G. W. Birnie purchased a portion of the Kane Springs Ranch outside Moapa, Nevada in 1929.

Dorothy Engel Andre was born June 25, 1898 in New York City, New York to Samuel and Merel Engel. She studied at an all-girls school in Virginia before moving to Astoria, Oregon with her sister. In 1920, she met Joseph (Joe) Otto Andre at a hospital and soon after the couple got married and had one daughter named Ruth.