A closer look at Ranch A owners

Hannah Gross
NLJ Correspondent
With Leonard Cash
 
In this week’s installment of “History on Main,” historian Leonard Cash pulls out his records on the owners of Ranch A, near Beulah. 
Starting with George LaPlant, owner of the property before Moses Annenberg bought it, information about LaPlant on ancestry.com says he was born around 1865 in South Dakota. He was a Native American, and his primary language was Sioux Mayed. 
LaPlant sold the property in 1932 to Moses “Moe” Annenberg,  a Prussian immigrant of Jewish descent (born in 1877) who had come to Chicago in 1900, according to his Wikipedia profile.
Starting off as a poor man, Annenberg became a newspaper salesman for the Chicago Tribune and soon rose to the top. He moved on to Hearst Corporation and later owned Triangle Publications, Inc., which included the Daily Racing Form and The Philadelphia Inquirer, the nation’s 16th-largest average weekday newspaper circulation and winner of 18 Pulitzer Prizes, among many other accomplishments. 
“In 1927, Annenberg pursued even larger returns by working his way into the racing wire services, which supplied instant information on racing results to subscribers — mostly illegal betting sites,” the Wikipedia article says. “Annenberg devoted the next seven years to driving out first the competition, then his own partners.”
Annenberg created a “near monopoly” and continued growing in power and influence, according to the article. He also became involved with politics.
In 1939, he was convicted of tax evasion and the same judge — James Herbert — who convicted Al Capone of his crimes also sentenced Annenberg to three years of prison at Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary and an $8 million fine. His associates and son Walter were also accused, but the charges were dropped. 
After being released early and “abruptly” on June 3, 1942, Annenberg died a month and half later when he had surgery for a brain tumor. 
“Those who knew Annenberg have paid scant tribute to his personal graces; he was parsimonious, harsh, boastful, and unscrupulous,” the article says. 
Upon his father’s death, Walter inherited Ranch A and took over Triangle Publications, which boasted a variety of magazines and the like. He was born in Milwaukee, raised in New York and studied business at the University of Pennsylvania. Before finishing school, however, he left to pursue stock investing. 
He created TV Guide and Seventeen magazine, and like his father, used the Inquirer to influence politics. 
Under President Richard Nixon, Walter was appointed U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1969 to 1974, becoming good friends with Queen Elizabeth II. He counted  royalty, presidents and various other celebrities among his friends. 
“After initial perceived missteps, he came to be admired for his dedicated work ethic, his wife’s lavish entertaining, and personal gifts to support patriotic British causes, such as the restoration of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London,” his Wikipedia profile states. “In his later years, Annenberg became one of the most prominent philanthropists in the United States.” 
The Annenberg foundation was established in 1988, and Walter Annenberg donated $2 billion to education, including the communication schools he established at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of
Southern California. 
“A significant part of his adult life was dedicated to rehabilitating the family’s name through philanthropy and public service,” the article says.
He died in 2002 at 94 from pneumonia complications in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. His sister, Enid Annenberg Haupt, also led a
successful life and became a philanthropist, according to the Find A Grave website. 
After inheriting Ranch A, Walter sold it to Gov. Nels Smith. 
“Meanwhile, Walter Annenberg was still under pressure from a government intent on destroying his publishing empire. They did not want Walter to
be able to sell anything and certainly not to a prominent Republican governor,” says an article from the Ranch A Restoration Foundation. 
Smith later told Sen. Cliff Hansen when Nixon nominated Walter for ambassador that he was “a man of courage and integrity. He will serve our nation well.” 
Willis Walker, president of Plains Airways, and Sam Kenner, president of Salem Engineering in Ohio, went in with Smith on the purchase of the property. 
“Bill Walker sold his interest (to Lorenz Iversen of Pittsburg) and built the Saratoga Inn in Saratoga, Wyoming. The Saratoga Inn was built on State Land under an arrangement (quite) similar to the special use lease under which the Ranch A Restoration Foundation operates Ranch A,” the article says. 
Smith and his wife permanently lived at the property while the other two were only vacationers. However, they would host parties at the ranch that “were private, but often quite high-level,” with guests such as Ohio Gov. John Bricker, who was the Republican nominee for vice president in 1944. 
Later in 1951, Harold Dittus of Spearfish, South Dakota, purchased Ranch A from Smith, and
that’s when things started getting a little chaotic. 
“Relations with the existing partners, Iversen and Kenner, deteriorated rapidly. This resulted in a sheriff’s auction that was to be held in October, 1952 to liquidate the partnership,” the article says. 
There were rumors that gambling would become legalized in Wyoming, and Ranch A would offer the perfect location for a casino. Clyde and Eugene Smaldone, “Denver mobsters,” met with “two shady local characters” in Beulah 5 miles north of the lodge. Iversen
kept an eye on things and had connections with the FBI, and he planned on purchasing the ranch at the auction. 
“It can hardly be written off as coincidence that the Smaldone brothers were arrested shortly before the auction,” the article says. 
However, when the time of the auction came, Ranch A did not go into the hands of Iverson, but rather back to the Smith family once again. Peter Smith, son of Nels, bought the property for $126,500, just a mere $500 over Iversen’s maximum bidding limit. 
Smith turned it into a dude ranch and executive conference center, and the Strategic Air Command conferences “were among the many high-level meetings held at Ranch A
during this period.”
Smith sold Ranch A to the Porter family, who owned Porter Motor Co. in Mitchell, but in 1963, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bought Ranch A and converted the lodge to an office space, and laboratories were built for fish genetics, nutrition and pesticide study programs. The Molesworth furnishings were sold or “relegated to storage.” 
“In 1979, Ranch A became a part of the Spearfish Fisheries Center Complex. Research continued until the hatchery facilities were closed for good in 1986,” the article says. 
In 1996, Ranch A was transferred to the state government, with restrictions that it had to be used for educational purposes, and the property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places the following year. The Ranch A Restoration Foundation has
managed the property since the 1990s, and today, it is still used for educational purposes and retreats.
And that concludes the history of Ranch A, and its many prominent owners and the guests
who visited.