Patrick and Jane Hughes came to Cape Blanco in the 1860s [from Ireland by way of Boston and San Francisco]. They built this house in 1898.

Imagine starting a farm from scratch on isolated, raw land, with no running water, refrigeration or electricity. Everything was hard; everything was physical.

The family cleared great stands of spruce, rooting out the stumps with teams of horses, to ready the land for their new life here, halfway around the world from their Irish homeland. The farmstead and the business they built was typical of 19th century American success.

After some 30 years here, Patrick and Jane Hughes had raised seven children, expanded their land base to 2,000 acres and managed a successful dairy herd of 100 cows.