Grant-Kohrs Ranch Administrative History

Superintendent Tom Vaughan had taken a major step to improve museum collections care when he segregated curation from interpretation back in 1979. Eight years later, Jim Taylor built upon Vaughan's initiative to professionalize the job when he established the higher-graded position of curator. Randi S. Bry, who had been the museum technician at the Site since 1977, was the first staff member to work under this new structure.

The lack of proper museum facilities hindered the operation. There was virtually no place to perform conservation work or to store the collections, other than in the historic buildings themselves. Faced with the responsibility for caring for a priceless collection, Vaughan elected to abandon use of the seasonal ranger apartment on the second floor of HS-1. These rooms were given over to Bry to convert into use as curatorial offices, work rooms, and storage. It was a stopgap measure, to be sure, but it was better than nothing. As time passed, Bry and her seasonal assistants were able to arrange much of the extra furniture in the second floor rooms and to procure shelving and cabinetry for the organization of a multitude of smaller items. There was no choice but to continue to store objects less vulnerable to environmental extremes in several of the outbuildings, including the garage/blacksmith shop (HS-3), ice house (HS-5), horse barn (HS-11), machine shed (HS-12), cow shed (HS-13), granary (HS-18), and the stallion barn (HS-19). [61]

Maintenance Foreman Mike McWright and Curator Randi Bry
in curatorial workshop, 1983.
(Courtesy of Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS)

Another of Bry's priorities was to attempt to reduce the enormous backlog of cataloging. She and her small staff of one permanent and one seasonal had their hands full trying to maintain the furnishings exhibits, improve storage, and monitor environmental conditions. She devoted a significant amount of her own time to correcting and updating the accession files, which was vital to establishing proof of ownership. This left little time for the labor-intensive job of cataloging the thousands of objects. Vaughan, whose heart was close to museum work, can be credited with convincing the regional office to approve special funds for contract cataloging and the preservation of eight horse-drawn vehicles in 1979 and 1980. [62]

In subsequent years, a meticulous Bry utilized the Youth Conservation Corps program to add much-needed extra hands to her operation. In the summer of 1982 the park employed ten local youths, most of whom worked with the collections to type catalog cards, clean the storage areas, and tag items. They also helped the professionals to clean and wax a hundred pieces of furniture. [63]

The fall of 1983 and much of the summer of 1984 were devoted to coordinating and executing the removal of all of the exhibited and stored material from the ranch house (HS-1) and placing it in an off-site facility until the renovation of the ranch house was completed. Since there was no place for the curators themselves to go in the interim, they and their supplies had to be "crammed into the downtown office" for nearly a year. [64]

In the aftermath of the HS-1 restoration, the museum offices and storage areas were re-established on both the second floor and in the basement of the house. The basement, in fact, had been used for museum storage since the park's earliest days, but the installation of the furnaces created a more stable environment for this purpose. The space was re-arranged and fitted with both standard metal and visible storage cabinets. [65]

A new NPS computerized cataloging system also was implemented in 1984, and the curators completed over 300 worksheets. This work continued during successive years and at the time of this writing the records are still divided between the former system and the Automated National Catalog System (ANCS). Of the 16,000 records entered in ANCS, 3,000 are completed to the registration level only.

The late 1980s witnessed two curatorial events that further improved professional guidance for the collections. The first of these was a collections management report.

Funding was approved in 1989 for the preparation of this survey by an outside contractor, the Rocky Mountain Conservation Center in Denver, Colorado. This report, which noted the type of storage used, exhibit methods, and an evaluation of environmental conditions, laid the groundwork for a collections management plan the following year. This more detailed report documented records, security measures, and environment. It concluded with recommendations for all aspects of the museum operation, including staffing, storage, exhibits, records and funding. By this time, the collection that had previously been estimated at 10,000 objects, had increased to some 18,000 - 20,000 items. [66]

In the aftermath of Con Warren's death in 1993, the Warren children offered to donate the remaining photos, books, and records that related to the ranch. However, they elected to sell at auction the rest of the material in Con's estate. While the park staff regretted the public sale of so much historically significant material, the Warrens gave the NPS an option to purchase items at the appraised value, prior to the auction. Working from a list of priorities identified by the staff, the park was able to purchase, for a total of $10,000.00, a few dozen additional item that were particularly important to site interpretation. The park gave highest consideration to those items that could be exhibited immediately in the ranch house (HS-1), along with pieces needed to complete sets already in the park collection and items directly related to the ranching operations. Just prior to the auction, the Rocky Mountain Regional Office made available an additional $10,000.00 to purchase items at bid. The family also allowed the curators to photograph the interior of the Warren residence prior to any disturbance of the contents. Should there be a need to re-furnish the home at some future date, these photos and the furnishings purchased from the estate will enable it to be accomplished with a high degree of accuracy. [67]

Con Warren's passing resulted in an improvement in the curatorial facilities for the park. The land transaction executed with Warren in 1988 provided that his house would become government property upon his death. Numerous earlier planning documents earmarked the house for occupancy by park staff to provide an on-site presence and after hours security, but there were concerns that an employee residence at that high visible location would adversely impact the scene. Also arguing against the idea was the projected high rental cost for so large a house. The need for curatorial space was deemed to be more critical, so Superintendent Anthony J. Schetzsle elected to move the curator and her staff into the house temporarily in 1995. [68] Occupancy of this building has permitted the curatorial staff to greatly improve the organization, accountability, and access to the archival collections. This arrangement likely will continue until such time as an approved new facility is constructed near the present site of the visitor parking lot. Bid-ready plans and specifications have been prepared and await line item funding in Fiscal Year 1999.

The use of the Warren house and other buildings acquired at the same time led to a decision to give priority consideration to the adaptive use of existing historic buildings, rather than constructing new ones. Superintendent Schetzsle set the tone of his administration by reintegrating that policy in 1994 soon after his arrival at the park. Cultural resources management, he said, "will emphasize the preservation and use of historic structures and grounds through preservation maintenance, rehabilitation, restoration, and adaptive use." [69] Accordingly, the proposal for adapting the red barn (HS-64) as a visitor center and park headquarters remains the preferred alternative. However, the large space and highly specialized requirements of the curatorial operation warranted a new building designed for the purpose and largely dedicated to that function.

The cultural resources aspect at Grant-Kohrs Ranch, simply by virtue of the nature of the resource, has dominated the attention of each successive superintendent to a greater or lesser extent. Each manager has faced challenges unique to his particular watch over the area. Through their efforts and those of their staffs, many of the deficiencies faced in the beginning have been overcome. Equal to the curatorial needs, which have been largely corrected, or will be, is the mandate to provide continual vigilance and preservation maintenance for the structural components at the Site. Fulfilling the NPS creed "to protect and preserve" will continue to be the watchwords guiding and challenging the management of Grant-Kohrs Ranch.