Abstract
The Kiel Family Photographs (approximately 1854-1989) contains glass plate negatives of members of the Kiel and George families, as well as neighbors from the Stewart and Wilson ranches and ranch workers. The majority of the photographs were taken at the Kiel Ranch site in North Las Vegas, Nevada. The collection consists of the original glass plate negatives, as well as photographic print and negative duplicates made using the originals.
Finding Aid PDF
Date
Extent
Related People/Corporations
Scope and Contents Note
The Kiel Family Photographs approximately 1854-1989) contains glass plate negatives of members of the Kiel and George families, as well as neighbors from the Stewart and Wilson ranches and ranch workers. The majority of the photographs were taken at the Kiel Ranch site in North Las Vegas, Nevada. The collection consists of the original glass plate negatives, as well as photographic print and negative duplicates made using the originals.
Access Note
Collection is open for research. Researchers must use preservation copies of fragile items.
Publication Rights
Materials in this collection may be protected by copyrights and other rights. See Reproductions and Use on the UNLV Special Collections and Archives website for more information about reproductions and permissions to publish.
Arrangement
Materials remain in original order.
Biographical / Historical Note
Conrad Kiel, Jr. was born in 1807 in Union City, Pennsylvania. He married Ann Elizabeth Edenbom in 1833 and moved his growing family to Ohio in 1838. In 1871, Kiel was contacted by an old friend, Octavius Decatur Gass, who had moved from Ohio and settled in Las Vegas, Nevada at the site of the old Mormon fort. Calling it the "Las Vegas Rancho" Gass invited Kiel for a visit and encouraged him to establish his own ranch. Kiel agreed, settling on the former "Indian Farm" established by the earlier Mormon settlers. He grew fruits, vegetables, and hay at the ranch and opened a sawmill in the area now known as Kyle Canyon. In 1894, Conrad Kiel died, leaving his Nevada ranch to two sons, Edwin and William. The brothers continued working both the ranch and the sawmill. The Kiel ranch saw frequent visits from family members, including Sadie Bell Kiel George, her husband Hampton, and their son Willard.
The ranch gained notoriety from two violent incidents: the death of pioneer Archibald Stewart in a gunfight in 1884 and the double murder of Edwin and William Kiel in early October 1900. Initially ruled a murder-suicide, the verdict changed to double murder in the mid-1970s after forensic examination by Dr. Sheilagh Brooks of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) anthropology department.
In 1903, William A. Clark purchased a portion of the ranch to build the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, and in 1911 Las Vegas banker John S. Park purchased the remainder, building a substantial dwelling known as the White House. Later owners included Edwin Taylor, who purchased the property in 1924, and Edwin and Bette Losee, who operated the Boulderado Guest Ranch from 1939 to 1958.
Sources:
Smith, John L., "State's History Flows through Kiel Ranch," Boulder City Review, accessed May 30, 2019, https://bouldercityreview.com/opinion/other-columns/john-l-smith/states-history-flows-through-kiel-ranch/
Crandell, John J., et al, "Interpreting Gunshot Trauma as Context Clue: a Case Study from Historic North Las Vegas, Nevada," Bioarchaeological and Forensic Perspectives on Violence: How Violent Death is Interpreted from Skeletal Remains by Debra L. Martin and Cheryl P. Anderson, vol. 67, Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014).
Preferred Citation
Kiel Family Photographs, approximately 1854-1989. MS-00838. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Acquisition Note
Materials were donated in 1982 by Hampton George; accession number 1982-070. Additional materials were donated in 2022 by Hampton George; accession number 2022-071.
Processing Note
Materials were processed and inventoried by Special Collections staff in 2016. In 2019, as part of an archival backlog elimination project, Melise Leech and Sarah Jones rehoused the materials, wrote the finding aid, and entered the data into ArchivesSpace. Some of the duplicate photographs were previously located in the UNLV Photograph Collection on Southern Nevada (PH-00105) but were removed and placed into this collection. In 2022, Sarah Jones added the 2022 accession into the inventory.