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From the wood frame to the detailed decor, Fran Ryan incorporated her family’s story into almost every aspect of her renovated home. Photos by Hayley Leatherwood


Red Cedar Ranch By Hayley Leatherwood [ “


With 150 years of history in the wood alone, if these ranch walls could talk they would have many tales to tell. Fran Ryan, ranch visionary and owner, describes the labor of love that turned a piece of her family’s past into a dream realized in the present.


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elcome to Red Cedar Ranch,” says Fran Ryan, Cotton Electric Cooperative member. It’s a bright, cold day outside of Duncan, Okla., but the warmth of the ranch house greets guests with the familiar-


ity of an old friend. A sturdy fence and heavy, wooden doors encase the cabin’s back entrance. When swung open, the doors reveal a stone path- way leading to a home full of history. Ryan grew up in the Duncan area. Her father, a machinist at Halliburton, and her mother, a beauty shop owner, were no strangers to hard work. “We were always building something, digging a well, tearing some- thing down,” Ryan says, remembering her childhood fondly. For one of those projects, Ryan’s father decided he wanted to build a workshop in the backyard of their existing home. Around that time, the original wooden Plato School was torn down in favor of building a new school made of brick. Ryan’s father submitted a sealed bid and won the lumber—provided he would tear everything down within two weeks. “I thought we were incredibly wealthy, but my parents didn’t have


much money,” Ryan says. “So I know we got all this wood for something he could afford.” At 10 years old, Ryan and her older brother spent those next few weeks knocking down plaster with a sledgehammer and learning how to back out nails. With the historic lumber, the original 20-by-36-foot workshop was built. Years later, after her mother passed away, Ryan would visit her father about every other weekend. They would sit out on a campfi re by North Highway 81 and say to each other, “I wonder.” Her family owned a 60-acre parcel of Native American land given to


them before statehood, and together they would fantasize about moving the shop out to the ranch land as a little cabin. After Ryan’s father passed away in 2010, she knew she wanted to turn


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the workshop into a home away from home and honor her family’s history. For the feel of the home, Ryan says her mother was at the forefront of her mind. Her mother always wanted a house to be comfortable, making the inhabitants and guests’ relaxation a priority. Ryan says she wanted that vernacular to retire in.


“I asked myself, what are the elements of that? It’s exposed beams, sealed concrete fl oors, most certainly a stone fi replace and defi nitely an antler chandelier,” Ryan says. Looking around the ranch house as it is today, all of those visions


have been realized. Even more so, almost every piece in the place has a story.


An early 1900s grocery store counter is a statement piece in the living room. Ryan’s father purchased the counter in the late ‘50s from a store in Comanche, Okla. After more than 100 years of use, only two drawers are missing—and Ryan uses them as an opportunity to display favorite pieces of art. The dining table belonged to her mother, and is graced with shadows


of the intricate antler chandelier lighting the table from above. Ryan says the home is now like a fl ashback to her family. “I would never wish anyone out of heaven, but I want my mom, dad and brother to see it—and they would probably say, ‘What a waste of time and money!’” she says with a laugh. The process of moving, restoring and renovating was not an easy one.


Ryan admits she is a good designer, but claims she is only fair at con- struction. The process of outsourcing to contractors becomes more of a challenge when one is emotionally involved. “I prayed for good men of character who would catch the vision, be men of their word and do a good job,” Ryan says. “Every person I worked with turned out to be amazing.”


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