RANCH HISTORY · THE CATTLE BARN · UPDATED NOVEMBER 1, 2026
Swauk Valley History: The Virden Homestead, the Burke Ranch and The Cattle Barn
The Cattle Barn, a ranch wedding venue at 980 Burke Road near Cle Elum, stands on George D. Virden's 1878 homestead in the Swauk Valley of Kittitas County, Washington. The Virdens reached the county in September 1876, then built the Ranch House and moved onto this Swauk Creek farm in 1878. The federal government issued George Virden's homestead patent in 1896.
The Burke family moved onto "the Virden Ranch in the Swauk" in 1943 and ranched it until 2005. My family owned it for the next twenty years. That is nearly 150 years of ranching on the same ground.
Key takeaways
- 980 Burke Road lies inside George D. Virden's 1896 homestead patent, Section 28, Township 20 North, Range 17 East.
- The ranch's first water right on Swauk Creek dates to June 30, 1878, the year the Virdens took up the farm.
- The Lauderdale crossroads was once called Virden, after the Virden School.
- The nearby Dunford Barn is listed on the Washington Heritage Barn Register.
- Pat and Mary Burke ranched here until 2005. Mary was the first woman president of the Washington Cattlemen's Association.
This article is based on research, not an interview: the 1904 county history, federal land patents, water-right and cemetery records, obituaries and county files, plus twenty years of owning the ranch and many conversations with my friend Mary Burke. I have checked every date here against those records and my own notes.
The Virden homestead at a glance
| Homesteaders | George D. Virden and Rebecca (Walker) Virden of Swauk Creek, Kittitas County, Washington |
|---|---|
| Arrived | Kittitas County, September 1876; built the Ranch House and moved onto the Swauk farm, 1878 |
| Homestead patent | WAYAA 053906, June 4, 1896, 160 acres |
| Legal description | Section 28, T.20N, R.17E, Willamette Meridian: N½SE¼, SW¼NE¼, SW¼SE¼ |
| Earliest water right | Swauk Creek (later the Burke Ditch), priority June 30, 1878 |
| Later owners | Burke family 1943–2005; The Ranch on Swauk Creek LLC 2005–2025 |
| Today | The Cattle Barn wedding venue and Ranch House, 980 Burke Road, Cle Elum, WA 98922 |
When did settlers come to the Swauk Valley?
Settlers came to the Swauk Valley in the 1870s, after the Swauk Creek gold strike of 1873. The valley is part of the homeland of the Kittitas people, whose lands were ceded in the Treaty with the Yakama on June 9, 1855.
Benton Goodwin first saw gold on a Swauk Creek gravel bar in 1867, and his partners named it "Discovery Bar" as a joke. In the fall of 1873 the Goodwins returned, found real gold and organized the Swauk Mining District. The mining camps became the first cash market for valley beef, butter and eggs, which drew farm families like the Virdens onto Swauk Prairie.
Who was George D. Virden of Swauk Creek?
George D. Virden was a farmer and gold miner who homesteaded on Swauk Creek in the 1870s. This is the Virden family of Swauk Creek, Kittitas County, Washington, not the towns of Virden in Manitoba or Illinois. The 1904 Illustrated History of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas Counties calls him "a farmer and mining man" and says he was born in Illinois on February 23, 1847.
He married Rebecca Walker in Iowa in 1868. They left a Kansas farm "on account of drought and grasshoppers," came to Kittitas County by mule team in September 1876, and in 1878 built the Ranch House and moved onto the Swauk farm. Local historians call him the first settler on Swauk Prairie.
Virden also mined. He held the Gold Hill, Summit and Gold Bug claims, and his stone arrastra on Table Mountain ground ore into the 1950s. A replica stands at Liberty. By 1904 he owned about 320 acres with "a good barn, machinery sheds, and a comfortable nine-room dwelling house."
Is The Cattle Barn on the Virden homestead?
Yes. According to the Bureau of Land Management's General Land Office records, George D. Virden received homestead patent WAYAA 053906 on June 4, 1896. It covers 160 acres in Section 28: the N½SE¼, SW¼NE¼ and SW¼SE¼. He added 40 acres by cash entry in 1902.
The state well report for 980 Burke Road places the Ranch House in the NE¼SE¼ of Section 28, inside Virden's patent. The Virdens built that house in 1878. The ranch's earliest water right, from Swauk Creek onto the same quarter, dates to June 30, 1878, and later became the Burke Ditch.
My mother played at the Virden homestead and in the Ranch House as a child; her parents homesteaded in the Teanaway Valley, about five miles away. When our company bought the ranch from Pat and Mary Burke, I was buying a place my family already knew.
Why was the Lauderdale crossroads once called Virden?
The junction of Highways 97 and 970 was called Virden after the Virden School, District 15, which stood nearby. The county used "the Virden schoolhouse" as the Swauk precinct's voting place as early as 1883–84. The school stood on George Virden's land.
The crossroads has had three names. It began as McCallum, after Peter McCallum's 1882 store and 1884 post office, which closed in 1898. It became Lauderdale after Henry Lauderdale built a lodge there in 1921.
What happened to the Virden family?
The Virdens stayed on Swauk Creek for more than sixty years. George and Rebecca raised eight children there. George D. Virden died on August 25, 1921, and Rebecca on October 10, 1925; both are buried at Swauk Prairie Cemetery.
Their son William had Brookside Farm on Swauk Creek. Norman, born on the family ranch in 1887, ranched in the Swauk until he retired in 1943, the same year the Burkes moved onto the Virden Ranch.
What is the Dunford Barn near Cle Elum?
