The re-opening of the Empire Ranch House provides a wonderful opportunity to update and add exhibits and interpretative materials. Two long standing exhibits are being revised and updated. The History of the Empire Ranch Timeline, on display in the Living Room of the Victorian addition, will now cover the time period 1870-2000, ending with the establishment of Las Cienegas National Conservation Area. The focus of the Who Lived Here? exhibit in the Master Bedroom will change from individuals who actually lived in the Master Bedroom to Empire Ranch Families. Throughout the Ranch House we will add some furniture and interpretive signs to explain items on display and architectural features of the building. In the Children’s Addition we will install an exhibit of toys dating between 1886 and 1960.
Christmas at the Empire Ranch on Saturday December 8th proved to be a fun way to start the holiday season for the almost 200 visitors in attendance. The Empire Ranch House was decked out in Christmas finery, with cowboy boot stockings hung on the fireplace, mantels decorated with garlands and ornaments, and a little village in the family kitchen window.
Santa was especially popular with the many kids attending and everyone enjoyed visiting vendors, sampling cookies, and participating in the raffle and silent auction.
Plan to join us at the Empire Ranch House for a special milestone celebration on Saturday, March 23, 2019 from 10 am to 1 pm. More information coming soon on the speakers, new exhibits and special guests. For more information contact admin@empireranchfoundation.org
Are you interested in learning more about the Empire Ranch and sharing your knowledge with visitors to the Empire Ranch? Then join us for the next Empire Ranch Foundation Docent Training Class on Saturday, January 19, 2019 from 9 am to 2:30 pm.
Volunteer docents conduct monthly tours of the Empire Ranch House that provide a general introduction to the history of the Empire Ranch, its buildings and its people. Each docent provides an average of two monthly tours annually. Upon completion of the Docent Training Class each docent receives individual tour training.
If you’re interested in participating as a volunteer docent, click here to register for the January 19th class. For questions or additional information contact Alison Bunting, Docent Coordinator, alisbunting@gmail.com.
It’s been an exciting year for the Empire Ranch! The long-awaited stabilization of the main ranch Ranch House is completed. We are fast at work developing exhibits and interpretive signs for those rooms and other areas of the Ranch House. We hope you will help us with a year-end contribution which will help fund new exhibits and improvements to existing exhibits for generations to come.
To make a contribution, click here. Or call 888-364-2829 to process your donation by phone.
Thirteen enthusiastic students participated in the 2018 Youth Engaged Stewardship (YES!) program at Las Cienegas NCA. After learning about the history of LCNCA and area inhabitants, the students spent several days working at the
Hummel Ranch, located a few miles south of Empire Ranch Headquarters. They measured, photographed and documented the ranch structures, removed vegetation from the ranch house, and cleared brush to make the area surrounding the structures “fire safe.”
They visited the Sacaton flats at Gardner Canyon to learn of past work by YES! groups and identified a need to record quantitative data to document the success of erosion mitigation efforts. They also surveyed one LCNCA prairie dog colony
and contributed data to a formal report with retired Arizona Game and Fish Biologist, Robert Fink. At “Bill’s Pond” Dennis Caldwell worked with the students to transplant native aquatic plants, improve habitat along the edges of the pond, and create a water flow structure to help aerate the pond, and built overwintering structures for the endangered
Chiricahua leopard frog.
Over 100 guests enjoyed the free outdoor showing of 3:10 to Yuma at Empire Ranch Headquarters on Thursday, September 20th. Special thanks are due to The Loft Cinema and the ERF volunteers who made the evening under the stars possible. The event was part of The Loft Cinema’s Shot on Location series. Click here to view photos of the event.
In celebration of National Public Lands Day, 17 volunteers joined BLM staff on September 22nd to work on several projects at the Empire Ranch Headquarters. Work was done on the Discovery Heritage Trail as well as the historical ranch house, where interpretive displays inside and exterior preparations for painting the front porch were completed. We appreciate the hard work of so many volunteers to make these improvements for visitors to the Empire Ranch and LCNCA. There will be a week day work day in mid-October to complete the painting project before the Cowboy Festival on Nov. 3rd. Please contact admin@empireranchfoundation.org for more information.
Click here to view photos of the work completed.
Almost 200 guests attended the 2018 Western Movie at the Loft Cinema in Tucson showing of The Outlaw Josey Wales on August 8th. Prior to the movie, guests enjoyed a panel discussion with Michael F. Blake, retired Hollywood make-up artist and the author of Cowboy President, a book about the cowboy days of Theodore Roosevelt. He was joined on the panel by retired Hollywood stuntman Bunker DeFrance. Colleagues of Blake and DeFrance’s close friend Neil Summers worked on the film, portions of which were shot on the Empire Ranch.
Click here to view photos of the event.