The United Cattle & Packing Company: The Rise and Fall of Nevada's Largest Ranch

A ranch of enormous proportions once existed on the central Nevada desert in the vicinity of the mining boomtowns of Tonopah and Goldfield. Like those boomtowns, the ranch, known as the United Cattle and Packing Company, was part of the last flowering of the Frontier West in America. At its peak, the ranch extended for as much as 135 miles east to west and 110 miles north to south. Although a number of smaller ranches could be found within this vast expanse, the United Cattle and Packing Company controlled the largest portion of land, likely as much as four million acres. As far as can be determined, it was the largest ranch in Nevada history. The United Cattle and Packing Company ranch began in 1907 when a gold miner/cattleman named O. K. Reed and his brother Ed purchased a small ranch in the Kawich Range from the legendary gunfighter Jack Longstreet. The Reeds, along with jake Humphrey and his brothers, expanded the ranch, which reached its peak size in the early 1930s. By 1940, the great ranch had been broken up and no longer existed. Based on interviews and recollections of Reed family descendants as well as other sources, this book presents an account of the ranch's rise and decline. In the mid-1920s, the Reed family acquired a high-quality camera and took many wonderful pictures of ranch and family life. A large number of those pictures are included in this book. The story of the United Cattle and Packing Company exemplifies America and its spirit at its best, where hard work, courage, and honesty were the norm, where men and women could dream big and test themselves against a huge and beautiful land.