Kyle Ranch - History

History

Archibald Stewart, an early pioneer in the area was killed in a gunfight on the ranch in 1884.

In 1900, Ed Kiel and William Kiel the owners were found shot to death in an apparent murder-suicide. The bodies were exhumed in the mid-1970s and it was determined that they had both been murdered.

The ranch was sold in 1903 to the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad.

Subsequent owners included Edwin Taylor (1924–39), whose cowboy ranch hands competed in national rodeos, and Edwin and Bette Losee (1939–58), who developed the Boulderado Guest Ranch here, a popular residence for divorce seekers during Nevada heyday as a place to get an easy divorce.

By 1976, after several more ownership changes, 26 acres (110,000 m2) remaining of the ranch were purchased jointly by the City of North Las Vegas and its Bicentennial Committee as a historic project. Despite promises to protect and improve the site and buildings, all that remains in 2006 is buildings near collapse and a parking area, built at a cost of $500,000, that is closed.

A 1992 fire destroyed the ranch's main building that had been built for the Boulderado Guest Ranch. This had been the largest structure on the site and was called the White House.

The city sold off all but 7 acres (28,000 m2) of the land it acquired to build an industrial park. In 2006, this was becoming a source of problems with water runoff from the spring and wetlands flowing into the industrial park. The cities plan to destroy more of the site to divert the water was met with opposition. The ranch has also been used as a dump by the city potentially destroying much of its value as an archaeological site.

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