The Frijole Ranch, also known as Guadalupe Ranch, Spring Hill Ranch and the Rader-Smith Ranch, is located in Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Guadalupe Mountains National Park is located in the Guadalupe Mountains of West Texas and contains Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas at in elevation. It also contains El Capitan, long used as a landmark by people traveling along the old route later followed by the Butterfield Overland...

 in extreme west Texas. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 on November 21, 1978, and represents a significant period in the settlement and ranching of the Guadalupe Mountains

Guadalupe Mountains

The Guadalupe Mountains are a mountain range located in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico. The range includes the highest summit in Texas, Guadalupe Peak, , and the "signature peak" of West Texas, El Capitan, both located within Guadalupe Mountains National Park, as well as Carlsbad Caverns...

.

History

The ranch was built about 1876 by the Rader Brothers in the Guadalupe Mountains next to Frijole Spring and comprises seven buildings: the ranch house, a bunkhouse, a barn, a double outhouse, a springhouse, a shed, and a school house. With the exception of the barn and school house, the buildings are constructed of local stone rubble, and all buildings are surrounded by a stone rubble wall. The complex represents the most complete early ranching operation in the Guadalupe Mountains. The ranch was built in close proximity to several other springs, whose surrounding area was inhabited by Native Americans

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

 from prehistory.

The Rader brothers, the first settlers on the southeast side of the mountains, left the area in the late 1880s. The Herring family of North Carolina occupied the ranch for a time between the late 1880s and 1895, with Herring daughter Ida marrying George W. Wolcott in 1888. The Wolcotts moved to Midland, Texas

Midland, Texas

Midland is a city in and the county seat of Midland County, Texas, United States, on the Southern Plains of the state's western area. A small portion of the city extends into Martin County. As of 2010, the population of Midland was 111,147. It is the principal city of the Midland, Texas...

 in 1895. The Smith family occupied the previously vacant ranch from 1906, calling it "Spring Hill Ranch." The Smiths expanded the ranch and operated a truck farm, expanding the farm house and building the bunkhouse and school house. They invested in a hydraulic ram

Hydraulic ram

A hydraulic ram, or hydram, is a cyclic water pump powered by hydropower. It functions as a hydraulic transformer that takes in water at one "hydraulic head" and flow-rate, and outputs water at a higher hydraulic-head and lower flow-rate...

 to pump water and installed a carbide lamp

Carbide lamp

Carbide lamps, properly known as acetylene gas lamps, are simple lamps that produce and burn acetylene which is created by the reaction of calcium carbide with water....

 system in the house, later changing to electric lights operated by a wind generator

Wind generator

A wind generator is a device that generates electrical power from wind energy.Wind generators have traditionally been wind turbines, i.e. a propeller attached to an electric generator attached to appropriate electronics to attach it to the electrical grid or to charge batteries.Recently, however, a...

. The Smiths operated a post office at the site from 1916 to 1942.

John Smith sold the ranch to Judge Jesse Coleman Hunter of Van Horn, Texas

Van Horn, Texas

Van Horn is a town in and the county seat of Culberson County, Texas, United States. The population was 2,435 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Van Horn is located at ....

 for $55,000 in 1942 and moved to Hawley, Texas

Hawley, Texas

Hawley is a city in Jones County, Texas, United States. The population was 646 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Abilene, Texas Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Hawley is located at ....

. Hunter assembled the "Guadalupe Mountains Ranch" of 43000 acres (17,401.5 ha), producing, among other things, mohair

Mohair

Mohair usually refers to a silk-like fabric or yarn made from the hair of the Angora goat. The word "mohair" was adopted into English before 1570 from the Arabic: mukhayyar, a type of haircloth, literally 'choice', from khayyara, 'he chose'. Mohair fiber is approximately 25-45 microns in...

 wool. The ranch house was the home of ranch foreman Noel Kincaid from 1942 to 1969. Hunter began to advocate the region for a national park in 1925. Hunter's son, J.C. Junior, inherited the ranch in 1945 and continued his father's work, expanding the ranch to 67213 acres (27,200.2 ha), eventually selling the land to the National Park Service

National Park Service

The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...

in 1966 for $1.5 million.

National Park

The ranch buildings were used by the National Park Service as employee residence and utility buildings from 1969 to 1980. From 1983 to 1991 the house was a Park Service operations center. The house was restored in 1992 and is an interpretive center and museum, known as the Frijole Ranch Cultural Museum.

External links

• Frijole Ranch at Guadalupe Mountains National Park