F.S. King Brothers Ranch Homestead Tour and Dinner

Additional Information

AHW to Host Tour of Historic F.S. King Brothers Ranch Homestead in Laramie, Wyoming.
LARAMIE, Wyo. (August 4, 2018) – The Alliance for Historic Wyoming (AHW) will be hosting a tour of the Historic F.S. King Brothers Ranch Homestead north of Laramie. The event is also being sponsored by Humstone Consulting, Wattle & Daub Contractors, ANB, UW American Studies Program, Modern Printing, Laramie Land Company, Bloedorn Lumber, Hinckley Consulting, Wyoming Disposal Systems, Colt Construction, Civil Site & Soil, Hammontree Real Estate, and HDR Inc.

“The F.S. King Brothers Ranch Tour & Dinner is a unique opportunity for folks to experience a historic ranch with a chef inspired, farm to table style dinner,” says AHW Executive Director Christy Smith. “The current ranch owners, Jim McKenzie and Mary Wommack, will be on site to share their home, history, and preservation goals with us. The AHW staff and board members are honored to share this unique ranch & homestead with guests.”

The event celebrates and highlights the beauty and historic significance of the ranch, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The ranch tour will begin at 4:00 p.m., Sunday, September 2nd Guests will be given the opportunity to learn about the history of the King Brothers Ranch and sheep ranching in Wyoming, take a guided tour of the 1880s historic district, enjoy a guided nature walk in the North Platte headwaters, and/or get an insider’s tour of the recently completed five-year restoration project. The tours will be followed by a traditional ranch dinner catered by professional chef Seamus MacKenzie. Admission to this experience is $50 for Alliance members, $60 for non-members, and $30 for UWYO students. Proceeds benefit the Alliance for Historic Wyoming’s projects to preserve historic places in Albany County and throughout the state. AHW hosts events such as the F.S. King Brothers Ranch Tour to offer a unique, inside look at properties and landscapes usually inaccessible to the general public.

The F.S. King Brothers Ranch Historic District was homesteaded in 1888, by Frank Stocker King and his two brothers Herbert and Joseph King. By 1904, the F.S. King Brothers Company was well established and shipping sheep to every corner of the globe. The King Brothers were known as scientific selective breeders and did not hesitate to travel long distances and pay top money to buy the best breeding stock available. Flocks from Russian to Argentina can trace their lineage back to sheep on the King Brothers ranch.

The F.S. King Brothers Historic district is privately owned and maintained and located on the original 160 homestead acres. Structures such as the log house, barn, bunkhouse, chicken coop, and several others are still standing frozen in time from when they were built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The current owner, Jim Mackenzie, has been restoring the property for the last five years so that it will last another 100 years.

Since access to this ranch has been limited for the past few decades, our F.S. King Brothers Ranch Homestead Tour is a way for the public to experience the homestead that became a sheep industry legacy. The tickets are selling faster than we thought so if you’re interested in attending, please register today! To purchase a ticket, visit our website at www.historicwyoming.org and click on our events page. For more information and directions, please call 307-333-3508.

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