Wolfe Ranch, Pioneer homestead in Arches National Park, Utah, US
Wolfe Ranch is a historic district in Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah, comprising a one-room log cabin, a later cabin with a wood floor, a root cellar, and a corral along Salt Wash. The structures stand as they were built by John Wesley Wolfe and his family between 1898 and 1906.
John Wesley Wolfe settled here in 1898 with his son Fred, drawn from Ohio by a drier climate for a Civil War leg injury. They built a one-room cabin, corral and dam on Salt Wash. In 1906 his daughter Flora Stanley arrived and had a second cabin with a wood floor built. The family sold the ranch in 1910; Wolfe died in Ohio in 1913.
The name Wolfe Ranch was restored after his granddaughter Ester Stanley Rison visited in 1970 and supplied details of the cabin's early history. Earlier US Geological Survey maps label the site Turnbow Cabin, after Marvin Turnbow, who helped with the first detailed geologic mapping of the area.
The site is accessible via a short trail from the Delicate Arch parking area with interpretive signs about pioneer life along the way. The walk is straightforward and takes about an hour round trip, making it manageable for most visitors.
The cabin's name on early US Geological Survey maps was "Turnbow Cabin", after Marvin Turnbow, who helped with the first detailed geologic mapping of the area. Wolfe's granddaughter Ester Stanley Rison visited in 1970 and supplied details of the cabin's early history, after which the original name was restored on newer maps.
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