In 1873, a nineteen year old Emma took a ship to America from Sweden to live with her sister and brother. Few years later Neil arrived to America in 1879.
Emma meet Neil at Fort Craig has a housekeeper. They started has friends to later on they started more of a friendship. When they were moving to Fort Huachuca, Neil asked Emma to merry him and she told him that she wasn’t going to marry a soldier and suggested the he study for a commission Crestfallen.
While Neil was away on duty Emma managed a boarding home in Fort Bowie that was located northern tip of the Chiricahua Mountains.
One day Emma rode horseback to Bonita Canyon. A man had a two room cabin for sale. She went to Tucson and got the cabin. Neil made some improvements and adding a extra room.
In 1887, Neil and Emma got married. They had three children Lillian Sophia, Lewis Benton (Ben), Helen Hildegarde.
In 1897, Neil expanded the living quarters. He razed all but the large front room of the cabin, and build a two story structure with two bedrooms upstairs and a front room and large kitchen downstairs.
By 1915, Neil had remodeled the structure tearing down what remained of the original cabin. Their son called it “The house that grew.”
In 1917, Neil and Emma had to move to another place because of Neil’s job. They let the children in charge of the ranch. During that time Ben joined the army to fight in the World War One, Lillian was teaching school at Bowie. Hildegarde ran the ranch.
During the time Hildegarde was running the ranch she made it to a guest ranch. She would send out letters to school principals in Douglas and Bisbee offering Sunday meals at the ranch. Lillian helped out there beside serving meals and having rooms ready for visitors.
Both of the daughters got married and Lillian and her husband stayed a the guest ranch.
In April 1924, presidential proclamation designated the Wonderland of Rocks. People would visit the rocks and stay at the Faraway Ranch.
In November 1978, the last was passed authorizing the expansion of Chiricahua National Monument to include Faraway Ranch. In June of 1979 the Park Service purchased the ranch and on August 1988, they restored the ranch house.
Why it was called Faraway Ranch is “so god awful far away from everything.”
We weren’t able to go into the house because it was closed for remodeling. We got to walk around the grounds. It is a beautiful house to visit.
