Abstract
The Sandstone Ranch Collection is comprised of bank statements, letters, correspondence, and photographs relating to the Wilson family from 1907 to 1941. The collection includes information about the financial aspect of the Wilson Ranch, later renamed the Sandstone Ranch, located outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. The collection also includes information about the personal lives of those working on the including contracts about grazing cattle, selling cattle, and appropriation of water.
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Scope and Contents Note
The Sandstone Ranch Collection is comprised of bank statements, letters, correspondence, and photographs relating to the Wilson family from 1907 to 1941. The collection includes information about the financial aspect of the Wilson Ranch, later renamed the Sandstone Ranch, as well as information about the personal lives of those working on the ranch. The Sandstone Ranch was located about twenty-five miles outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. Multiple letters addressed to James (Jim) Wilson give Arden, Nevada as his address. Arden was an unincorporated community in Clark County and is now a part of Enterprise, Nevada which is located in the Las Vegas valley.
The papers mainly pertain to Jim Wilson's adopted sons, James (Jim Jr.) and Tweed, and their involvement with the ranch. Photographs in the collection include family members, some possibly of Jim Jr. and Tweed, as well as photographs that appear to be taken at the ranch. Papers include contracts about grazing cattle, selling cattle, and appropriation of water. Bank statements include receipts for payments and bank books from the First National Bank of Nevada and the Memphis State Bank based in Memphis, Tennessee. Also included are multiple notebooks and ledger books where someone practiced arithmetic kept records. The collection provides information about ranching in the early twentieth-century, as well as information about early Las Vegas.
Access Note
Collection is open for research.
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 are arranged by theme.
Biographical / Historical Note
In 1864 James B. Wilson Sr. settled in Southern Nevada. Before coming to Nevada Wilson Sr. had served in the military at Fort Mojave in Arizona. In 1867 Wilson Sr. and his business partner, George Anderson, acquired a piece of property near Blue Diamond, Nevada. The two began raising cattle and running a good delivery service and named their property Sandstone Ranch.
Anderson fell in love with a local Paiute women whose name has been reported as both Kayer and Annie. Wilson Sr. was also in love with Annie and convinced her to name her first son with Anderson Jim Jr. after himself. Annie and Anderson had another son, George Twinson “Tweed” Anderson. Annie died giving birth to Tweed and Anderson died a few years later. James Wilson Sr. adopted the two boys and they both took his last name.
The Wilsons primarily made money through ranching but also prospected minerals in the areas surrounding the ranch to augment their income. In 1906 Jim Wilson Sr. passed away and his two sons took over the ranch. Tweed married a Paiute woman, also named Annie, and they had two sons, Russell (nicknamed Buster) and Boone. After World War 1, the Wilsons faced financial difficulty and mortgaged the ranch for $13,523. In 1929, a Californian furrier and friend of the Wilson family, Willard George, paid off the mortgage. George allowed the Wilson family, primarily Jim Jr. and Tweed to remain on the ranch until their deaths. Jim Jr. passed away in 1943, and Tweed Wilson lived on the ranch until his death in 1960.
In 1944, William George sold the ranch to Chester Lauck of the radio show “Lum and Abner”. Lauck renamed the ranch the Bar Nothing Ranch. In 1955 the ranch was sold to the German actress, Vera Krupp. Krupp lived at the ranch until 1967 when she sold it to Howard Hughes. Hughes sold the ranch in 1972. In 1973 the ranch was purchased by the Nevada Division of State Parks which developed a plan with the Bureau of Land Management to turn the ranch into a state park. The Sandstone Ranch became part of the Spring Mountain Ranch State Park and the Red Rock Conservation Area, which was entered into the United States National Registrar of Historic Places in 1976.
Sources:
“History of Spring Mountain Ranch State Park,” Nevada State Parks, accessed August 8, 2018. http://parks.nv.gov/learn/park-histories/spring-mountain-ranch-history
Jan Hogan, “Mountain peak named for ranching family,”
Wilson Family Papers, 1875-1918. MS-00125. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries,
University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
Preferred Citation
Sandstone Ranch Collection, 1907-1941. MS-00871. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Acquisition Note
Materials were donated in 2017 by David Low; accession number 2017-155.
Processing Note
A rough box-level inventory of the accession was created by Maggie Bukowski in 2018. To prepare the inventory, the described materials were reviewed to create a contents list, estimate dates, and identify material types. No other work has been performed on the materials. In 2022, Kyle Gagnon relabeled folders to current professional standards.