City officials have been working on a plan to preserve historic Kiel Ranch, home to one of the state's oldest structures. The City now wants residents to share their ideas for improving the plan they have called the Kiel Ranch Comprehensive Development and Preservation Master Plan. Officials expect to put the plan into action when funding becomes available.
A community workshop on the matter will be held from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 14, at the North Las Vegas Library, 2300 Civic Center Drive.
Kiel Ranch is a seven-acre site near the intersection of Carey Avenue and Commerce Street. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Native tribes used the site for fresh water along trade routes. By 1855 it was settled by Mormons and used as an Indian farm.
In the late 1880s, Conrad Kiel turned the site into a 240-acre ranch. Kiel Ranch is home to the Adobe House, which among the oldest buildings in the state. Kiel Ranch boasts an artesian spring, cottonwoods and wildlife. It is the place where some of Southern Nevada's most intriguing historical moments occurred.
Kiel Ranch was the site of three unsolved shooting deaths in the late 19th century. Archibald Stewart, husband to Las Vegas pioneer Helen J. Stewart, died there. Stewart's sons are alleged to have avenged their father's death by slaying Ed and William Kiel, sons of Conrad Kiel.
Over the years, the ranch changed hands multiple times. The Losee family turned it into Boulderado Dude Ranch, a playground for celebrities during the 1940s and 1950s. A shed from that era remains on the site. The City of North Las Vegas Bicentennial Committee took title to a portion of the property in 1974, then donated it to the City in 1976.
For more information, call Stephanie Brüning at 633-2789.
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