The New Ranch House was built in the 1950s by the Boice family for Frank Boice's oldest son, Frank "Pancho." Pancho and his wife Sherry raised their four children, Steve, Kitty, Sherry, and Carol, there. Mac and Billy Donaldson and their three children, Alexa, Sam, and Renee, also lived there. Mac's father, John Donaldson, ranched the Empire from 1975 to 2009 in partnership with Mac and his grandson Sam. After the Bureau of Land Management acquired Empire Ranch in 1988, the New Ranch House intermittently served as a field station for BLM staff working at the ranch, and it is intended to be rehabilitated for use in the BLM's administrative programs at Empire Ranch.