, 1884-04-30
I%NGERSOLL'S RANCH.
Colonel BOb's Quaint and Curious
Hiding Place.
A Very aesthetic New Mexican Log
Cabin.

From the Chicago Journal.
WAsHINGToS, April ~. Plans OF Col
onel Bob Ingersoll's log house in New
Mexico have reached here. They are
unique and hence interesting. The house
is a more expensive affair than joaquin
Mlller's, the poet Of the Sierras, whose
log house ON the hill just north from the
White House overlooks Washington. Col
onel lngersoll summer residence in Col
fax County, New Mexico, is to be 4 huge
affair. The rooms will number over
twenty, some OF them AS large a. a good
sized New Mexico housc-and, a5 they
are strung together in the most peculiar
and fantastic shapes possible, the building
will be a curious one.
Colonel Ingersoll, As has been already
announced, has recently purchased from
ex-senator Dorsey. of star fame, an
interest in his huge cattle ranch in New
Mexico. This ranch is located in Colfax
County, IN the northeastern portion Of
New Mexico, and consists Of some 24,OuO
acres OF land iii over 100 locations
which include all the valuable springs in
that section ofthe county. That they do
things on a large scale in New Mexico is
shown by the single fact that the county
in which this ranch is situated is as
large As the State of Massachusetts,.
Dorsey srlnch, which is valued at -, OOO,-
600 and has 5000 head of cattle on il. is
located about the center Of the county.
! Upon this lac Is building this house for
Colonel Ingersoll The building is 10 be
entirely of logs with the bark upon them.
but dressed down thin and well oiled.
Some of the rooms, as will be seen by the
plans given below, are more than twenty
feet square. and from that run down to
half that size. The interior is TO be fin.
ished III hard woods, mountain mahogany
and white pine finished in hot oil. Some
of the rooms will be plastercd, others
finished with this native wood. To such
an extent is the rustic idea carried in the
construction of this queer, quaint building
that even the window frames are to be of
wood with the bark still upon it. The
windows are to be of odd, fantastic shapes.
with stained glass. No two of the seventy
five or 100 in the great building are to be
alike.
Colonel Iugersolls family consists of
but four people, himself and wife and two
daughters, yet his house is 10 be large
enough for thirty people. The entire
building is to be only one-story in height,
except as to the library, which is sur
mounted by an observatory thirty feet
high. Workmen are now busily engaged
IN laying the foundations, hauling logs
from the groves near by, dressing
them down and polishing them up,
and soon the walls will begin to
make their appearance above ground.
From this time until July from
twenty to thirty wOrkmen will be con
stantly engaged on it. TO build an ordi.
you come to BULL one with over twenty
rooms which are connected in the most
| absurd and f~lntistlc manner with all sorts
Of angles aud quaint designs which are to
cost money and take time, it Is a still
greater task. Colonel lngersoll' : log house
will cost from $1,000 TO $4,000. The
estimate on the house itself is $4,000,
and when fences, and fountains. and
grounds, and telephones, and affairs of
this Kind are added the cost will run up
to nearly $1,000. Telephones and log
houses are not supposed to 90 very well
together, yet it is Il curious fact that Colonel
lngersoll, in this iar-away Western retreat,
upon a ranch which il takes almost a day
to ride across. will be in constant tele-
phonic connection with five or six towns,
and with a large number of intelligent
people. Trinidad, Col, Ration, y. NJ,
Iroyberg Capilin and Springer are all to
be connected by telephone with the new
house. The curious ~octagOnal library ut
the western end Of the great house is to
be well furnished with books, for Colonel
lngersoll and his family are to spend the
summer months, from June to October,
there. Every room is 10 be furnished
will be large tall chimneyS. some in
side and some outside, as the taste Of the
architect may suggest. constructed Of red
brick and dressed stone. There will he
broad verandas and wide halls, the win
dows large and roof high and steep
The distance around this huge, struggling,
fantastic log structure will be go feet
almost q quarter Of Il mile.
W hat Colonel lngersoll idea is in thus
prrieiTIng to bury himself III the far
Southwest during the Summer months,
when the TlOrics Of the seaside, with its
Cape May, or Long Branch. or Mount
Desert, or the temptations Of the noun
tains, or the pleasures Of Saratoga are
offered him nearer home, has been the
subject of considerable speculation. It
is understood, however. that one Of his
objects Is to get away n far us possible
from the very features which would sur
round him at the more popular and pop
ulOus Summer resorts. and thus enable
him to give undivided attention to some
D A.. IL