Flat Creek Ranch, formerly a working ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is a guest ranch. The original ranch was established by Cal Carrington between 1901 and 1918 at the base of Sheep Mountain, also known as the "Sleeping Indian". In 1923 a new owner, socialite and journalist Cissy Patterson, built the present structures. The transition from working ranch to vacation retreat foreshadowed a movement of the Jackson Hole economy away from traditional ranching to tourism, which is documented by the Flat Creek Ranch.[2]

Flat Creek Ranch
Flat Creek Ranch is located in Wyoming
Flat Creek Ranch
Flat Creek Ranch is located in the United States
Flat Creek Ranch
LocationJackson Hole, Teton County, Wyoming, USA
Nearest cityJackson, Wyoming
Coordinates43°31′40″N 110°32′33″W / 43.52778°N 110.54250°W / 43.52778; -110.54250
Built1923
ArchitectCharles Fox
NRHP reference No.01001428
Added to NRHPDecember 31, 2001[1]

Carrington had worked at the Bar B C Dude Ranch from 1912 on, and established Flat Creek as a dude ranch. Cissy Patterson appeared in Jackson Hole 1916 as "Countess Gizycka", on the rebound from a failed marriage to a Polish count. Carrington and Patterson toured Europe together in 1922. Through Patterson's influence with US Senator Francis E. Warren, Carrington obtained a homestead patent on the ranch and then sold it to Patterson for $5000. In 1923 she built seven cabins, a barn and a lodge on the property.[3]

Currently, the property is owned by journalists Joseph Albright and Marcia Kunstel. Albright, the former husband of the late Madeleine Albright, is the son of Cissy Patterson's niece Josephine Patterson Albright (daughter of Joseph Medill Patterson), who inherited the property at Patterson's death in 1948.[4]

References

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  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  2. ^ "Flat Creek Ranch". National Register of Historic Places. Wyoming State Preservation Office. October 17, 2008. Archived from the original on June 15, 2011. Retrieved August 17, 2010.
  3. ^ "History". Flat Creek Ranch Resort. Flat Creek Ranch Resort. October 18, 2008.
  4. ^ Blackman, Ann: Seasons of Her Life: A Biography of Madeleine Korbel Albright, p. 187. Simon & Schuster, 2000.
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