Cottonwood Ranch State Hist Site

Location:  1/2 mile west of Studley on Hwy. US-24, about halfway between Hoxie and Hill City.

Contact:  Phone:   785/627-5866

Admission:  Free will donation.

Photos, except those noted, are Copyright H. Schuster.  Please ask permission before using.

In the late 1800's, settlers from the Old World were lured to the New World by the promise of land and a new life.  The Cottonwood Ranch State Historical Site preserves the story of one family's settlement on the Kansas Plains.

In this case, its the story of an English family, the Pratts, who immigrated here beginning in 1878.  Abraham Pratt sold his interests in the old country and eventually settled in the area just south of the present Cottonwood Ranch.  The elder Pratt convinced his two sons to move here as well, and they settled on adjoining tracts.  John Fenton Pratt would eventually build what would become known as the Cottonwood Ranch, and constructed this stone ranch house which has been restored and converted to a museum.

The area around the Cottonwood Ranch had a number of English Settlers, and the population of Studley was overwhelmingly English as well.   John, his father and brother were industrious, innovative, and hard working--all traits which would serve them well in this new land.  Soon the Pratts would have a large sheep herd.  John was also something of a local financier.  He started construction of the stone ranch house and outbuildings in the 1880's, and construction continued into the early 1890's.  In 1888, he felt prosperous enough to send for his fiancee in England to join him here.  Jennie Elizabeth Place was said to have cried when she first sighted what would become her future home.  Apparently, it didn't match her expectations.  You must keep in mind, things here looked a much different then.  The area was a dusty plain with no trees, and Jennie knew no one other than John.  On several occasions she started on foot for the nearest rail station, only to be persuaded to return.  With the birth of her first of two daughters, Hilda, in 1889, she was compelled to settle into the ranch lifestyle, but vowed she would never be buried in the Kansas Soil.  When she passed away in 1959, the family complied with her wishes.  She was cremated, and her ashes were scattered on the ranch.

The layout of the stone outbuildings is not typical of a Kansas ranch.  Like many immigrant settlers, the Pratts brought the ways of the old country with them to the new.  Though they were not farmers in England, they were certainly familiar with farms in their area, and the Cottonwood was built in a style typical of the English sheep ranches of the day.

By the early 1900's, John Pratt sold his sheep to pursue his other business interests in the area.  By the time he died in 1937, he had amassed a comfortable fortune.

The Cottonwood Ranch is such a well preserved treasure because John Pratt's family was the only family to live here. John also keep detailed written records of all details relating to the ranch and these have been a tremendous resource to historians.   Hilda, who never married, lived on the ranch until 1978, dying in 1980.  In 1982, the state bought the house, outbuildings and 23 of the surrounding acres.

Though thrifty, John Pratt did indulge in a few luxuries for the ranch house, including several stained glass windows.  The furniture in the house did not belong to the Pratts, but is from the period.

In addition to the unmodified ranch buildings and the detailed written records John Pratt kept, he was also photographer.  In the corner of one of the sheds, over 600 glass plate negatives were discovered.  The main subjects were his sheep, the nearby Solomon River, and numerous neighbors as well as his family.  There are a number of  prints made from the glass negatives on display in the ranch house.  (Black and White photos courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society and Don Rowlisn, curator, repairman, and tour guide of the Cottonwood Ranch Historical Site.)

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