Saving first ranch good first step

What better day than Earth Day to learn there is a preliminary recommendation that Nevada's oldest ranch be preserved for future generations?

The claim for Ranch No. 1 was filed Dec. 1, 1852, by John Reese. Reese's claim was described as a quartersection "running from the lone tree the first this side of the Hot Springs South - running north down the road to the old Mormon Station - thence east to the River thence south along the river - to a point due east from the lone tree, thence west to the place of beginning" in the first records of Carson Valley. Reese paid $25 for the claim.

The record is available online at the Nevada State Library and Archives and is recorded in the sweeping handwriting of early Recorder E.L. Barnard.

That day, Barnard recorded claims for himself, S.A. Kinsey, J.C. Fain, J. Brown, W. Burns and J.H. Scott that stretched from present day Genoa to Indian Hills.

There are places where a person can look out over the land and imagine those early days.

One of those places is off Foothill Road, north of David Walley's Hot Springs.

Look east over the marshes and fields and it's not hard to imagine the days before the automobile and airplane.

Not quite eight generations separate us from Kinsey, Barnard and company, but the desire to experience the original Carson Valley survives.

Hopefully, our great-grandchildren will be able to look out from that same spot and enjoy nearly the same view.