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| The old Huffaker Mansion, now a private business, was built in 1881. |
While mining was the main economic engine for early Nevada, agriculture was an equally important one. In fact, during the state’s pioneer era, a number of large ranches and farms were established in parts of the state where water was available and the soil was good for growing things.
This sometimes-overlooked aspect of the state’s past is finally given its due in a book written by Nevada historian Holly Walton-Buchanan titled, “Land of the Buckaroo” Historic Ranches of Western Nevada.”
First published in 2013 by Reno publisher Jack Bacon (with a second edition in 2020), this handsome and lavishly-illustrated 192-page publication tells the stories of the first ranches to pop up in the western portion of the state and their important ways they supported the state’s silver mines, especially in the Virginia City area, as well as the transcontinental railroad built through Reno.
In the book’s prologue, Walton-Buchanan, author of the excellent book, “Historic Houses and Buildings of Reno,” describes the life of a Nevada buckaroo as well as the various breeds of cattle that have been raised in the state. She includes a section on the rise of sheep ranches, the types of horses commonly used, and the buckaroo’s tools-of-the-trade.
Chapter one is devoted to the development of ranching in the Carson Valley area in the 1850s. In this section, Walton-Buchanan insightfully interweaves the story of Nevada’s statehood with the rise of these ranches by pioneers such as Heinrich Dangberg, August Dressler, and others.
In the next chapter, she shifts her focus to the Truckee Meadows region and the creation of ranches by early settlers such as Peleg and Joshua Brown and Louis Damonte. Remnants of their once-large holdings, including Peleg Brown’s original house built in 1864, can still be found in south Reno.
The origins of familiar Reno place/street names, such as Huffaker and Holcomb, also began with ranches in the southern part of the Truckee Meadows, and that story is told in Chapter three. For instance, rancher Granville Huffaker established a successful operation in the early 1860s, known as Huffaker Station.
His brick and stone ranch house, built in 1881, is still standing while the first Huffaker School, a one-room schoolhouse built in 1868, has been relocated to Reno’s Bartley Ranch Park, but has been restored to near original condition.
Other chapters describe the golden age of ranching in western Nevada, a period that lasted from the 1860s to the end of the 19th century, as well as a handful of other prominent spreads such as the Peckham Ranch, the Callahan Ranch, the Wheeler Ranch, the Sparks Ranch, and Caughlin Ranch.
The book’s penultimate chapter focuses on the rise (and eventual fall) of ranches established by Italian-American settlers in the late 19th century, including those owned by the Capurro, Casazza and Avansino families.
In her epilogue, Walton-Buchanan brings the story up-to-date, explaining how the Truckee Meadows ranches largely ended up becoming today’s housing tracts, shopping centers and industrial parks.
“Those wishing to visit the pockets of ranching activity that persist along the base of the Sierra Nevada will find the majority of today’s ranching activity in Carson Valley,” she notes, before closing with a quote from the late Bob Capurro, a member of one of the old-time ranching families in Reno: “This town was just so beautiful—it was green as far across the valley as you could see. Those were the days.”
Fortunately, Walton-Buchanan’s book exists to remind us of that time.
“Land of the Buckaroo” Historic Ranches of Western Nevada,” by Holly Walton-Buchanan can still be found in used bookstores, such as AbeBooks and, occasionally, a copy will show up at Grassroots Books in Reno.
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