Harriman State Park and the Railroad Ranch

July 26 – Bill didn’t sleep well last night and was up and 5 for a while.  I heard him turn the TV on then drifted back off.  At some point he came back to bed and I let him sleep until 9:30 when I had breakfast ready.

He cleaned up last night and this morning’s dishes and showered while I did my mound of ironing.  I couldn’t pile it any higher on the dresser!  Then I showered and we had a small lunch and headed out.  Make note that this is the first day since we arrived here that it was warm enough for ME to wear shorts.

Henry's Ford on the Railroad Ranch

We visited Harriman State Park where they were having their Pioneer Days.  The state park was actually known as the Railroad Ranch in 1902 and in 1977, Edward Henry Harriman’s three children donated it to the state of Idaho to be a state park with strict restrictions that it remain a nature preserve with no fishing and hunting allowed on the

Harriman House

property.  The family was instrumental in re-establishing elk in the Island Park area with the herd they raised of 125 elk.  Trumpet swans were thought to be nearly extinct in the US at that time and some were found on the property. They were protected and provided for there and thrived and are no longer an endangered species. 

Grizzly on display

Today there were numerous demonstrations and child participation booths set up as well as craft booths and homemade ice cream.  Most of the buildings of the original ranch were open with rangers

The Harrimans' bedroom

providing information about the ranch and the inhabitants.  The coolest part of the donation was they left everything as it was when they left it, the dishes, linens, clothing, shoes, rugs, it’s really like someone walked off into the woods and never came back.  The furnishings are pretty much from the 1940’s into the 50’s.  The views from the houses are all beautiful.  They have complete walls of glass looking out over the fields and Henry’s Fork where the swans and geese come and go.

One side of Harriman living room

On the way out we got our homemade ice cream and thoroughly enjoyed it and our visit there.  I stopped at the visitor center for a brochure and a couple of post cards and then on the way back home we made some side stops.  One was to see what the sites we were offered by the forestry office looked like after mowing.  I will say it was an improvement but no one moved the broken blocks or cleared the weeds back very far.  The utilities looked like they were ready to fall over.

We took the circle drive to see the little library and where the EMS was and it’s pretty close to us in case we need them.  We stopped for gas and then took a side road to see one of the resorts that also has a campground and checked out the sites there just for the heck of it.  It was nice to just see some of our “neighborhood”.

When we got back we stopped at the gas station/store to see what produce they had and Gina and Becky were at work pricing various items.  We visited a while and left with 3 nice tomatoes.  Once we got my shepherd hooks down I put out my bird seed and my hummingbird feeder and then made us each an iced coffee.  I read for a while and then put on a potato to bake for Bill and got out carrots to sauté and the George to grill some Italian turkey sausage and Hot Links for dinner.  We had wanted to grill out but it was pretty windy and we don’t have one of those metal shields to put around the grill and the fire goes out.  We need to look for one when we’re in a decent size town.

Oh and when I opened the compartment to get my feeders out the lock snapped shut on the door open and I couldn’t get it to unlock to shut it so Bill used duct tape for the night.  It’s always something with an RV. 

After dinner I caught up on 3 days of journal but the internet was not co-operating so will have to try and post tomorrow!