Dave's
McCain Ranch House Model!
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How many of ya'll like Lucas McCain's home or ranch house? How many of you have always been fascinated by Lucas' little house, as I have? Though small I always loved Lucas' and Mark's little home and thought it was neat as heck. Construction, type, attributes, etc: First lets talk about its construction: The house is a typical ranchers house constructed of upright boards with a smaller board covering the crack between them. This is called the "Board & Batten" type of construction. The main roof is shingled with individual wood shingles. The kitchen and kitchen porch roof is simple board and batten style covering. Though small and little more than a shack by today's standards, in the standards of the Old West days it is just the type of home a small frontier rancher would build; a nice little home with those harsh winters in mind. It was built small but rugged, and snug and tight, with efficiency in mind. Now as far as the fireplace, rock wall and chimney goes, have you ever noticed that the fireplace and brick/rock wall around it were built and set catty-cornered in that corner by the front door instead of flush against or in the wall? If you study the pics in Cowgirl's episodes you will see that it is. If you did notice it I bet y'all wondered why. At first I too wondered why, and why it was not just set in or along the wall. But then it downed on me. Remember it was in a day before central heat, etc.. If it was flush or along the wall it would merely throw or cast any heat from the fireplace along the front wall of the house's front room. But set at an angle, catty-cornered as it is, the heat from the fireplace will be thrown, or cast, and directed into or toward the inside or center of the room, into and toward the very heart of the house. Its heat would even warm the rear wall of the main room to some degree, which is the front wall of the BR, enough so as to add just a tad of heat to the BR. Of course the kitchen has that wood burning stove that throws off a lot of heat also. If any of you have ever used or cooked with a wood burning stove, or been where one was in use, you know how much heat they can cast off! Anyway, I built the rock wall, fireplace and chimney using real rocks I gathered from driveways, the workplace, etc., and then gluing them together one by one. I started to do it by gluing fake rock looking facing to cardboard or wood. But I decided to make a real fireplace and chimney by gluing real rocks together. It was a pain in the ol' neck but it was fun. While not perfect I think it is neat! Now I would imagine that in the dead of winter the BR might get a bit cold (I have never seen any sort of heater such as a small potbellied stove, etc, in the BR on the shows). But if the door from the BR to the Main Room were left open, the heat from the kitchen's wood burning stove and the heat from the fireplace being cast towards the inner part of the house due to its catty-cornered design, I think the home would be quite snug and warm. What do y'all think? Also, you might think the chimney and what have you is leaning. I am sure it looks that way in the "before" or "beginning" pics. But the truth is that according to the pics and measurements taken from them the chimney was too far back for the smoke hole (flew?) to be vertical. It had to be offset. I built the model that way, per the measurements, with an offset smoke tube. I still have to add a few small pieces of rock to the sides or edges. I am not quite done with it but you see it as it is so far. Size, dimensions, etc.: I had no plan to go by, no info or blueprints. I had to go by my own plans I drew up myself just from studying the pics, the construction of it, the number of boards on the outer walls, etc.. I am no professional draftsman or architect, so please forgive me if the plans I drew up are not perfect or if the model I am building is not an absolute perfect scale copy of the original. I did the best I could with what I had on hand and with the limited knowledge I have of such things as architecture, drafting, or model houses, etc., etc.. But anyway, I have studied Lucas' house, from pics, both inside and out, for hours upon hours. Judging from the "board & Batten" style construction, and figuring each of the outer walls' upright boards being a 1 x 12 (1" thick by 12" wide), I figure the main room is about 21' X 16', the BR abt 21' X 12', the kitchen abt 8' x 10'. The model is 1" scale. Or in other words one inch equals one foot. Also from studying pics, I figured the depth of the porches (4 1/2'), height of the ceilings (8'), roof peak 10'), pitch of roof, etc.. So far all I have built is the floor, upraised about a foot as in the show, with rock under the main structure. The porches have a board under them. They were probably later additions to the house. It is far from finished. I still have not gotten all of the furniture and fixtures I need either. Built with loving care by a Rifleman fan, David Edelen, Millbrook, Alabama. "David Edelen is also the author of a recently published book, his first, MORE GHOSTS AND EERIE TALES OF ALABAMA; True Tales of the Supernatural and the Unexplained!" Available through Barnes & Nobles, Books a Million, Amazon.com, and direct from the publisher at www.publishamerica.com/books/8363 "Dave's newly published collection of ghost stories and stories of encounters with strange creatures!" The book begins with a story about an occurrence that happened to the author, and in which the author experienced a most hair raising and frightening experience. The rest are stories that happened to the author interspersed with the stories related to the author by others. These stories range from the first frightful episode to various types of experiences that happened to the author and his friends and associates. They range from out and out ghost stories to eerie sounds and smells, to things moving around in a seemingly empty room. Some are pertaining to strange eerie, seemingly unnatural and/or unearthly animals and other creatures that can not be explained. The books ends up with a story which takes place within the author's home, which he and members of his immediate family have experienced there as of late. |
McCain Ranch House floor plans I drew this using 1cm = 1 ft. Then when I began building the model, marking off the floor plan on wood, I used 1" = 1'. As far as the length and width of the house/rooms go, I might be off a foot or two from the original on the show. But without the original floorplans I had to get an idea of figures by counting boards on outside walls. So it is close enough I reckon! Also, I took the liberty of going ahead and placing or drawing the furniture in place, including rugs that I have seen on the various episodes, pictures on walls, lamps, etc.. Their floors on the show were made of what appears to be 1" by 6" planking. Notice the beds in the BR. In various shows the BR was arranged in various ways with the beds in various positions on different shows. So one could arrange Mark and Lucas' BR anyway they wanted and be right I suppose. This page will be update as David work on his model ranch |
The Rifleman Stories Table of Contents Fans of The Rifleman Photo Album
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members have experience, and stories of which were experienced and related to the author by friends and associates. To the best of the author's knowledge the stories related to the author by these friends and associates are purported to be true experiences of those people also. Some names and place names have been omitted to protect their privacy. All but one occurred in either Montgomery, Autauga, or Elmore Counties, Alabama. 
