El Rancho under new ownership

Tabatha VanDeGrift has taken over as owner of the El Rancho Motel located at 924 Shoshoni Street. The purchase was made official on October 1, 2024 from the previous owners Bernice Balog and Susan Lankford who had the business since 1971.

VanDeGrift previously suffered an injury where she had about 30 screws in her neck and eight plates holding her neck due to a construction accident. She came to Thermopolis in January 2021 to heal and met Balog and Lankford, the owners of El Rancho Motel.

VanDeGrift explained how the purchase happened. She said, “I just kind of started getting involved a little bit with motel, and I started talking with the owner. My son came down in July of last year. He called Miss Susan out of the blue and said, ‘Will you sell it to us?’ So she said, ‘yes.’”

VanDeGrift said business was good in October until the end of the year. However, she said January and February have been difficult. 

 VanDeGrift has a couple of employees to assist her. Also, some of her children will arrive in the summer to help out too. 

The El Rancho has 12 rooms. However, VanDeGrift said, “We’re hoping if everything goes right, we’re hoping to be able to start building a new site in two years.” 

They plan to build an additional 10-15 new rooms on the other wing of the property. Once that occurs, she will demolish the original rooms and rebuild them as new. The property is almost a total of three acres. VanDeGrift wants to be financially solid before the work begins.

To contact the El Rancho Motel, call 864-2341.