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Ainsworth House (Big Trails, Wyoming)

United States historic place

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ4697512 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Ainsworth House, also known as the Greet Ranch, was built in 1886 by homesteader Frank S. Ainsworth and his wife in Big Trails, Wyoming, in the Nowood Valley of Washakie County. The Ainsworths built the frame house after living in a tent and a log dugout. The house was one of the first permanent habitations to be built in the Bighorn Basin.

The 1886 section of the house is a 1½ story framed and clapboarded building, to which was appended a 1½ story log house built in 1890 and expanded upward in 1911.

Ainsworth was born in Iowa in 1857. He went west to Denver, then hunted and trapped in northwestern Colorado. By 1879 he was trapping in the Bighorn Basin. In 1885 he returned to Iowa to marry Lucy Ann Albee and brought her back to the Bighorn Basin where they built their house. They subsisted by cultivating the native hay of the region, which allowed them to grow sufficient fodder to withstand the severe winters. Ainsworth also worked as a carpenter in the area.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Ainsworth House (Big Trails, Wyoming)” as united States historic place. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Ainsworth, House and Trails.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1886, 1890, 1911, 1857—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1886. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Ainsworth, House and Trails providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Ainsworth House (Big Trails, Wyoming)”, the useful work is to connect “united States historic place” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4697512. Authority coordinates are 43.796, -107.315. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1886, 1890, 1911 and 1857.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Ainsworth House (Big Trails, Wyoming)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Ainsworth House (Big Trails, Wyoming) primary sources, Ainsworth House (Big Trails, Wyoming) archive and Ainsworth research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Ainsworth House (Big Trails, Wyoming)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.