Thursday, Sept. 30, 1999 | 11:22 a.m.
Far from the glamour and glitz of the Las Vegas Strip lies a small piece of history named Kiel Ranch, once home to gun-slinging cowboys.
The North Las Vegas Parks and Recreation Department has applied for a $100,000 state grant it hopes will bring this site closer to being fully restored and open to the public by late 2001.
"Everyone says Southern Nevada doesn't have any history, but here we are, sitting on two of the oldest buildings in the state," said Tony Taylor, a planner in the parks department.
Kiel Ranch, tucked in the middle of an industrial area in North Las Vegas, now consists of seven acres of the original 240-acre homestead settled by Conrad Kiel in the mid-1800s. The city of North Las Vegas owns the ranch, near the corner of Carey Avenue and Losee Road.
The Park Mansion, which was the cornerstone of the ranch, burned to the ground Aug. 18, 1992, leaving behind two buildings -- the Kiel Ranch adobe house, which was built in 1855 and is said to be the second oldest building in Southern Nevada, and a shed. The historical Mormon Fort near Cashman Field is the area's oldest building.
If awarded in February through the state Commission for Cultural Affairs, the $100,000 grant will go toward securing the adobe, making it free-standing. The adobe is now crumbling and supported by metal braces.
Three unsolved late 19th century slayings enhanced the legend of the 144-year-old Kiel Ranch. Archibald Stewart, Ed Kiel and William Kiel, according to legend, haunt the grounds where they were slain.
"It was not uncommon for a rough crowd to gather there," Las Vegas pioneer Helen J. Stewart wrote in an issue of the Nevada Historical Society Quarterly. "On Dec. 1, 1894, a man named Gibbons was maimed when the side of his face was shot off during a quarrel over a card game."
Near the turn of the century, Stewart's husband, Archibald, was killed there. It was believed, but never proven, that outlaw Hank Parrish gunned him down.
It also was alleged but never proven that Stewart's sons, Frank and William Stewart, avenged their father's death by slaying Ed and William Kiel, the sons of Conrad Kiel, who built the ranch.
Eric Dabney, director of the parks department, said funds for restoring the ranch are dwindling. The city sold a little more than 20 acres of the ranch in 1990 for $850,980. That money was added to an existing restoration fund of about $8,000. Today, restoration costs have shrunk the fund to $400,000.
The final phase of restoration, which city officials hope will begin in fall 2000 and be completed near the end of 2001, will cost about $1.6 million. Dabney said the $1.2 million needed to complete the final phase has not yet been raised.
"We will be approaching any avenue available to us," Dabney said. Included in those avenues will be applications for grants, possible allocations from the Legislature, and regional fund-raisers.
"A lot of history has been lost over the years," Dabney said. "But the good news is that there is a lot of renewed interest in Kiel Ranch." That renewed interest should help regional fund-raising efforts, he said. "Kiel Ranch doesn't just belong to North Las Vegas. It's part of the whole state's history."
Although restoration on the property began in 1985, preservation plans for the ranch were routinely rejected by past City Councils. But Dabney said the renewed interest in the ranch extends to the current council as well as city residents.
Taylor said the opening of the ranch, which has been closed to the public for two years, will give Nevadans a sense of history and a sense of place.
"It's a question of looking back at our roots instead of at last year's neon sign," he said.
From the late 1890s to the early 1970s, the ranch was privately owned by a string of folks, including the Losee family, which in the 1940s and '50s turned it into the Boulderado Dude Ranch. It was frequented by celebrities, including George Montgomery and Mickey Rooney.
Hollywood actors and actresses stayed there to establish minimum residency requirements while awaiting divorces under liberal Nevada divorce laws.
By the 1960s and early '70s, many of the buildings originally at the Kiel Ranch either were falling into decay, had burned to the ground or were otherwise leveled.
In 1974 the Regal Development Co. gave the ranch to the North Las Vegas Bicentennial Committee. In 1976 the committee donated it to the city.
Members of the Friends of Kiel Ranch, a nonprofit organization formed almost two years ago to support the development of the historic site, have high hopes that the state grant will give a big boost to the final restoration efforts.
"We're hoping the grant will help rehabilitate the adobe and eventually it will stand for a couple hundred years," said Phyllis Martin, secretary of the organization. "We have our fingers crossed that the ranch will be open to the public by late 2000 or early 2001."
Friends of Kiel Ranch also plan to help raise funds and apply for a federal grant in January.
If awarded a $65,000 one-time grant, the organization plans to install an interpretive walkway at the ranch, which would lead the public through the facility by way of signs, explaining the historical significance. Martin said there is the possibility of planting a double row of pine trees at the border of Kiel Ranch, and planting a garden next to the adobe house.
The organization is also planning a Western Heritage Festival and Cowboy Poetry Gathering Nov. 5-7 to increase awareness of the ranch.
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