Landscape Information
Built for cattleman and politician John Kendrick in 1908, Trail End sits high on a bluff overlooking the city of Sheridan, the Big and Little Goose Valleys, Big Horn Mountains and Eastern Hills. The Flemish Revival-style mansion is surrounded by four acres of grounds designed by the Minneapolis firm Morell & Nichols between 1911 and 1914. Thought to be the first professionally-landscaped residential grounds in the state of Wyoming, the site is designed in a naturalistic style using several hundred trees and shrubs indigenous to the region.
Typical of the firm’s work, views from the house are as carefully orchestrated as the views toward it. On the south lawn, large silver poplars frame a sunken rose garden with a spectacular view of the Big Horn Mountains beyond. East of the mansion, a sprawling lawn framed by trees focuses the view on the town of Sheridan in the valley below. Throughout the grounds, the design employs similar devices to enhance the relationship between the house and the surrounding terrain. With the purpose of interpreting regional and social history through the context of the estate, Trail End was given to the state and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. The site is operated by the Wyoming Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources.
