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Pinedale Online > News > May 2012 > Sommers Homestead will be open for summer hours

Ice House. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
Ice House
The Ice House was moved onto the site in May, 2012. Money must be raised to do the renovation on this building. After it is restored and functional, the museums would like to organize a winter ice cutting expedition to harvest ice blocks from the Green River, transport them into the ice house, and do research to see how long the ice lasts. Ice was insulated in sawdust.

Bunkhouse. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
Bunkhouse
After moving the Ice House, the construction crew started work to move the old bunkhouse over the historical site area. They ended up rolling it over inch by inch across logs placed on the ground. Jim Roscoe is the general contractor handling the homestead renovation work. This building will be restored as money is raised for this building renovation project.

Interpreting the homestead era of the early 1900s in the Upper Green River Valley. This is a cooperative project managed by the Sublette County Historical Society, Green River Valley Museum, and siblings Jonita and Albert Sommers.

Sommers Homestead will be open for summer hours
Friday & Saturdays from 10AM to 3PM June 1 through August, 2012
by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online!
May 31, 2012

The new Sommers Ranch Homestead living history site will be open two days a week during the summer for public viewing. The site will be staffed by volunteers, and open Fridays and Saturdays from 10AM until 3PM from June 1st through August. The Homestead Grand Opening will be on September 1, 2012.

The historical site interprets life during the homestead era from the early to mid-1900s in the Upper Green River Valley. The Sommers Ranch Homestead is being managed through a cooperative agreement with siblings Jonita and Albert Sommers and the Sublette County Historical Society and Green River Valley Museum. It is located 7.3 miles south of US 191 on the East Green River Road (turn south at Trappers Point and keep to the main road which stays on the high bluffs paralleling the river). Turn at the Sommers Fishing Access sign. Park outside of the gate in the triangle and walk into the site. Admission is by donation. There are no food services on the site, so bring your own refreshments for your group when you come. A porta-potty restroom is available. Kids welcome (note that cattle roam freely outside of the homestead property fencing - please watch kids and your pets).

The Sommers gave the Sublette County Historical Society an easement on 1.5 acres of land for the original homestead site. Buildings include the five-room, two-story log homestead house built in 1908, a meat house, cellar, garage, ice house, bunkhouse/granary, and a 2-seater outhouse. The site has been undergoing extensive restoration since 2010 to repair and restore the deteriorating buildings and to do interpretation. An open house was held in September 2011.

For those who visited last year and are wondering what is new this summer, he garage and cellar buildings are now completely restored and open for public viewing. The ice house and bunk house buildings were moved onto the historical site property this spring. Those two building will be restored as funding is acquired.

The purpose of the site is to give the public an opportunity to see what life was like on a rural homestead ranch in the Upper Green River Valley from the early 1900s into the 1950s.

Volunteers are welcome and encouraged to help with this project. Future plans include recreating the ranch garden, rebuilding the electric wind charger windmill, rebuilding a water wheel and moving a barn onto the site.

For more information, contact Angie Thomas as the Museum of the Mountain Man in Pinedale, 307-367-4101.



Related Links
  • Homestead house Before and After restoration - Photos
  • Sommers Ranch Homestead on Facebook
  • Sommers Ranch Homestead Open House - Pinedale Online, September 8, 2011

  • Susan Kautza. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Susan Kautza
    Susan installed the wallpaper in the homestead house. Here she works on the Cowboy Bedroom. The historical society paid to have this wallpaper replicated to recreate the wallpaper that was originally in this room.

    Cowboy wallpaper. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Cowboy wallpaper
    Unable to find modern wallpaper to match this design, the historial society found a company that recreates vintage wallpapers to reproduce it. A section of the original wallpaper was carefully removed, crated up, and sent to them to scan to make the new wallpaper for this room. This is expensive to do, but it turned out marvelously to recreate how this upstairs bedroom originally looked.

    Completed cowboy room. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Completed cowboy room
    Susan had to wallpaper the walls and ceilings in this upstairs bedroom to recreate the way it was originally done. Of course, none of the walls are square, and matching the wallpaper strips was quite a challenge, but she did a great job! Once the wallpaper was done, furniture was moved in to make this room represent a child's bedroom.

