This is Spring Mountain Ranch which is now a State Park. It is about 15 miles west of Las Vegas in the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. There are wild herds of burros and horses protected in this area.

In mid 1830 it was just a campsite along an alternate route of the Spanish trail. It was used by pack and wagon trains as well as outlaws that preyed upon them. In 1840, a group of mountain men and Ute Indians conducted a famous raid on the Mexican Ranchos in California from here. Mountain Man Bill Williams was a member of the raiding party and revisited the area for many years afterwards. The area became known as the "Old Bill Williams Ranch".

In 1876, former Fort Mohave-based Sgt. James B. Wilson filed on the property with his partner George Anderson. They called it the Sandstone Ranch. Anderson left in early 1880, but Wilson remained until his death in 1906. Anderson left two half-Paiute boys behind that Wilson raised and adopted. Jim Wilson, Jr. and Tweed inherited the ranch and raised cattle for many years. They mortgaged it in 1919 and were unable to pay off the debt.

Willard George, a Wilson family friend, paid off the debt and acquired the ranch in 1929. He was mostly an absentee owner and left the ranch operation to the Wilsons. The George family did live on the ranch during 1941-1943. George was a Hollywood furrier and raised chinchillas along with the cattle. He gave the Wilsons a life estate to the old cabins that lasted until Tweed's death in 1959. Three generations of Wilson men are buried on the ranch.

In 1944, the ranch was leased to Chet Lauck. He was Lum of the "Lum and Abner" radio show. He picked up an option tho buy the property in 1948 and began construction of the main ranch house. Lauck called it the Bar Nothing Ranch and used it for a family vacation retreat. He continued the cattle operation and also opened a boy's camp.

In 1955, German movie actress Vera Krupp bought the ranch from Chet Lauck. She expanded the cattle operation by raising a large herd of a hybrid white-faced Hereford and Brahma strain. She renamed the property Spring Mountain Ranch, expanded the main house, and used it as her principle residence until 1967. Krupp coffee makers were developed by her German family.

Hughes Tool Company purchased the ranch in 1967, although Howard Hughes never lived there. The ranch saw little use except by Hughes' executive Robert Maheu. Maheu left the company in 1969 and the house was maintained my a caretaker.

In 1972, two Southern California businessmen purchased the property and proposed to build an equestrian/residential development. Public objections resulted in the sell of the property to the Nevada Division of State Parks in 1974.