Rebellion-leading rancher Carver dies

Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2003 | 11:11 a.m.

Richard "Dick" Carver, who sparked Sagebrush Rebellion II by bulldozing a road closed by the U.S. government and got his picture on the cover of Time magazine for doing it, died Thursday at Nye Regional Medical Center. He was 58.

A memorial service for the four-term Nye County commissioner and lifelong rancher will be noon Friday at Round Mountain High School in Hadley. A gathering will follow at the Donald L. Simpson Center.

The failed Sagebrush Rebellions in Nevada in the late 1970s/early '80s and in the mid-1990s were attempts by Northern Nevada politicians, miners and ranchers to have about 48 million acres of federal lands turned over to the state.

Carver, who was first elected to the Nye County Commission in 1989 and was a member at the time of his death, led the second such rebellion on Independence Day 1994 when he opened Jefferson Canyon Road in Nye County with a bulldozer.

Carver's action gained nationwide attention when Time magazine did a cover story on Oct. 23, 1995. The federal government sued that year after federal and county agents disagreed about who had the authority to manage the public lands that make up 93 percent of Nye County.

"County commissioners are not usually known outside of their home turfs and they rarely have impacts on national policy, but Dick was a different story," said half-brother Don Bowman, confirming that Carver died of a brain tumor. "He carried his and other western county problems right to the offices of some of the highest bureaucrats in the country"

In March 1996, federal Judge Lloyd George ruled that federal lands don't belong to the states. It was the fifth such ruling in a 20-year period and identical to what ended Sagebrush Rebellion I in the 1980s.

In November 1997, a defiant Carter vowed not to pay an $82,855 bill for damage caused when he opened the road that had been closed by the U.S. Forest Service. The bill was based on what the federal agency called a violation of the Archaeological Resource Protection Act.

The Forest Service was in the process of conducting archaelogical and environmental impact studies on the road which was an old stage coach route, when Carver bulldozed it.

But Carver seemed to have softened his views on state/federal relations, telling the Sun in a May 11, 2001, story there had been increased cooperation between federal and local authorities in Nye County.

"I just had a meeting with (federal authorities), and they asked how they can help us," Carver told the Sun. "That's a lot better than it was years ago."

Born on Oct. 13, 1944, to Gerald and Jean Carver, Dick spent most of his life ranching in the Smoky Valley.

Carver is survived by his mother, his wife, Midge, three brothers, a sister, 10 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Donations can be made in Carver's memory to the Nye Regional Medical Center, attention: Hope Huntley, P.O. Box 391, Tonopah, NV 89049; or to the Dick Carver Memorial Scholarship, Nevada State Bank, P.O. Box 313, Tonopah, NV 89049.