In 1929, media mogul Moses Annenberg’s car broke down in the Black Hills and he had to make an unexpected stop in Spearfish, South Dakota. This detour led to the founding of his namesake, Ranch A, just south of Beulah, Wyoming.
Years of opulence were followed by shady politics, eventually resulting in the once luxurious lodge falling into disrepair. Ultimately, the state of Wyoming acquired Ranch A and a small board set about trying to rescue the property. It was an uphill battle because of federal regulations that would not allow them to host weddings or make many improvements.
“It's just such a unique place,” Caretaker Annette Viergets said. “It's really kind of amazing how many people don't know it's back there, just five miles from the interstate.”
One of the first actions of the Ranch A Restoration Foundation was to successfully list the property on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1997. It received the designation because of its rich history, unique architecture and interesting founder.
Vacation Home For The Rich
According to the Newcastle News-Letter Journal, Annenberg, founder of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily Racing News, had been on a vacation with his son, Walter. They were on their way to Yellowstone National Park when their car had broken down. While they waited for it to be repaired, the duo enjoyed a mess of trout at a small cafe that so impressed the millionaire that he immediately set out to find the fish for himself.
He hired a car and drove across the Wyoming border to Sand Creek where he met with George LaPlant, the owner of the commercial trout farm from whence came the trout. According to local lore, Annenberg was so determined to buy the property that he kept making offers until, in 1932, LaPlant sold the fish farm for the exorbitant price of $24,000.
Annenberg then purchased an additional 40 acres and hired Ray Ewing, a famed Black Hills architect to design a unique western mansion. Ponderosa Pine logs were brought in locally from Aladdin, Wyoming, and master log builders from Finland, the Juso brothers, hand peeled the logs with specially made tools.
To mark the entrance to his lavish retreat, Annenberg had two large stone arches erected with the words “Ranch A” cast in bronze. He also wasted no expense to decorate his main lodge in a western motif by commissioning Thomas Molesworth to design and build the furnishings and decorations. This was Molesworth’s first major project and helped catapult his career into stardom.
An End Of The Vacation
The July 1940 News-Letter Journal reported that the Annenbergs had been spending a few weeks each summer in their “luxurious retreat.”
However, the reporter who had written the article lamented that Annenberg didn’t win the ranking of good neighbor when he put up an eight-foot wire fence with a guard on the gate and a no trespassing sign on Sand Creek. Furthermore, he “cleaned up the trout stream, combed it for moss and snags, and shaved the banks of underbrush. You couldn’t snag a line and you couldn’t snag a fish.” This reporter was not personally upset when they reported the news that the lodge would remain closed up for the summer.
Annenberg had publicly waged a war against President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal in his newspapers. This made him a political enemy of the President who retaliated by weaponizing the Bureau of Internal Revenue against the media mogul, accusing him of tax evasion.
He agreed to plead guilty to stop the persecution of his son Walter and was sentenced to federal prison. His vacations to Ranch A came to an end. His health was broken by the ordeal and Annenberg was paroled, dying shortly after his release in 1942.
From Lodge to Fishery
To save his father’s publishing empire, Walter sold Ranch A to Wyoming Governor Nels Smith who made it his personal residence after he left office in 1943. There, he and his wife entertained many important dignitaries and political hopefuls, keeping Ranch A alive as a society hotspot.
By 1952, Ranch A had once more been sold and was converted into a dude ranch for the next decade. In 1963, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bought the property. The Lodge was remodeled for office space and labs while the handcrafted Molesworth furnishings were sold as surplus or stored away.
From 1979 to 1986, Ranch A was part of the Spearfish Fisheries Center Complex. After the fishery closed, Ranch A was barely used for the next ten years as the government tried to decide what to do with it.
In 1996, federal legislation finally transferred the property to the State of Wyoming with restrictions that it could be only used for educational purposes and that no improvements could be made to the property.
“It had been pretty neglected,” Viergets said. “They had hired a caretaker, but he really hadn't done anything except keep the electricity on all winter, and they had exorbitant bills.”
Moses, left, and Walter Annenberg founded Ranch A, once a playground for the rich and powerful. In July 1940, Moses Annenberg plead guilty to tax evasion and was no longer able to visit his summer vacation home at Ranch A. (Getty Images; Ranch A) 
At the entrance to his lodge, Moses Annenberg had two large arches built with the name, Ranch A. The lodge is located just south of Beula, Wyoming. (Courtesy Ranch A) 
Ranch A is located south of Beula, Wyoming, about 5 miles off Interstate 90. It was built in 1932 and designed by Ray Ewing. (Courtesy Ranch A) 
The entire property at Ranch A, south of Beula, Wyoming, is available for weddings and events. It wasn’t always so because the federal government had prohibited anything but educational programs from being hosted on the property until recently. (Courtesy Ranch A) 
(Courtesy Ranch A) 
A burled A at Ranch A. (Courtesy Ranch A)
A New Era
The Ranch A Restoration Foundation had been formed in 1992 and they now had to decide not only how to preserve the property but what to do with it, especially with the strict stipulations that had been made by the federal government.
It was during this time that Beekeepers Mark and Annette Viergets approached the board about renting one of the buildings for their bees.
“We just were interested in renting a warehouse that was on the property for our honeybees to do our honey extracting,” Annette Viergets said. “While we were up, doing our thing, there was a small board that was trying to figure out how to maintain the property. They would ask us to mow the lawns. It was 14 acres of lawns, a huge undertaking. We did that twice and cleaned the whole place up once.
“After that time, we proposed that maybe we could live out there because there was a smaller house and take care of it while we did our bees.”
Cutting Through The Red Tape
The board agreed to the arrangement and the Viergets have been the caretakers now for nearly 30 years.
“Our first priority was to get the buildings rentable so they could start making a little income,” Viergets said “Then just cleaning everything up. It was overgrown and things had gone wrong like bad plumbing.”
The challenge remained that the federal government had severely limited their ability to make improvements and the rules were strict on how they could use the property.
“The stipulation that it had to be used for educational purposes made it very limited of what kind of groups we could have,” she said. “The board started very early trying to get that stipulation removed but it was in a federal bill so it literally took 20 years to get that out.”
The board never stopped lobbying and were finally able to get their Wyoming Improvement Bill passed through legislation.
“It took a couple of years to get all the wording and documents changed,” Viergets said. “And then about four years ago, we started having weddings and family reunions, and that's been working really well ever since.”
Ranch A, once a media moguls summer retreat, is now alive once more with celebrations.
“What we have found over the last 20 some years is that nothing's ever quick,” Viergets said. “It takes a long time, but it's worth it. We've just been expanding every year and just getting more and more people and groups to use it.”
As visitors fish for trout in Sand Creek and walk around Ranch A they have been given a glimpse into the past and a chance to visit a little slice of western luxury that had once only been reserved for the rich and elite of the Black Hills.
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
