Dinner Time!

The National Ranching Heritage Center’s newest acquisition is the original Pitchfork Ranch Cook House, where cowboys and guests of the ranch shared their meals at long wooden tables for nearly a century.

Ranch owners donated the building after deciding to replace the simple wood-frame structure. The cook house was moved nearly 100 miles from the Pitchfork Ranch, located near Guthrie, to the Texas Tech University campus where it will be rehabilitated.

Located just a few yards from the north bank of the South Wichita River, the original building was a sanctuary for family reunions, birthday parties and daily meals for ranch hands and cowboys as early as 1921. Horses grazed in nearby pastures; tamed wild turkeys milled around eating corn chips thrown out for them by the cook. And at every meal time, the old dinner bell called everyone in to eat.

What began as a one-room, wood-plank kitchen grew considerably over the years. Screen porches were added, removed and rebuilt. The building was expanded, including a 4-foot widening of the kitchen and a new room used as an infirmary for several years. Two other rooms and a full bath were added later. A porch on the south side of the building was enclosed, creating yet another room.

Trail's End

In preparation for the nearly 100-mile trek to its new home at the ranching heritage center, the original cook house was separated from the rest of the structure. Extra siding, paneling and windows were salvaged for the rehabilitation the structure will undergo before it is opened to the public.

Though the exterior walls were covered in modern shingles sometime after 1935, the original wood clapboard siding is still intact underneath. The interior walls and ceilings are clad with narrow 1-inch by 2-inch beveled plank paneling. The dining hall furnishings are well-used wooden tables and hand-made wooden benches.

House movers lifted the structure onto steel beams for the journey from the ranch to its new location in Proctor Park. Restoration work began almost immediately to repair the walls and ceilings and return the building to a condition similar to that of an earlier time.

The building was saved through generous support by individual members of the Pitchfork Land & Cattle Co. board, Ranching Heritage Association Executive Committee member Jim Burkhart of Lubbock and the Ranching Heritage Association.