Wolfe Ranch: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Arches National Park, National Park Service
Foster L, Joseph M, Galbraith J. 2011. Wolfe Ranch: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Arches National Park, National Park Service. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 850319. NPS Intermountain Region. Intermountain Regional Office/CLI Database
Wolfe Ranch is located within the boundaries of Arches National Park, just north of Moab, Utah. The ranch serves as an example of a modest turn-of-the-century farm set in the arid and inhospitable environment of southeastern Utah. The area supported both prehistoric and historic uses, occupied by Utes and Paiutes prior to Anglo-American settlement. The period of significance for the Wolfe Ranch is associated with its development as a cattle ranch during the early 1900s. It is one of the only remaining ranch complexes from this period in southeast Utah. John Wesley Wolfe and his son Fred settled in the area in 1898, attempting to cultivate the land and graze livestock until the time they moved in 1910. After the Wolfe’s departure, the area continued to be used for grazing until 1982. The area also contains protohistoric petroglyphs; however, an assessment of the significance of ethnographic landscape features is not included in this inventory. Due to harsh climatic conditions, highly erodible sandy soils, flash floods, and use of the site for sheep grazing well into the 1970s, few landscape features remain from the period of Wolfe occupation. The structural remains of the log cabin, dugout root cellar, and corral provide some evidence of the site’s use. The surrounding landscape along Salt Wash, which consists of water resources, a freshwater spring, Salt Wash, native vegetation, and topography, continues to provide a sense of the historic ranch setting. Like many other veterans of the Civil War, John Wolfe’s westward move was motivated by a combination of health and wealth interests. In search of drier climes, mining prospects brought him to the Salt Wash area where he would establish his ranch. Wolfe was a carpenter during the Civil War, and the second log cabin at the site (constructed in 1907) reflects both his building skills and the construction patterns typical in the region during that time. Although the landscape is not considered to have individual significance associated with Wolfe or significance for construction values, it does hold potential ability to yield further important information about the past. Due to the loss of remnants of field patterns, irrigation systems, circulation, fencing, and other log structures, the ranch landscape lacks integrity and the historic scene is challenging to identify. Primarily, the landscape retains setting and the cluster arrangement of the remaining structures.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Foster, Lance; Joseph, Maureen; Galbraith, Julie
- Date of Issue
- 2011-03-11
- Publisher
- NPS Intermountain Region
- Units
- ARCH , IMR
- Keywords
- Agriculture, Arches, arid, Bud Sagebrush, Civil War Veteran, Cluster Arrangement, corral, Erosion, Ethnographic/Traditional Landscape, Exploration - Settlement, farm, Flooding, Freshwater Spring, Grand County, greasewood, John Wesley Wolfe, Livestock, log cabin, Moab, Mormon Tea, native vegetation, Paiutes, Petroglyphs, Rabbit Brush, ranch, Rock Art, Root Cellar, Salt Wash, sheep grazing, Tamarisk, The Cattle Frontier, Turnbow Cabin, Utah, Utes, Vernacular Landscape, Winter Camp Wash