Evon Zartman Vogt Ranch House

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The Evon Zartman Vogt Ranch House was constructed in 1915, amidst the scenic red and white sandstone canyon country in the foothills of the Zuni Mountains, one mile southeast of Ramah, New Mexico. It has been on the National Historic Register since the late 1970s.

[edit] History

Evon Zartman Vogt, born in Upper Sandusky, Ohio in [[1880], was graduated from the University of Chicago in 1903. He was a Marshal of his graduating class and a member of Delta Upsilon fraternity there. He moved to the New Mexico Territory after graduation and homesteaded on the slopes of Mount Taylor, near the railroad town of Grants. After a long vacation in Europe in 1914 he returned to Chicago and married Shirley Bergman, and brought her to their new residence in Ramah, New Mexico. They built their house of sandstone and adobe, raised four children, and as the largest sheep ranchers in New Mexico experienced both fortune and as well as economic privation through the 1920s and 1930s.

Evon, known by all as Skeeter, and by the Navajo as Pesoteaje ("Little Fat Pig"), was the first Custodian of El Morro National Monument, also known as Inscription Rock, 10 miles southeast of their ranch. He also founded the first newpaper in that part of New Mexico, the Gallup Gazette (which became the Gallup Independent), was the Master of Ceremonies for many years of the Gallup Ceremonial, and served as Agent for the Ramah Navajo Reservation. Evon died in 1943; his widow, Shirley, maintained the ranch as a guest/dude ranch during the 1950s and lived there until her death in 1986.

The Vogt Ranch House is still owned and occupied by Evon Vogt's direct descendants. His eldest daughter, Barbara Vogt Mallery, wrote an acclaimed book about her parents' lives entitled "Bailing Wire and Gamuza" in 2003. The book was awarded one of the "Southwest Books of the Year 2004" by the Arizona Star newspaper. Barbara's elder brother, Evon Zartman Vogt, Jr. (1918-2004), a noted anthropologist and former Co-Master of Kirkland House at Harvard University, acquired his interest in cultural anthropology thanks to the many local cultures with which the family interacted on a daily basis.

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