space. The designer, Isabelle Pendleton, planned the buildings to frame a beautiful view of the Teton Range.

• Root Cellar
• Potting Shed
• Blacksmith Shop
• Office (Bunkhouse), built in 1935, but rebuilt in the 1970s after a fire
• Woodshed (Coal House)
• Manager's House, built in 1931
• Ice House, built in 1933
• Milk House, built in 1931
• Turbine House and Dam, built in 1938
• Penthouse (Old Shop and Bunkhouse), built in 1943
• Main Barn, built in 1931
• Saddle House

Residential Complex

This is the southernmost group of buildings. These were used for the family and their guests.

• Main Cabin, designed by Paul Colborn
• Kitchen Cabin, built around 1916–1917, and made bigger in the 1930s and 1960s
• White Cabin, built in 1936, designed by Philip L. Goodwin
• Parking Lot Cabin, built in 1930
• Swimming Pool, built around 1936
• Mies van der Rohe building piers, these are concrete supports that were meant for the dining room designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The piers are 40 feet (12 m) long and 3 feet (0.91 m) thick. They were supposed to hold up a two-story building. The project was stopped in 1938 and damaged by a flood in 1943.

Notable Visitors

Conservation Efforts

In December 2007, the Hauge, Laughlin, and Resor families helped protect some of the land. They donated 360 acres (150 ha) on the north side of Munger Mountain to the Jackson Hole Land Trust. This land was next to an 80 acres (32 ha) area already protected. These lands came from the Lower Snake River Ranch property. The family has also worked with the National Park Service to sell 208 acres (84 ha) of their land to Grand Teton National Park.