MacGregor Ranch

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Since we were headed into Estes Park again this morning, you get to see more shots of "my" river and "my" canyon. The rest of this post is about the MacGregor Ranch and there will be another post of the afternoon's activities too.

My generosity really shines through here though. I do share some of "my" river with anglers...

...while other spots remain secluded. Don't I wish this was "my" river?!?!?

It takes a good half an hour to get to Estes Park from our place.

Having read about it in a guide, we spent the morning visiting the MacGregor Ranch XIX Museum. The land encompassed by this ranch is among the most beautiful anywhere I suppose. There are 1,221 acres and it is still a working cattle ranch although the primary purpose established by the Muriel MacGregor Trust was that it be kept for the education of children. Several weeks of day camp are held on the ranch every summer. Kids attending camp learn to perform chores just like they were done by the early settlers...collecting eggs, making butter, smoking meat, tending the garden, pumping water, etc.

The home and all of its furnishings are original, belonging to the three generations of MacGregors who made this their home since 1873. Of the 42 buildings on the ranch, 28 are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The volunteers told many interesting and entertaining stories about the last of the MacGregors, Muriel; I could have listened to them all day. Rich may have thought that I was going to stay there all day!!! giggle

It turns out that the Twin Owls reside above the MacGregor Ranch!

This is the first look at the house as you come down a long lane.

OMG! Don't these look like old time postcards? They are my photos.

Ranch House - Home of the MacGregor Family

Milk House

Root Cellar

Inside the Root Cellar

The Smoke House still held the aroma of the beef jerky that was made by kids attending the summer day camps on the ranch. They get to experience life on an 1800s ranch, down to doing all the chores of the day.

Smoke House

 That large chicken coop is home to a flock of chickens that the camp kids also learn to work with.

Outbuildings

At 14,259 feet Long's Peak is the only "fourteener" in Rocky Mountain National Park. There are 54 mountains with summits over 14,000 feet in Colorado.

Long's Peak, visible from the front yard!

 Now that we've enjoyed the magnificent view...

Let's go inside!

As the volunteer told us, solar heating isn't so new; the enclosed front porch faces south and the glass captures the sun's heat.

Glassed-In Porch was solar heating in the 1800s

This room had several pieces of furniture that reminded me of the homes of our older family members when I was a kid.

The study/sewing room

This too is a south-facing room with windows on the front curved wall for solar heat.

Muriel's bedroom - love the shape; look at that ceiling!

Here's a ranch story for you...when the ranch hands would come in to eat the plates were all turned upside down. If there was a check under his plate when he turned it over that meant he was fired!

Dining Room with family's Flow Blue china

Until I was about ten or so, Grandma Pogue cooked on a stove just like this one. They had no electricity or running water either.

Kitchen stove

There were copies of several Land Grants made to the MacGregors; the ones hanging were signed by Presidents Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Chester A. Arthur! Pretty cool, huh?

Copy of a Land Grant

Perhaps most of you think I went way overboard with photos of this ranch but it brought back so many memories of the homes I grew up around, not the homes of my friends in the town where I grew up, but the homes of our extended family and some of my parents' friends too.

Lovin' Life ~~ And Homes of the Past