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Sandstone Ranch

Sandstone Ranch
Sandstone Ranch
Photograph of Sandstone Ranch yard and buildings, Sandstone Canyon (Nev.), 1908. Ferron-Bracken Photo Collection. UNLV Libraries Special Collections & Archives.
Wilson Family Cemetery
" 2018.04.27_17.02.46_DSC01479 " by Andrey Zharkikh is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Lake Harriet
"Lake Harriet at Spring Mountain Ranch" by Thomas Dwyer is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.
Spring Mountain Ranch House
Spring Mountain Ranch House. Built in 1948.

"J"ames B. Wilson, a gold miner and veteran of the Civil War, arrived in Southern Nevada in 1869. He first started a ranch near the original Las Vegas Rancho, but sold that property. In 1867, he homesteaded the Sandstone Ranch on this location with George Anderson. Anderson later left, but his sons stayed behind and were adopted by Wilson. They raised vegetables and cattle during this period. Upon Wilson's death in 1906, Jim Jr. and Tweed Wilson inherited the ranch. Later owners included Willard George, a childhood friend of the Wilson boys and a relative of the Kiel family, who also was a celebrated furrier in Hollywood and raised chinchillas on the ranch. Radio star Chet Lauck, "Lum" of the popular "Lum and Abner" radio show, who turned the ranch into a horse ranch with his good friend, actor Don Ameche; German Baroness Vera Krupp, who changed the name to Spring Mountain Ranch, and famed tycoon, aviator, producer, and inventor Howard Hughes. The Nevada Division of State Parks purchased the ranch in 1974 from businessman Fletcher Jones when he proposed to develop the property into a private equestrian-themed community."

(Queho Posse Chapter 1919 E Clampus Vitus)


Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

Listed on the Nevada State Register of Historic Places in 1981.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2019 (boundary increase).

Listed as a U.S Historic District.

Nevada State Route 159 (Red Rock Road) is listed as Nevada Scenic Byway (1995).


Located at 6375 Highway 159, Blue Diamond, Nevada.