Faraway Ranch, Erickson-Riggs Ranch House, State Highway 181, Willcox, Cochise County, AZ

Significance: The Erickson-Riggs Ranch House is significant to the history of southeastern Arizona in several respects. The older parts of the house recall the early settlement period of Bonita Canyon and of the nearby Sulphur Springs Valley. In its present form the house was the center of successful efforts in the early 1920s to secure designation of the neighboring "Wonderland of Rocks" as Chiricahua National Monument. With few alterations since the 1920s, the ranch house illustrates the domestic environment of a major Arizona ranching family of the early- to mid-twentieth century. For fifty years the ranch house was also the headquarters of one of the leading guest ("dude") ranches in the region. Architecturally, the ranch house represents an unusual mixture of vernacular construction methods and materials and building techniques, materials, and architectural details imported from the eastern United States.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N325
Survey number: HABS AZ-139-A
Building/structure dates: 1888-1890 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1897- 1899 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1915 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1924- 1925 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1930-1931 Subsequent Work