Apache owes its roots to the spirit of exploration. After all, we are explorers, and it is the spirit that moves us forward. Join us as we explore ourselves, our industry and the people who make it all happen.
Defining Moments: 1981 Ucross Foundation
Critical Mass: Apache at 50 © 2004
10/15/2004
One day at the end of the 1970s, Raymond Plank — WWII bomber pilot, maverick visionary, founder and chairman of Apache Corporation — stood among the failing plaster, bats and beehives of a second-story room in an abandoned ranch house in Ucross, Wyoming. The company had recently purchased the ranch where the house stood. Razing the building appeared inevitable, but looking out on grounds flanked by a big red barn, bunkhouse and a ring of 100-year-old cottonwoods, Plank felt the pull of history.
Built a century earlier, the complex was known as Big Red. It had served as the headquarters for the Pratt & Ferris Cattle Company, a chain of four ranches in northeastem Wyoming. An imposing visual landmark on the prairie, Big Red was on the stagecoach route that served Buffalo to Clearmont (1891-1911). Tepee rings on the surrounding hills testified to an earlier history as Indian hunting grounds.
Plank challenged friends and associates to reinvent and restore Big Red in the 20th century, rendering the site as relevant to people in the future as it had been to those in the past. The Ucross Foundation was incorporated as a nonprofit organization, and the 22,000-acre properly continued as a working cattle ranch. The Foundation's mission is threefold: (1) A residency program providing uninterrupted time and space in which to nurture the creative spirit for selected artists and writers; (2) meeting facilities for community and regional consensus building; and (3) a model of land of northeast Wyoming.
The Foundation accepted its first residents in 1983 and since that time has hosted more than 1,000 artists — including painters, poets, sculptors, novelists, photographers, filmmakers, music composers, playwrights and others — from across the United States and around the world. Applications are reviewed by an independent committee and selected individuals are awarded residencies of two to six weeks at Big Red, including private studios and living spaces, meals and the extraordinary experience of the High Plains landscape. In recent yeas. the foundation has established partnerships with other national arts organizations such as the Sundance Institute, the Ernest Hemingway Foundation, PEN/New England, CalArts and the Herb Alpert Foundation, to identify and bring accomplished artists and writers to Ucross.
Many participating artists choose to present their work publicly, providing a significant cultural resource for local communities. The Big Red Barn features a gallery which presents four annual exhibitions of contemporary art of the west as well as historical exhibits of regional interest. Conference facilities in the Loft of the barn and tours of the historic Big Red Ranch House also draw many visitors year-round.
The Ucross Ranch is a developing model for ecologically sound, holistic ranching practices. In 1999, the Foundation placed a conservation easement, held by the Wyoming Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, on more than 12,000 acres of the ranch. As part of this initiative, the Foundation has broadened its programs to include the natural sciences and land issues of the American West in the 21st century.
Today, the ranch house is listed on the National Historic Register and rings with the energy of commitment to the historic and cultural community of the West.
This article ran in Wyoming: A 20th Century History of Its Citizens, published by Heritage Media Corporation. It has been updated here by Sharon Dynak and Michelle Sullivan, both of the Ucross Foundation.