The ranch house, built in 1905, became the home and ranch headquarters
for Henry "Harry" Coe and his bride, Rhoda Dawson
Sutcliffe. Harry had earlier bought out his brother Charles'
interest in the Pine Ridge Ranch.
One large fireplace heated the whole house. The Coes used oil
lamps for light, and they cooked their meals in the cookhouse, a
separate building in front of the ranch house and connected to it by a
porch and walkway. In later years, a kitchen, a
bathroom, and a lean-to room were added on the west side of the original
two-gabled house.
A reliable spring high up on the ridgetop fed water into a holding
tank. The spring provided more than enough water for the
ranch, and it continues to provide all the water used by park residents
and visitors in the headquarters area today.
Dawn to dusk work days and short
nights made housing requirements for the cowboys simple. A bunk
for sleeping, a nail to hang clothes on, and a lantern for light
were the luxuries of the bunkhouse.
The Coes had a stone cooler where they
stored perishable foods to keep them fresh. The cooler
was one of three structures already on the ridge when
the Coes acquired the property, and it was built
with rocks gathered from nearby fields and
creekbeds.
Since fresh beef was available only at roundup time, beef at the Coe
Ranch dinner table was usually
"jerked," but they had lots of variety in their
daily menus, with home-grown fruits and vegetables, domestic
chicken and other fowl, and wild venison, rabbits, squirrels, game birds,
and fish.
