Hoxie, Kansas

 After visiting the museum at Colby, Kansas, the route went north to intersect with state highway 24.  This would lead to the town of Nicodemus, the objective that day.  En route, one passes through the town of Hoxie Kansas, and then on to Cottonwood Ranch.

Hoxie is the present county seat of Sheridan County. Named for a Missouri Pacific Railroad official by that name. Hoxie was developed in 1886, because the Missouri Pacific Railroad expected to build east and west through the central part of the county along the river. Properties were moved to the new town from Kenneth, which was the original county seat in 1879. Hoxie invites you to come share in the community.

Modern day workhorses of the heartland...

Feeding America 

                 Mickey Museum                      Sheridan  County Courthouse          

Fifteen miles east of Hoxie is Cottonwood Ranch.  If you drive by too fast you may miss it, because it looks like a contemporary ranch home

The ranch was established by John Fenton Pratt, who came to the area from Ripon, Yorkshire County, England in 1880.  Pratt who raised sheep, constructed the hours in three phases.  He planted cottonwood trees on the property, and hence the name of the ranch.  Pratt sold most of his sheep and land in 1904 to pursue his financial interests.  he died in 1937.  his wife Hilda died in 1957.  His oldest daughter Hilda remained at the ranch until 1978.  In 1982, the State of Kansas purchased 23 acres of the ranch.

WASHHOUSE

Most houses lacked the space for the equipment and facilities used to wash clothes.  During the summer, doing laundry could produce enough heat and humidity to make the house insufferably hot, so many rural homes had a separate building for this chore.

View from the rear of the ranch house.  The building on the left was the SHEARING SHED, and held the sheep as they were brought in to be sheared. The Pratts hired the shearers for this work and paid them five cents per sheep to clip the wool. The English sheep men furnished local children, whom they call "fetchers," with shepherd's hooks and employed them to keep the shearers supplied with sheep. The shearers clipped the sheep by hand, and, as the fleeces were removed, the wool was stuffed into huge burlap bags, six feet deep.  The building on the right was the SHOP/STABLE.

The living room

Kitchen

And, the best part of the tour is Don Rowlison, curator, who loves his job, is well versed on the history of the ranch and is eager to teach visitors about the ranch, and Kansas history.