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NR By County Test

Big Horn

 

Brian Beadles
Historic Preservation Specialist
(307) 777-8594

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  • Odd Fellows Hall

     
     

    Read All About It:

    The Odd Fellows Hall was built in 1894. The building is significant for its original false-fronted style of architecture typical of architecture used in early western boom towns. The practice masked the gabled ends on frame buildings and provided a true street facade. It demonstrated an attempt to provide urban scale to the small town. The fact that Big Horn became a town with two-story buildings shows the transition from self-sufficient homesteads scattered throughout the area to town life, a commerce center, in the late nineteenth century. Even though Sheridan became the county seat and Big Horn did not continue to grow in size, it has continued to be a center for a variety of community activities in the Little Goose Creek Valley. The Odd Fellows Hall figured continually in these community activities. The Odd Fellows, whose membership numbered around 30 men, and subsequently the Rebekahs, whose membership numbered around 40 women, brought men and women together for monthly meetings on the second floor of the building.

     
    Odd-Fellows-Hall

     

    Date Added to Register:
    Tuesday, December 09, 1980
     
    Location:
    Big Horn
     
    County:
    Sheridan County
     
    Smithsonian Number: 
    48SH550  

     

  • Schunk Lodge

     

     
     

    Read All About It:

    Schunk Lodge is a complex of privately owned buildings on the Bighorn National Forest, in northern Wyoming. This complex is distributed over approximately one acre and includes seven buildings. The buildings are all log construction and fit in well with the surroundings. The main cabin appears to have been built under a Forest Service permit which allowed grazing, operation of a dude ranch, and as a stage stop on a mail route. Records indicate that the permit was converted to a recreation residence in 1924. The main cabin was begun in 1910 and the other six buildings were built between 1933 and the early 1940s. The more recent buildings are: an icehouse, a bathhouse, a powerhouse, a bunkhouse, a saddle barn, and an outhouse. Another bunkhouse was removed in 1985 at the request of the Forest Service. All buildings have been maintained to preserve their historic integrity.

    The Schunk Lodge is significant at the local level under National Register criteria A and C. The site is eligible under criterion A in the area of conservation due to its association with historic events: management of public lands (permitted uses like ranching, commerce, and recreation residence), development of transportation systems, and association with the regional conservation movement. The Schunk Lodge hosted many politicians, government officials, prominent organizations, and personalities in the regional and national conservation movement of our national forests and water usage. From 1933 and well into the 1960s the lodge was Dr. Will Schunk’s mountain headquarters for conservation and wilderness preservation efforts hosting nationally renowned conservationists and politicians. It was the perfect retreat for family reunions, dignitaries visiting Wyoming, artists, philanthropic organizations, Boy Scouts, and assorted Sheridan College events. Additionally, in its very early years it had a commercial role in the stage and mail route crossing the Big Horn Mountains.

    The Schunk Lodge complex is also eligible under criterion C for the log construction of its various buildings. This complex of buildings is representative of the rustic architecture which is typical of the Mountain West. The various building’s construction and uniqueness are well preserved examples representative of mountain home log construction.

     

     
    Schunk-Lodge

    Date Added to Register:
    Thursday, January 4, 2018
     
    Location:
    Big Horn
     
    County:
    Sheridan County
     
    Smithsonian Number: 
    48SH1346

     

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