Vintage landscape: willow corral

Ninety-Six Ranch corral, Paradise Valley, 1978, Library of CongressMoving cattle into a willow branding corral on Ninety-Six Ranch, Paradise Valley, Nevada, October 1979, by Carl Fleischhauer, via American Folklife Center, Library of Congress (all photos here).

Ninety-Six Ranch willow fence, Paradise Valley, 1978, Library of Congress
Willow corral at Hay Camp on Ninety-Six Ranch, May 1978, by Howard W. Marshall.

Willow corrals are still used on Ninety-Six Ranch. In 2014, Kris Stewart, one of the current owners, told Carl Fleishhauer:

We are concerned with staying with original willow corrals – that is definitely part of Great Basin ranching. They are safer in every way; they have some give to them. And they are the cheapest fencing from a materials standpoint since almost everything is naturally already on the ranch.

Willow corral, Suzi Jone, Library of Congress
Willow corral on Ninety-Six Ranch, July 1978, by Suzi Jones.

Vintage landscape: horseshoes

Horseshoe fence 2, Nevada, 1978, Library of Congress

Horseshoe gate on the Pedroli Ranch, Paradise Valley, Nevada, July 1978, (35mm slide) by Richard E. Ahlborn, via American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress (both photos).

The ranch house gate was made by Pete Pedroli about 1950.  It has a counterweight for self closing. . .

Horseshoe fence latch, Nevada, 1978, Library of Congress
Photo by Suzi Jones

. . . and a latch made from a bridle bit.

There’s another photo of the house and gate here, by Carl Fleishhauer.

Vintage landscape: red fence

Buckingham house, 1978, Suzi Jone, Library of CongressBuckingham Residence, Paradise Valley, Nevada, July 1978, (35mm slide) by Suzi Jones, via American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress (all photos here).

The house, the oldest in the town, was originally built as a hotel for a mining settlement. It was later disassembled and rebuilt in Paradise Valley.

Photo by Carl Fleishhauer.
May 1978 slide by Carl Fleishhauer.

White Fence

Also from the Folklife Center’s Paradise Valley* collection. . .

White fence, Paradise Valley, Library of Congress
The Stock-Stewart house, October 1979, by Carl Fleischhauer.

This residence on the Ninety-Six Ranch was built around 1900, added onto a bunkhouse/dining hall from the 1880s (shown below).

Ninety-Six Ranch house gate, Paradise Valley, 1978, Library of Congress
Ox yoke and wagon wheel entrance to Stock-Stewart house, July 1978, by Howard W. Marshall.

The ranch has been in the same family’s ownership since 1864. The ox yoke above the gate may have had particular significance for them, as their ancestor — a German immigrant named William Stock — first saw the land while hauling freight from California.

There are other views of the home here and here.

Grey fence

One more picket fence image from the same collection. . .

Main residence, Ferraro Rance,
Main residence, Ferraro Ranch, November 1979, by William Smock.

The house was built by Stefano Ferraro, an Italian immigrant who bought the ranch land in 1902. It is still family owned.

The Folklife Center's notes say the cottonwood trees, planted by Stephano, "were among the tallest in the valley." Also by William Smock.
Backyard view, by William Smock.

According to the Folklife Center’s notes, the cottonwood trees that were planted behind the house by Stephano “were among the tallest in the valley.”

There is a 1934 view of the home here.


*From 1978 to 1982, the Center conducted an ethnographic field project in this distinctive ranching and mining community. The study became the collection “Buckaroos in Paradise: Ranching Culture in Northern Nevada, 1945-1982.”

The Sunday porch: Paradise Valley

Ranch house porch, 1978, Suzi Jones, Library of CongressRanch House with Porch, Paradise Valley, Humboldt County, Nevada, July 1978, (35mm slide) by Suzi Jones, via American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress (all photos here).

The house — of adobe construction — served as the officer’s quarters of Fort Scott in the late 1860s.  In 1978, it was the main residence of Fort Scott Ranch.

Fort Scott Ranch gate, 1978, Library of Congress

There is another view here, by Howard W. Marshall.

The photos here are three of over two thousand taken or collected for the Folklife Center’s 1972-1982 ethnographic field project on the Paradise Valley area. The work became the collection*  “Bucharoos in Paradise: Ranching Culture in Northern Nevada, 1945-1982.”

Fort Scott Ranch, Paradise Valley, NV, Library of Congress
Fort Scott Ranch, by Howard W. Marshall.

There’s another photo of the ranch house and its outbuildings here.

Poll results

For the last two Sundays, I ran a little poll asking how readers look at enclos*ure — 1) on a desktop computer or Mac; 2) on an e-reader; or 3) on a smartphone? Of those who responded, 82% use a desktop and the others use an e-reader.


*It also contains sound recordings and motion picture film.