Family begins effort to restore pioneer ranch

GENESEE, Idaho – Seventy years after the death of the widow of north-central Idaho pioneer rancher John Lorang, some of his descendants plan to restore the deteriorating cabin, farmhouse and makeshift museum. About 200 members of Lorang’s extended family descend on the ranch north of Genesee this weekend for their every-five-year reunion. But this time, the old buildings and their contents are on the National Register of Historic Places and will be opened to the public.

“He was a very talented man,” said Janet Lorang, 60, who lives on the ranch and is married to Lorang’s grandson, Dan Lorang, 48.

In addition to being a successful wheat farmer, John Lorang was an amateur photographer, accomplished taxidermist, coin collector and avian expert who looked for and saved everything from exotic bird eggs to an eagle’s nest

He displayed all his treasures in his own “curio cabin,” as the family calls it, just behind his the farmhouse, which was built beginning in 1885 – five years before statehood.

Dan and Janet Lorang, along with several other relatives, are now setting out to preserve the buildings, which gained historical recognition this year. That made them eligible for state and federal grants to begin restoration.

Several professors and students from the University of Idaho have already explored the buildings and their artifacts and helped catalog many of the items. One architecture student even wrote his thesis on the farmhouse. In the other buildings, some of John Lorang’s animal mounts can be found along with photos of others he probably sold. There are two rooster pheasants posed in a duel and other small animals arranged in natural settings.