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Las Vegas Review-Journal and Las Vegas Sun { REAL ESTATE } a Sunday, January 23, 2005 • Page 15M JUDY ORBAN/SPECIAL TO REAL ESTATE Bill Gilcrease, above, stands before a silo on one of his properties, located near the house where he has lived since moving to the valley in 1920. A t left, he stands next to a rusted tractor. ? CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 M accumulated debris, Gilcrease stops at the rusted husk of what was once a flatbed truck and explains how his brother, mother and he would load up their goods and drive via an undulating dirt path to the market in town. Before refrigerated trucks flooded the interstates leading into town, the family was the main supplier of eggs, chick­ens and turkeys to Las Vegas, feeding numerous Army Air Force troops that passed through the valley to train for World War II. Proceeding to his old house, which he lived in until just a few years ago, Gilcrease de­scribes how the original house burned down when he was young, leaving the family to sleep outdoors for a few years. After World War II, a neighbor, Prosper Goumand, brought power out to develop his prop­erty, which would become a “divorce ranch” for separating out-of-state couples, then later a working ranch, and eventu­ally Floyd Lamb State Park, The Gilcreases were able to tap into the line. Over time, Bill and his brother, Ted, acquired proper­ties and water rights that were abandoned by paying the bqck F A R M : Family owned since 1920 ing juice in the late ’90s and established the state’s first apple mill — a $250,000 piece of pasteurizing and bottling equipment that will probably never turn a profit. The broth­ers did, however, convince the state that farming practices had an educational value in an area that grows little food. “Only in Las Vegas could an orchard be considered non­profit,” Gilcrease said. Neither brother ever mar­ried, had children, or even struck out on his own. They were inseparable until Ted’s death in 2003. At the time, they had already largely divested themselves of their real estate holdings. Gradually, they sold, traded and gave away parcels where alfalfa once grew for ranch es­tates; The Grotto, a restaurant and events facility next to the sanctuary; Vista Ranch, a live-in facility for people with de­velopmental disabilities; and, most recently, a high school that is under construction ad­jacent to the orchards. The latter project has wor­ried many locals who fear it marks the end of the region’s agricultural legacy The fam­ily land holdings are consider­ably smaller (no more than 200 acres), and many see develop­ment as rapidly eroding the few remaining traces of rural culture in the predominantly suburban area. Gilcrease seems of two minds on the issue. After 85 years — nearly the entire history of Las Vegas in one place, he has considered moving his flock farther out of town. He said, however, his remaining property isn’t for sale and, answering a refrain heard in the wake of the an­nouncement of the new school, isn’t in financial trouble. “The orchard doesn’t need saving.” A Y s Services GMJmtenors.com 269-7001 ? : Discover the ThieU in a new T > ^ 1 ---------- 1 U