    Wallpaper floor to ceiling. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Wallpaper floor to ceiling
    Susan did an amazing job with the wallpaper project. Upstairs the walls and ceilings were covered with wallpaper. This is a replica paper that is similar to what was originally upstairs. It was cost-prohibitive to custom recreate all of the wallpapers that were used in the home. Only one of the patterns was replicated. Due to cost, the rest were matched as closely as possible with modernly available historic patterns.

    Moving the Ice House. Photo by Pinedale Online.
    Moving the Ice House
    This hole is where the Ice House used to be on the ranch. Its new location can be seen in the back, behind the telephone pole, with the support braces still in position. The building has been used as garage storage for ranch tractors for years.

    Ice House. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Ice House
    Workers moved the Ice House into position between the homestead house and the cellar. When this picture was taken, it still needed to be moved over onto the new wood foundation.

    Ice House foundation. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Ice House foundation
    Since this photo was taken on May 13th, the Ice House has been moved onto this foundation.

    Bunkhouse. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Bunkhouse
    With considerable skill and effort, the crew got the Bunkhouse moved over into position on the historical site part of the property.

    Checking the supports. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Checking the supports

    Bunkhouse. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Bunkhouse
    For now the Bunkhouse/Granary isn't open for the public to view the inside. Money needs to be raised for the restoration of this building.

    Bunkhouse-Granary. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Bunkhouse-Granary

    Bunkhouse front and side view. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Bunkhouse front and side view
    Note the raised wooden brands on the Bunkhouse door.

    Buildings on the site. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Buildings on the site
    In the background, the garage, cellar and homestead house have all been completely restored and are now open to the public to go inside and explore.

    Old Bed. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Old Bed
    This iron bed was donated to the homestead project by the Charles Price family in memory of Alex and Mary Price. It is placed upstairs in the Wood Bedroom which interprets the homestead house as it was in the 1910s. At that time, the walls were plain wood. Later they were covered with layers of newspapers and Saturday Evening Post magazines.

    Interpretive signs. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Interpretive signs
    Interpretive signs are placed around the site. Visitors are encouraged to walk around and explore. The site is a little over an acre in size. Parts are still under development, including the garden area and several of the buildings. In this photo, the two triangle shaped objects are chicken coups where hens raised their young chicks.

    Chickens. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Chickens
    Raising chickens and eggs will be part of the learning experience and many future living history projects at the Sommers Ranch Homestead.

    Homestead House and antler pile. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Homestead House and antler pile
    The antler pile has been at this spot in front of the homestead house for decades. When the house was lifted and moved to pour the new foundation in 2010, the antler pile was wired all together and moved as a mass to get it out of harms way. Once the house was moved back, the antler pile was put back in its spot.

    Old Water Pump. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Old Water Pump
    The old water pump is not yet operational. It is currently broken and needs to be repaired and restored. Once that happens, visitors will be able to pump water with it, just as the family did to obtain their drinking water.

    Kitchen. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Kitchen
    Furniture is now in place inside the homestead house. A cream separator sits where the original one was in the room. It will be operational and used in living history demonstrations to show how families separated and made cream and butter from cow's milk.

    Living Room. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Living Room
    Many local families have donated and loaned items to be placed in the homestead house. Half of the living room has bare wood walls, to show what it was like living in the home in the early 1900s before improvements were made to the interior.

    Living room. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Living room
    The other half of the living room was sheet rocked and wallpapered, similar to how the room looked in later years of its use by the family. As families were able to earn more money, they were able to make improvements to their living conditions.

    Upstairs bedroom. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Upstairs bedroom

    Sewing area. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Sewing area
    The sewing area was very important to the woman of the house. This nook is in a corner of the larger upstairs bedroom.

    Sewing nook. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Sewing nook
    This display includes a Singer treadle sewing machine, and old crochet and sewing patterns.

    Old trunk. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Old trunk
    This wonderful old wardrobe trunk was used for traveling and clothing storage.

    Ranch implements. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Ranch implements
    Anyone interested in old tools and ranch equipment will love checking out the garage inside and out!

    Open sign. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Open sign
    Clint Gilchrist puts up the open hour panel on the Homestead sign. The two historical societies are excited to offer some hours to be open during this summer. The Grand Opening will be on September 1st this fall. The public is invited to come out on Friday or Saturday between 10AM to 3PM and visit. The site is being staffed by volunteers during these summer open hours. The site is located 7 miles south on the East Green River Road.
    Pinedale Online > News > May 2012 > Sommers Homestead will be open for summer hours

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