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State Historic Preservation Office
Cheyenne Historic Preservation Board receives award from State

National Register of Historic Places


Red Star Lodge and Sawmill

Park County, Wyoming

Date Added to Register

Thursday, October 30, 2003

Smithsonian Number

48PA3011

Read all about it

Also known as the Shoshone Lodge, the Red Star Lodge and Sawmill is an historic dude ranch located in the Shoshone National Forest about six miles from the east entrance into Yellowstone National Park along U.S. Highway 14-16-20 in Park County, Wyoming. The buildings and structures are laid out in typical rustic dude ranch style with a centrally located grand lodge surrounded by guest cabins and support buildings. The buildings evolved over a period of years from 1924 to 1950. The property is historically significant as an operational and nearly intact representation of Western dude ranching as it arose and evolved in Wyoming in the first half of the twentieth century. Its rich history epitomizes the entrepreneurial resourcefulness of the settlers of the Cody region as they recognized their unique chance to provide recreational opportunities in previously inaccessible areas. Yellowstone became this country's first national park in 1872; but it was decades later, within the social context of an emerging middle class, the rise of the automobile, and the 'good roads' movement, that the ''Cody Road'' into Yellowstone precipitated the emergence of dude ranches: places to provide shelter for and recreational opportunities to an increasingly mobile and affluent public eager to explore this nation's natural wonders.

Department of State Parks & Cultural Resources