White Spring Ranch selected for state’s highest honor

Genesee’s White Spring Ranch will receive the highest honor given to an Idaho museum or historical society Saturday.

The museum and archive library was selected for this year’s Sister Alfreda Elsensohn Award.

The award consists of $10,000 and a commemorative plaque presented by the Idaho State Historical Society and the Idaho Humanities Council.

Diane Conroy, White Spring Ranch museum curator, said as many as 10 members of the Lorang family, which founded the ranch, will be present for the award presentation.

The award for outstanding service was initiated in 2008 and named after Elsensohn, who founded the Historical Museum at St. Gertrude in Cottonwood, according to the Idaho State Historical Society website.

“I didn’t believe it at first,” Conroy said of winning the award. “I had to have Earl (Bennett) tell me he wasn’t kidding when he told me.”

Bennett is an Idaho State Historical Society District 2 board trustee and local historian.

White Spring Ranch, located on Lorang Road northwest of Genesee, is filled with letters, newspaper clippings, journals, books, photographs and other artifacts dating back to the 1800s.

John and Mary Lorang, a married couple, founded the ranch in 1885. The couple and the three generations of the family that followed preserved all its history, according to its website, whitespringranch.org.

Conroy, a great-granddaughter of John and Mary Lorang, said Washington State University students recently upgraded and launched the new website design.

“This was a ranch that was actually probably designed to be a museum because everybody that lived here was actually very much into history … They were just historians at heart so everything was preserved and all the records were preserved,” Conroy said.

She said John Lorang was a diversified farmer who raised wheat, barley and farm animals like cows, chickens and pigs.

Conroy said he used other skills too that included raising goldfish for a fountain at the Davenport Hotel in Spokane and making wooden washer machines. He was also an accomplished photographer and many of his photos are displayed at the museum.

Conroy said the greatest difficulty has been preserving items in the museum and library.

She said she will use the $10,000 from the award to gather the best photos, journals and letters at White Spring Ranch and turn them into a cohesive presentation.

“It’s gone from a house that was full of stuff to a viable working, and what I think, wonderful little museum,” Bennett said.

The ceremony can be viewed virtually via Zoom at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Visit the Zoom link https://bit.ly/3frbp7m to register and view the presentation. For questions, contact Gale “Jake” Jacobs at jake@infoviva.com or (541) 406-0711.

Garrett Cabeza can be reached at (208) 883-4631, or by email to gcabeza@dnews.com.