McNall Shorthorns honored as Idaho Century Farm

On Saturday, June 19, five generations of the McNall family, their extended families, and some close friends gathered on Grouse Creek to celebrate the McNall ranch’s recognition as an Idaho Century Farm by Don Pischner of the Idaho State Historical Society.

Pischner presented a commemorative sign as well as documents and letters from Idaho Governor Brad Little and U.S. Sen. Jim Risch.  

William McNall purchased the first 80 acres of the ranch in 1920 as a “stump farm.” At the time, the property had been logged over and the stumps and remaining timber decimated by a forest fire. It was a barren landscape of blackened snags and stumps. The large hay meadow and pasture that now constitutes the core of the ranch was cleared by William McNall with dynamite and horses.

William’s grandchildren Jim McNall, Dennis McNall, Louise (McNall) Wood, Elizabeth (McNall) Wood, Janice (McNall) Riley, and Rose (McNall) Ropp were presented the Century Farm designation on the lawn of the family farmhouse built by their grandparents and where they were raised by their parents Francis and Beverly McNall. Beverly passed away in 2017 at the age of 92, and Francis passed in 2018 at the age of 100, but their children keep their legacies alive and still meet weekly on most Sunday mornings for coffee in the in the kitchen of the house, which they refer to as going “up home.”

In accepting the recognition, Jim McNall said that Francis, especially, had been looking forward to the Century Ranch designation, and hoped he would live to see this day, and he almost made it, but added the family is sure he and Beverly were looking down with great pride on Saturday’s ceremony.

Francis and Beverly harvested timber and raised shorthorn cattle on the ranch, and their son Alan McNall managed the logging and ranching operation until he passed in 2011. The ranch was incorporated as McNall Shorthorns, Inc. in 1978. One of Alan’s daughters, Jamie, and her husband Brad Williams now carry on that legacy by raising cattle on the ranch, and also continuing to market the timber.

Pischner said that there have been about 450 farms and ranches recognized as such in Idaho since the Idaho Century Farm and Ranch program began in 1990, with the majority of them in the Palouse region. The McNall Shorthorns, Inc. ranch is now one of only four thus far commemorated in northern Idaho.