1865
The Homestead Era

A Swedish pioneer named Peter Johnson first settled the Red Buttes area in 1865. He filed a claim on 160 acres, built a crude cabin, and spent five years digging two large ditches (which he named the Peter Ditch and the Johnson Ditch).

The Harney Creek water he impounded by building a dam just south of today's Oxford Ranch was supposed to flow two miles north on the east side and a mile north on the west. Neither ditch ever really worked.

But no matter.

Awarded his patent in 1870, he immediately purchased his neighbor's homestead for $100 and then sold the 340-acre Red Buttes Ranch to a Scottish veterinarian named Arthur Stokes. The ranch name changed to the Stokes Ranch.

1870

Arthur Stokes Builds A Horse Ranch

Stokes was a remittance man addicted to horseracing. Well supported by his family back in Scotland, he paid Mr. Johnson cash for the land and started building the magnificent structure that would become the Barn at Oxford Horse Ranch seen today.

Johnson moved across the Laramie Basin and repeated his money-making scheme establishing the Millbrook Ranch: file for a patent, spend five years improving the land, sell it, and move on, this time to Oregon.

As good an idea as Abraham Lincoln ever had, giving federal land to deserving people, the government did not have the resources or the manpower to enforce the rules.

Enterprising men like Peter Johnson (and he was by no means alone) soon figured out how to game the system, owning almost free land, becoming respected members of society, serving in the legislature (making sure the laws passed benefitted stockmen) and profiting from diverting water rights as they acquired and sold previously public land.

Timeline of Historic Events at The Oxford Ranch

1865

Peter Johnson claims 160 acres of land along Harney Creek as a homestead, calling it the Red Buttes Ranch. He builds two irrigation ditches and a reservoir called Hundred Springs.
1870

Johnson’s homestead proves up and he purchases the neighboring homestead for $100, quickly selling both to Dr. Arthur Stokes. The ranch changes names to the Stokes Ranch and two log barns, a ranch house, and a brick mansion are constructed on the property.
1886

Arthur Whitehouse visits the Laramie Plains for a summer vacation and ends up staying on, becoming a co-owner of the renamed Stokes & Whitehouse Ranch.
1887 - 1905

Whitehouse buys out Stokes and renames the ranch the Oxford Horse Ranch.
1892 – Whitehouse leaves Wyoming to marry and attend Veterinary School.
1894 – Whitehouse earns his DVM and returns to Wyoming to ply his trade.
1905 – Whitehouse sells the ranch to Axel Palmer, his longtime manager.
1910 - 1914

Whitehouse moves to Ft Collins to teach at Colorado A & M. Axel Palmer gives up ownership.
1913 – The ranch is sold to Daniel Bunton, a shady irrigation ditch developer from Chicago.
1914 – The second barn and mansion house burn and Buntin commits suicide.
1917 - 1980

John Leazenby buys the ranch to run Hampshire sheep.
1948 – Leazenby divides the ranch into quarters and sells the headquarters to Dr. Otto Lembke, a retired botanist.
1980 - Lembke sells the ranch to Keith Burman. Burman removes much of the interior walls of the remaining barn, destabilizing the structure.
1991 - 1992

The barn is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
1992 – Burman sells to a Colorado developer and the McGuire family buys 1,600 acres plus the 100 acre ranch headquarters. The barn is a liability as it is about to collapse.
1994

The McGuires purchase an additional 1,600 acres to the east that was part of the original ranch. This parcel includes the red sandstone arch bearing the names, dates, and initials of historic Wyoming figures.
1996

The historic barn is restored, its foundation replaced, the leaning walls straightened, and the shingled roof replaced with metal. It is awarded the National Historic Barns Association’s “Barn Again” Prize.
2016

Kelly McGuire takes over as ranch manager. The Palmer House bed and breakfast is established.

Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch

When I bought a ranch with my husband in 1992, I had no idea I would discover a window into Wyoming’s rich and complicated past - cattlemen and railroads, pioneer women and gunslingers and so much more.
This is their story.

By Kris McGuire
Owner, The Oxford Ranch

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