Ranch House
[1880]
Wightman Ranch - The Wightman Ranch, among the oldest in Lahontan Valley, was settled by David Moroni Wightman in 1860. He first built a small adobe home, followed by a fine wooden house in 1880 after he married Sarah Jane MacKeachie. Though it has passed through a number of hands and been vacant for a number of years, the Wightman Ranch house remains the oldest standing in Churchill County.
Island (Douglass-Frey) Ranch - The Island Ranch, with 15,000-17,000 acres, was started by William S. Bailey by 1869. By 1906, it was acquired by Robert L. Douglass, who filed a plat for the town of Island City that year near the old cemetery and Adventist church at St. Clair. In 1909, following the relocation of that church to Fallon the previous year, Douglass constructed the new Island Chapel. This chapel also served as the schoolhouse until the Island School was completed in 1912 (note: both of these were about 4½ miles south of Island City; neither still stand and the name Island City has been all but forgotten).
In 1920, work was completed on a new mansion to house the Douglass family, designed by architect Frederic DeLongchamps. By the end of the 1920s, much of Douglass's acreage was subdivided and much of it sold off. In 1944 the final holdings, comprising the mansion and 800 acres, were sold to Charles Frey, Sr. The Frey family has continued to own the ranch ever since, and it is today home of the Frey Ranch Distillery. The 1920 mansion is still used as the family home, and the ranch was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.
Magee-Springer Ranch (Magee Station) - William and Sarah Jane Magee first moved to the area in the early 1860s, when they began working on the ranch of Gus Meacham on his ranch. In 1865, they established Magee Station on their ranch just east of Big Adobe, which soon became a social center for the valley.
The Magees both passed away in 1890, after which their daughter and son-in-law Ellen & Jake Springer owned the ranch and built the two-story home that still stands. In 1905, it was sold to Charles Wightman, whose twelve-year-old daughter Doris accidentally destroyed the original Magee Station building in 1910 when she left a lit candle in a box inside to keep kittens warm.
Inman-Weaver Ranch - This home was built in 1880 by L.C. Weaver. The Inman and Weaver families occupied this ranch until 1974.
Marean-Coleman Ranch - This ranch was established by Herbert Marean sometime before his death in 1913, and subsequently left to his sister Helen and new brother-in-law William Tyler Coleman. The Colemans, and later their daughter Ruth, stayed here for the remainder of their lives. The home, now abandoned, was built c.1905.
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