Harriman State Park

The Railroad Ranch took its name from the men who bought it in 1902: officials of the Oregon Short Line and fellow investors, the copper-rich Guggenheims among them. E. H. Harriman, chairman of the Union Pacific, bought out the Guggenheim shares in 1908 on the strength of a letter praising the place, sight unseen, and died the next year without ever visiting. His family kept coming for most of seven decades. Twenty-seven ranch buildings, from the cookhouse to the horse barn, still stand furnished, and rangers lead summer tours. The park opened to the public in 1982.

What the plaque says

Harriman State Park Started in 1902 as a large cattle ranch, Railroad Ranch soon became a summer retreat for wealthy Easterners and eventually Idaho's largest state park. Railroad magnate and diplomat W. Averell Harriman and his brother Roland donated the ranch to Idaho in 1977, thus preserving the area's remarkable wildlife and prompting development of a professionally managed state parks system. 462 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Harriman State Park — 1.9 mi
  The Harrimans would give Idaho their ranch only when Idaho had a parks department fit to run it. The state built one.
• Mesa Falls — 10 mi
  The inn went up with a dam in mind. The dam never came, and the Henrys Fork still drops 114 feet untouched.
• Warm River — 15 mi
  Union Pacific built the Yellowstone Branch for tourists. At the bottom of this canyon it turned the engines that pushed them uphill.
• St. Anthony Sand Dunes — 31 mi
  Four hundred feet of white sand, open to machines most of the year and closed to people when the elk come down.

More markers nearby

• Caldera Lookout — 1.7 mi
• Harriman Wildlife Refuge — 3.8 mi
• Volcanic Calderas — 8.7 mi
• The Three Tetons — 14 mi