Ostolasa Family

 

Idaho boasts the second largest Basque population in the United State, second only to California.

 

After buying the Schick Ranch and adding it to his investment properties, “gentleman rancher” Frank Parsons needed someone to live on and manage the ranch for him. He knew that his friend, sheep rancher Colin McLeod, had a number of hard-working and talented Basque families helping him on his ranch a few miles to the north, so they arranged to have Costan Ostolasa and his family move into the Farmhouse on Dry Creek in 1927.

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Costan was born in Spain and arrived in the U.S. in 1907 at the age of 17. He married Lucia Amias in 1917. They had four children: Anastasio (Andy), Aurora, Felisa, and Valentine. Costan died in a tractor accident at the ranch in 1956. Lucia passed away in 1979.

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Andy Ostolasa began working the ranch with his father at age 15. After serving in World War II, he married Connie Smith of Eugene OR and brought her to the Dry Creek ranch where he and his father worked for the new owners, the Dechambeau brothers. The newlyweds moved into Mr. Parsons’ old summer house on the property where they lived until 1964, when a new house was built for them. Aurora and Valentine, who never married, continued to live in the Farmhouse; Felisa married into the Iriondo family.

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At the ranch, the Ostolasas raised sheep, cattle, horses, swine, turkeys, chickens, and a variety of feed crops. An orchard grew nearby. Seasonal haying crews stayed in a bunkhouse (where the Hidden Springs Community Barn is now), with their meals prepared by Lucia and her daughters.

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Ostolasa family members lived in the old Schick Farmhouse until 2005, at which point the Dry Creek Historical Society took on the job of repairing and restoring the property.  You can often see Robert Ostolasa at the DCHS events.  He is happy to give you the history of the property!