Caroline Lockhart, reporter, writer, editor, and rancher, was born in Illinois on February 24th, 1870. She grew up on a family cattle ranch in Kansas, but received her higher education in the East.
In 1889, at the age of 18, Caroline became a reporter. Over the next decade, she practiced ‘stunt’ journalism, and interviewed many famous people, including Buffalo Bill Cody, an encouter which may have eventually brought her to Cody, Wyoming.
Caroline liked life in the small western town, and decided that Cody was where she wanted to live. Moving there in 1904, she shifted her efforts to writing novels. After re-locating to her ranch in the Dryhead in 1926, Caroline continued to write, finishing her seventh novel, Old West-And New, in 1933.
Credit / Author:
NPS
Date created:
10/14/2020
Lockhart 2 The Dream
Some of these buildings were here when Caroline Lockhart purchased the ranch. She continued to add land and buildings, growing the ranch piece by piece, acre by acre.
The homestead cabin was not an original ranch building. It started as a school house and was used as a homestead cabin until it was moved to its current location.
Credit / Author:
NPS
Date created:
10/14/2020
Lockhart 3 Root Cellar
Biting Wind,
Blowing Snow
The root cellar included shelving for storing canned foods and produce such as potatoes, winter onions, carrots, dried beans, and peas. During the 1940s, Caroline stored batteries and a wind-powered generator here.
Credit / Author:
NPS
Date created:
10/14/2020
Lockhart 4 Crows Nest
The first floor of the Crow’s Nest was built when prior owners, the Wassons, lived on the ranch. The second floor was built during the Lockhart era in 1930. The bottom was used as a bunkhouse, tool shed, storage for oats, and for equipment. The upper floor was the residence of Dave Good, Lockhart’s chief foreman, as well as a guestroom in the 1930s and 40s.
Credit / Author:
NPS
Date created:
10/14/2020
Lockhart 5 Guests & Friends
“I believe I shall be comparatively happy, once I get my ranch in Dryhead country; work and live in pen - the life I have longed for always.” Caroline Lockhart
Caroline hoped that her guests would also find happiness at the ranch, never considering that her exotic pets might be more than her guests expected.
Credit / Author:
NPS
Date created:
10/14/2020
Lockhart 6 Living the Myth
The L/Heart brand on the main house become the stamp for the liberated “Cattle Queen”. The Lockhart Ranch grew from 160 acres to 6,034 acres during Caroline’s ownership. Despite taking up most of her time and energy, her hard work would pay off as three loads of Lockhart steers topped the market in Omaha of 1935.
Credit / Author:
NPS
Date created:
10/14/2020
Lockhart 7 Best Served Cold
Originally from the Wasson residency, the springhouse was used as a refrigerator system for storing dairy products and eggs. A spring that flows 4 to 5 gallons per minute rises in the structure and flows into Davis Creek.
Credit / Author:
NPS
Date created:
10/14/2020
Lockhart 8 A Bit of the Past
“Times, conditions, and people have changed so rapidly and so much that I cannot keep up. Nor can I adapt myself. I belong to the past.” - Caroline Lockhart
The bunkhouse offered a rustic existence for Caroline’s ranch hands who must have similarly felt they were relics of the past.
Credit / Author:
NPS
Date created:
10/14/2020
Lockhart 9 Cowboy Construction
What is now referred to as the chicken coop, was originally home to Link Hannon, his wife Emma, and their two children around 1900. Over the years, the building was repurposed by cowboys who were using materials available to them at the time. The buildings they left behind are a reflection of a group of people, culture and lifestyle from the 1890s to the mid-1900s.
Credit / Author:
NPS
Date created:
10/14/2020
Lockhart 10 Ranch Work is Never Done
The basic infrastructure of Caroline Lockhart’s first few years saw the construction of a fish pond for bathing and recreation, a calving barn, a dairy barn installed with a gutter for milking cows, the livestock pen, and rectangular corral for maintaining horse stock.
Credit / Author:
NPS
Date created:
10/14/2020
Lockhart 11 Mechanics
Caroline Lockhart purchased an automobile early in her tenure at the ranch (later adding a truck) in order to assist with ranch duties. The road to the ranch was rough, causing need for regular vehicle maintenance. Between the bumpy ride up to the ranch and the other equipment that would need regular repairs, the sound of metal being worked was regularly heard coming from the Blacksmith Shop and Garage.
Credit / Author:
NPS
Date created:
10/14/2020
Lockhart 12 More than Expected
“My job is writing books and the last thing I had in mind when I came into the Dryhead was filing on land and engaging in the cattle business, and certainly not locating in a country where a fresh track in the main travelled road is an event.” - Caroline Lockhart
In 1955, with failing eyesight, Caroline sold the ranch and moved back to Cody, Wyoming, where she died on July 25, 1962.
Credit / Author:
NPS
Date created:
10/14/2020
Last updated: August 22, 2017
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Contact Info
Mailing Address:
Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area South District Visitor Center
20 US Hwy 14A
Lovell,
WY
82431
Phone:
307 548-5406
(307) 548-5406 is the South District in Lovell, WY.
(406) 666-9961 is the North District in Fort Smith, MT.