Dairy Barn

Although some cows were probably always kept on the ranch to supply fresh milk and butter, it was not until after Richard W. Smith bought Sahuaro Ranch in 1927 that dairy cows were raised here commercially.

At first, the Smith family sold only bulk milk. The cows were milked in the dairy barn, which was built in 1928, and the milk was shipped to local dairies in cans. In 1932, under the supervision of Smith's son, Richard S. Smith, a retail dairy was established on the ranch and this milk house was built.

The first step in processing the milk was pasteurizing it to kill bacteria; this was done by heating the raw milk with steam from the boiler located outside the building. After refrigeration in a large built-in cooler, containers of milk were carried up to the pour room and drained into the separator below, which by centrifugal action divided the liquid into milk and cream.

On the Ranch Today

The pour room atop the exterior stairway was at one time moved away from the milk house, but it was reattached when the buildings were restored in the 1990s. The Dairy Barn and Milk House have been replicated because of a fire loss in 2017.