Hardware Ranch WMA

The open valley of the hardware ranch headquarters and irrigated meadow lands are situated near the headwaters of the Blacksmith Fork river. Curtis Creek cuts through the ranch to the northwest. In the 1899s elk were common in Utah, but by 1898 elk numbers had declined due to human settlements and unregulated hunting. Beginning in 1910 the old Utah fish and game department, in cooperation with sportsmans’ organizations, moved elk from Yellowstone national park and other areas to re-establish elk in Utah. As the herds grew they began causing conflicts for settlers in Cache Valley. As the valley was developed of agriculture, the elk’s natural winter range decreased and the elk began to feed on haystacks and in fields. The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources purchased hardware ranch in 1946 to feed the elk and keep them from moving down into Cache valley, biologists reasoned that the situation could be relieved through the purchase and operation of the Hardware Ranch as an elk and deer winter refuge. The reasoning has been justified, for hardware has well-served its’ purpose. Hunting license fees and money from the federal aid to wildlife restoration program funded the purchase of the land.The winter feeding program began in 1948. Each summer 10,000 bales of grass hay are produced on the ranch and stored for winter feeding. Understanding the habits and changing patterns of elk over time is important for sound management of these herds and the Hardware Ranch has been a center for elk research since the 1950s. Each winter a number of elk are tagged and weighed, some with collars that are visible during aerial surveys. Ear tags are used identify individual elk and study population statistics.

The North American elk was called wapiti by the Shawnee and Cree Indians. This word means pale or white. Once elk roamed most of what is now the United States. Today they are found mostly in the northwest portion of the country. These yellowish-gray animals with dark brown heads and necks and buff colored rump patches weigh 700 to 1000 pounds. They all have a conspicuous neck mane. The cows are smaller than the bulls. An adult bull will stand five feet at the shoulders. Cows normally have one calf in mid may. Elk calves are spotted much like deer fawns at birth. Bulls drop their antlers about the first of march and start growing new ones almost immediately. The composition of the antlers is very similar to bone. They darken when the bulls rub them on trees and shrubs. During the mating season in September the bugling of the bulls breaks the normal quiet of the mountain forests. The clear whistling sound stars with a low note, rises to a high pitch then drops abruptly and breaks into a harsh scream followed by a couple of loud grunts. The elk move to the hardware feed lot usually in early December and stay through march. Up to 400 elk are fed every day. Each elk consumes from five to eight pounds of hay per day. This makes up about 20 to 25 percent of the diet, for the animal can only utilize that much hay. The rest of his daily requirements include grass, sagebrush, juniper, bitterbrush, serviceberry, and mountain mahogany which grows and the hills surrounding the Ranch.

The ranch played a colorful role as an early day Indian and trapper rendezvous. It was first homesteaded in 1868 by Lehi Curtis. The name Hardware comes from the second owner, the Box Elder Hardware Company. In 1895 the ranch was leased to A.M. Israelsen until 1910 when it was sold to the Jensen Brothers. In 1916 the ranch was purchased by Ernest Petersen and Sons, successful sheep ranchers in Hyrum. Through homesteading and land purchases, they increased their holdings in Blacksmith Fork canyon to 12,00 acres. Over the years the ranch property has served many purposes: a sawmill in the 1870s to Utah largest cheese factory in the 1890s. the name comes from one of the previous land owners, the Box Elder Hardware Company, which owned the land from 1886-1895. Heavy snows at that time often caused snow slides in the canyons. On a February night in 1877 a snowslide swept down the mountain in dry Curtis canyon east if the ranch and crashed into a cabin killing a James Smyth, who was staying there. Today a stone monument marks his grave which located two tenths of a mike from the ranch.

Visitors to hardware ranch during the elk feeding season number into the thousands. People from every state and several foreign countries have enjoyed their free sleigh ride among the elk. Hardware ranch is also a favorite spot of boy scout troops. Camp Wapiti one mile down the canyon on ranch property was developed as a winter encampment area by the Cache Valley council of the Boy Scouts of America. Sleeping quarters, cooking facilities, the attraction of big game and skiing brings hundreds of scouts to Camp Wapiti each winter.

Excerpts from “romance of an old ranch” as told by Henry B Tingey, grandson of the first foreman hired for the ranch.

“In 1887 the Box Elder Hardware Company bought the land from Jack Curtis, who was the original owner from the government. Lorenzo Snow was pres. of the company with Peter F Madsen and J, M. Jensen as partners. In 1888 Peter Madsen’s son Walter, a young man in his teens was sent to the ranch to begin operations, he was unable to accomplish much alone and my grandfather Henry Tingey II was hired as foreman of the ranch, accompanied by his young wife Percilla Jansen and two baby daughters they began the ambitious undertaking. The Company planned to break the land, plant alfalfa, barley, spring wheat and some rye and the raise and fatten cattle. Mr. Madsen stayed at the ranch after grandfather left the ranch until he was called for an LDS church mission in 1898. When Mr. Madsen left the Ranch the land was leased to A.M. Israelsen of Hyrum who held the lease until 1906 when the ranch was sold to Oscar and Clair Jensen, who were incidentally brothers to grandmother Tingey. The Box Elder Hardware Co. paid $2000 for the ranch which they sold to the Jensen brothers for $5000. These boys operated the place as a sheep ranch until 1916 when they sold it to Mr. Ernest Petersen of Hyrum for $15,000. He in turn sold it in 1947 to the State fish and game for approximately $40,000. It is understood that the state plans to use it for a recreation center and game preserve.

As early as the winter of 1889 a large number of cattle were fed upon the land. The soil proved to be extremely fertile producing fine crops of alfalfa and timothy. Often the alfalfa grew three to four feet high and two crops were produced annually.

During the 1890’s the road through Logan Canyon had not been opened and the Blacksmith Fork canyon Road was the main thoroughfare for the people traveling between Star Valley, Bear Lake and Salt Lake City. The Hardware Ranch became the stopping place for these people, either for overnight or their noon meal. A guest book would have revealed that literally thousands of people stopped at the Ranch during these years. This traffic by horse and wagon was of such a volume that a Blacksmith shop was profitably operated at the ranch for many years.

On my last visit to the Hardware ranch, only a few Sundays ago, in this spring of 1948, I found the old landmark still steeped in the romance of nature. We watched almost three hundred elk come into the feeding grounds on the foothills just north of the house. These fine game animals have been introduced into the region by the state fish and game commission and are being fed by them during the winter months. Elk are not native to this region in early days. Every attempt is being made to restore the native animals and make this romantic spot a nature lover’s paradise.”

Welcome to Hardware Ranch State of Utah Division of Wildlife Resources

Hardware Ranch Visitor Center Pamphlet

Paul, Don. The Unsung Hero. Utah Wildlife Magazine. 6 - 7.

Cache Valley Industrial Review.

Tingey, Henry B. "Romance of an old ranch." (Logan) . .