The Dunford Barn is an early-1900s dairy barn on the same ranch, about five minutes from The Cattle Barn. It is listed on the Washington Heritage Barn Register as the "Dunford, Philip and Jessie, Barn." It stands on land Antonio Zucca and Peter McCallum homesteaded in 1896.
McCallum's daughter Jessie married Philip Dunford in 1900 and bought the land in 1908. The 38-by-50-foot gambrel barn held milk cows below and hay above. Its Louden stanchions remain, and its litter-carrier pulley is dated September 10, 1907.
Albert and Martha Dunford sold it to the Burkes in July 1950. We stabilized it with a Heritage Barn grant in 2019.
How did the Burke family come to own the Virden Ranch?
The Burkes moved onto the Virden Ranch in 1943. John Thomas and Catherine Alice Burke came from the Naneum with their son Pat, who "moved with his parents to the Virden Ranch in the Swauk," according to his 2016 obituary. The Cle Elum Miner-Echo reported "Virden Ranch sold" in June 1944.
The Burkes added the Dunford land in 1950 and kept buying neighboring ground until they owned more than nine hundred acres. They raised Herefords, timothy and alfalfa. Burke Road and the Burke Ditch carry the family name today.
Who was Mary Burke of the Washington Cattlemen's Association?
Mary Lou Masterson Burke was the first woman president of the Washington Cattlemen's Association and Pat Burke's wife. She grew up on her family's 1880 homestead in the Teanaway, married Pat in 1956, testified before Congress and was a self-taught expert on water and property rights.
Mary and I were friends for years, and the history of this ranch was a regular topic between us. Pat and Mary sold the ranch to The Ranch on Swauk Creek LLC in 2005 and moved to Oregon in 2006. Both died in 2016.
Is The Cattle Barn a historic wedding venue?
Yes. The Cattle Barn is a wedding venue on a ranch homesteaded in 1878 and worked ever since. We raised horses on the Virden homestead ground for twenty years and sorted cattle at the Dunford Barn corrals. In the spring of 2016 my wife, Nancy, began hosting weddings in the barn.
Nancy owns and manages the operations of The Cattle Barn wedding venue through The Cattle Barn, LLC. In 2025, Brian Stickney, through his company St. Eligius, LLC, purchased the ranch and all of its facilities from The Ranch on Swauk Creek, LLC. The Ranch House dates to 1878, and the barn to the early 1900s. See the venue, the gallery and the ranch's story.
What are the key dates in Swauk Valley history?
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| June 9, 1855 | Treaty with the Yakama; Kittitas lands ceded |
| Fall 1873 | Swauk gold strike; Swauk Mining District organized |
| 1876 / 1878 | Virdens reach Kittitas County; build the Ranch House and move onto the farm |
| June 30, 1878 | Priority date of the ranch's first Swauk Creek water right |
| June 4, 1896 | Virden homestead patent, 160 acres, Section 28 |
| 1921 | Lauderdale Lodge built; George D. Virden dies |
| 1943 | Burkes move onto the Virden Ranch |
| July 1950 | Burkes buy the Dunford land |
| 2005 | Pat and Mary Burke sell to The Ranch on Swauk Creek LLC |
| 2016 | Weddings begin at The Cattle Barn |
Where can you see Swauk Valley history today?
- Swauk Prairie Cemetery: graves of the Virden and Dunford families.
- Liberty Historic District: the old mining camp and the replica Virden arrastra.
- Lauderdale: the Highway 97 and 970 junction once called McCallum, then Virden.
- The Cattle Barn and the Dunford Barn: both on the ranch described here. Plan a tour with Nancy at (509) 304-9050.
Quick answers
Where is The Cattle Barn?
At 980 Burke Road, Cle Elum, Washington, in the Swauk Valley between Cle Elum and Ellensburg, near the junction of Highways 97 and 970.
How old is the ranch?
The Virdens built the Ranch House and moved onto the land in 1878, the same year as the ranch's first water right. The homestead patent was issued in 1896.
Who owns The Cattle Barn today?
Nancy owns and manages the venue's operations through The Cattle Barn, LLC. Brian Stickney's company, St. Eligius, LLC, has owned the ranch and its facilities since 2025.
Can you visit the Dunford Barn?
Couples booking The Cattle Barn can ask Nancy about photographs there.
About the author
Pat Deneen owned the Ranch on Swauk Creek, including the Virden homestead and the Dunford Barn, from 2005 to 2025. His grandparents homesteaded about five miles away, he spent his childhood summers in the valley, and he has lived in upper Kittitas County for 50 years. He researched and wrote this article; no one was interviewed. Photographs are used with permission of their holders.
Sources
An Illustrated History of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas Counties, 1904. archive.org
Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office. Homestead patent WAYAA 053906, George D. Virden, June 4, 1896. glorecords.blm.gov
National Park Service. Liberty Historic District, National Register nomination, NRIS 74001965. npgallery.nps.gov
Engstrom and Dills, Whispers From the Grave, 2014. ScholarWorks, CWU
Engstrom, Swauk Basin History. rootsweb
Swauk Prairie Cemetery transcription. interment.net
Pat Burke obituary, Western Ag Reporter, 2016. westernagreporter.com
Mary Lou Masterson Burke obituary, Capital Press, March 15, 2016. capitalpress.com
Washington DAHP, Heritage Barn Register, record KT02846; Heritage Barn Initiative grant application, Dunford Barn, 2018.
Frederick Krueger Collection, CWU Archives (Miner-Echo, June 30, 1944). Archives West; Ranch on Swauk Creek water-right and well records.