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NewsHistoric LX Bar Ranch Tour Attracts Large Crowd

Historic LX Bar Ranch Tour Attracts Large Crowd

September 23, 2025

News – Sheridan Media

The recent LX Bar tour, held on Sunday, September 21, was attended by 90 people wanting to see the historic buildings and learn more about the ranch. The LX Bar is one of the historic Kendrick Cattle Company ranches not far from Clearmont, along the Powder River.

Misty Moore, District Manager Wyoming State Parks Absaroka District, said up until the LX Bar was gifted to the park service, in 2016, the park service did not own a historic property like the LX Bar.

One of the landowners bordering the LX Bar property, who gave permission for the tour to cross their land, was Linda Lulias. She inherited the land from her father, Bill Ritchie, and she and her husband now run the ranch. Bill Ritchie was raised near the LX Bar ranch, and he told Linda some tales of the early days on the ranch.

The LX Bar property consists of 40 acres and includes the stone buildings – the five-bedroom main house, a bunkhouse, horse barn, hospital shed, solar-heated chicken coop, and an ice/coal and laundry building.

Sharie Shada, site superintendent, gave a brief history of the ranch and the buildings

The ranch buildings were constructed using native sandstone quarried from the near-by hills. The buildings of the OW Ranch near Birney, Montana, and the PeeGee Ranch, once the K Ranch, were built in a similar manner. Both those ranchers are now under private ownership. According to the hand-out from Shada, master stonemason Oscar Husman was hired to do the stonework on all the ranches.

Bob Moore, whose daughter, Misty, was quoted above, was impressed with the stonework on the buildings.

Attendees walked around and into the old buildings, took a walk down to the banks of the Powder River, got a close up look at an old, rusty car body, and ate sack lunches on the porches of the old houses.

Anthony and Tina Mediate, and Brenda Odegard were some of those who attended the event.

Odegard commented on how well the buildings had weathered the years.

Tina Mediate had visited the LX Bar twice when it was a working ranch.

John B. Kendrick started as a cowboy and began to build his own herd of cattle. He began to purchase land, and at one time owned 10 ranches in Wyoming and Montana. The OW was the home ranch, the K ranch was center of the irrigation and hay operation, and the LX Bar was for animal care, such as dipping the cattle.

The LX Bar was built around the same time as the Trail End Mansion in Sheridan, and the mansion is open for tours from April through December. The ranch is a look at ranch life in the early part of the 20^th Century, while the Mansion shows the elegant lifestyle that the Kendrick family lived when in town.

A big thanks goes to Clearmont School for the use of the buses and bus drivers and the landowners who graciously let the tour cross their property to see the historic ranch.