Wolfe Ranch

 

Next up was a visit to the Wolf Ranch area.

Hard as it may be to believe people once tried to ranch in this area. In 1898, a nagging leg injury from the Civil War prompted 69-year-old John Wesley Wolfe to leave his wife and three of his children in Etna, Ohio, and seek a drier climate. He brought his oldest son, Fred, with him.  The two settled a 100+-acre property along Salt Wash, just north of the village of Moab, and close to a fresh water spring. For nearly a decade, they lived and worked alone on the remote "Bar DX" ranch, eventually grazing more than 1,000 head of cattle on native grasses that once covered this area. 

Later on, John's daughter, Flora, made the westward trek with her husband, Ed Stanley, and two young children, Esther and Ferol. Appalled by the condition in which her father and brother lived Flora demanded they build a new cabin with a wooden floor and real windows. John obliged creating the sturdy cabin that remains in the park to this day. All six family members lived and slept in the one-room cabin, measuring just 17 feet by 15 feet (5.2 m by 4.6 m). John Wolfe also constructed a root cellar, irrigation dams, and a corral.