Crafting Period Furniture for Winsor Castle

In 1870, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints constructed a ranch house and protective walls directly over Pipe Spring itself. This structure was named the Winsor Castle after the ranch’s first manager and one of its builders, Anson Winsor. Embedded in the structure of the Winsor Castle is the work of craftsman who quarried sandstone from the hillside west of the fort and hauled lumber by wagon and oxen from a site near the rim of the Grand Canyon. As one of the central structures at Pipe Spring National Monument, park rangers offer daily guided tours, helping visitors understand the builders who made the Winsor Castle. Pipe Spring also offers a virtual tour of the Winsor Castle, extending the history of this fortified ranch house to an online audience.

This project allows Pipe Spring to continue the proud tradition of the craftsman, like Anson Winsor, who built the Pipe Spring structures. If funded, the park will hire skilled workers with experience in period woodwork, blacksmithing and other trades to reproduce historic furniture at Pipe Spring. Working seven to eight months a year, artists will use period tools and techniques while in historical costume to create reproductions of period furniture. In-person visitors will interact with living history, and online visitors will benefit as virtual programs incorporate time-period furnishings.