WINNEMUCCA - The Wells Ranch was at the southern end of the Jacksons. In the Teens and Twenties, Willis Wells and his wife Edith had a small place there.
They had two children, Henry and Margaret. They raised chickens for eggs, which they sold, and goats. They had a small orchard that produced excellent pears. The last time I was up there the pear trees had fruit. I picked some and brought them back to town for Margaret, who was over 90 at the time.
A few boards are all that remain of their house and stock pens. The spring is maintained, the water cold and wonderful. The fruit trees, seemingly more fragile in our difficult environment, had better longevity than the structures!
He was also a prospector. In this photo he's loaded up for a long trip along that mountain range searching for Eldorado. He never did find the big one, but he did find enough to move into town in 1926 so his kids could go to high school.
Mr. Wells was a rancher, a miner and a dreamer. He wrote poetry about the desert he loved. His daughter, Margaret Wells Butts, told me about his love of the desert and how he wrote about it. How he never felt he did it justice. She also gave me a group of negatives to scan. One of them produced this photo, which is also in the Humboldt Museum collection.
- Compiled by Barbara Powell
[[In-content Ad]]
