Trail End: The Orphan Who Became a Senator
Near Sheridan, Wyoming
The Flemish Revival mansion on the hilltop above Sheridan was built between nineteen oh eight and nineteen thirteen for John B. Kendrick, and Kendrick's story is as improbable as the house itself. He arrived in Wyoming in eighteen seventy-nine at about twenty-one, a young cowhand who had helped drive cattle up from Texas. Through cattle ranching and real estate he became one of the wealthiest men in the state.
He was elected governor in nineteen fourteen, just sixteen months after moving into the house, and went on to serve three terms in the United States Senate. The fourteen-thousand-square-foot mansion was designed to be the last word in Wyoming elegance, with professionally landscaped grounds using hundreds of native trees and shrubs. Kendrick called it Trail End, marking where the great cattle drives ended. The state of Wyoming has operated it as a historic site since nineteen eighty-two.
