Ranch A: local historic landmark

Hannah Gross 
With Leonard Cash
NLJ Correspondent 
 
In part one of the Connie Smith series, historian Leonard Cash mentioned Ranch A, which her father, Nels Smith, owned. In this week’s installment, Cash is following up with the first of a two-part series on this estimable ranch located in a canyon of the Black Hills in the Sand Creek area near Beulah.
“Built of logs, the sheer size of the structure is not apparent until, upon closer inspection, the visitor realized the front porch or verandah alone contains more square footage than many homes,” says an article written by Cheryl Drake in Volume 3, Issue 2 of “West Words” magazine.
“It’s a beautiful place inside,” Cash said. 
According to the article, rumors and speculation say that in the 1930s,
the ranch “was a hide out for gangsters,” possibly housing the notorious Al Capone. Whether that’s true or not, what is known is that Ranch A was built during that time by millionaire Moses Annenberg, a Prussian immigrant. 
“It all started when Moses and Walter (his son) had car trouble one evening in the Northern Black Hills. A chance meeting ended up creating a legacy that lasts to this day,” an online article in Cash’s records states. 
They were heading to Yellowstone when the car gave out. While it was being fixed, the senior Annenberg said he had a trout dinner that was “best I’ve had since I left Europe,” where he fed his family by fishing. The trout, which came from Sand Creek, was so good that, in his mind, it was worth looking into, so he went to the George LaPlant trout farm to buy it. 
“According to local legend, George put the price at an astronomical figure to get rid of this pushy easterner. Moe agreed to the price and George had sold the trout farm,” an historical article says. The Sept. 1, 1932, deed said that the 639-acre property was sold for $24,000, equivalent to $450,000 today.
Drake said that Annenberg started off as a poor boy in Europe, but after working in the newspaper industry with William Randolph Hearst and investing his money, Annenberg soon established his wealth and became a “media mogul,” as another article calls him.
According to an article from the Feb. 1, 1936, The News Letter titled “Owner of Ranch A Gives Large Sum To Unlucky Family,” Annenberg wrote a $5,000 check to Arthur Brisbane of Hearst’s newspapers to help six orphaned children who had recently lost their mother in a fire. Annenberg said he “wanted to feel that he had been able to do more than merely sympathize with these children,” the article says. 
The lodge on the ranch was built in a “rustic” fashion, constructed by architect Ray Ewing and Juso Brothers Construction, and they “endured many hardships” of severely cold weather while building the lodge. Thomas Molesworth designed the decorations and furnished the lodge. This project was the “foundation and springboard for his illustrious career,” and a few of the pieces can be seen at the Crook County Museum.  
The Juso brothers used “traditional techniques” to carve the logs by carving “the underside of each log so it would easily rest on the top of the bottom log,” with the space between the logs sealed by oakum. 
“They shaped the ends of the logs at the corners as well as around openings such as doors and windows. The full dovetail notching at the corners of the first floor clearly illustrates their noteworthy skill,” the article says. 
According to another article in Cash’s records from the Ranch A Restoration Foundation, the logs were cut from trees on the property, and the Juso brothers peeled the bark off the logs with their own handmade knives. The project created many jobs for local workers, giving a “timely boost to the economy” of Beulah, and it was built of “quality construction.” 
This vacation home for Annenberg had eight bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, and cedar-lined closets, four guest cabins and servants’ quarters, using the ranch’s hydroelectric plant for power and electricity. Ranch A has housed some famous people in addition to Al Capone, including Franklin Roosevelt and a South Dakota governor, Drake wrote. Although the queen of England never stayed at Ranch A, Annenberg was a friend of hers, Cash said.
In 1940, Annenberg was imprisoned for income tax evasion, according to Drake. However, later in the article, it says that oral history says that he “was insulted when Crook County did not charge him enough in taxes for his luxurious estate.”
According to the April 25, 1940, issue of the News Letter Journal, Annenberg pleaded guilty for evading over one million dollars in income taxes in “the largest criminal federal income tax evasion case in history.”
“The plea by the wealthy Philadelphia publisher and former head of an international racing news empire was entered to the fifth count of an indictment accusing him of evading $3,258,809.97 in income taxes for the years 1939 to 1936, inclusive,” the article says. 
Another article says Annenberg was a “prime target” of President Franklin Roosevelt and the Bureau of Internal Revenue. 
“He (Annenberg) was conservative and very effectively anti-Deal with his newspapers, including the Philadelphia inquirer, which he bought while at Ranch A. The government’s pursuit of the case was relentless and ruthless. Moses agreed to plead guilty to stop the persecution of his son Walter,” the article says. 
Shortly after serving time in prison, Annenberg died, and the property was sold to Wyoming’s governor at the time – Nels Smith – and two partners, according to the Drake article. 
Smith later sold the property, and in 1952, the newspaper announced that it would be auctioned off. Drake said it went through its share of owners, and eventually it was purchased by the federal government for “fish operations” in the 1960s.
The Aug. 9, 1962, issue of the paper said the Senate approved an Interior Department project bill, which included a fish genetics laboratory for Ranch A to “develop new and improved strains of game fish.” 
Today, it is owned and operated by the state. 
“Now, through an act of Congress, Ranch A belongs to the State of Wyoming. One stipulation was that it be used for education purposes,” the article says. 
The Ranch A Restoration Foundation manages the estate, according to an article from Dubbe Moulder Architects, and the property is used as a headquarters for field geology students, and can be rented for meetings, seminars and retreats that have education purposes. 
Next week, Cash will go through some of the prominent owners and guests of Ranch A, as well as the noteworthy accomplishments of Annenberg’s family.