More about Range Creek Canyon

History of Range Creek

by Steven L. Gerber

The modern story of Range Creek began in 1884 when Deputy United States Surveyor Augustus Ferron happened upon the narrow canyon while surveying township lines in Emery County.  Ferron realized that despite its extremely remote location, this isolated canyon provided an ideal setting for a large cattle operation.  A perennial stream of clear water flowed through the bottom of the canyon and an abundant supply of natural grass grew along its banks.  The moderate climate in the lower elevations provided excellent winter range, while the upper plateau comprised a vast summer range, capable of supporting a hundreds of cattle.  The narrow canyon formed a natural enclosure for livestock, and its inaccessibility, and narrow entrance meant a couple of men with few yards of barbed wire could control access to a huge area.

In the summer of 1885, Ferron returned with four partners.  The five men formed the Range Valley Cattle Company and claimed all of the land and water between Nine Mile and the Price River, and between the Bookcliffs and the Green River, an area of some 380,000 acres.  They filed seven Desert Land Entry claims along the creek, effectively seizing control of all the available water in the canyon.  As in the rest of the West, he who controls the water, controls the land and the Range Valley Cattle Company now controlled tens of thousands of acres of untouched rangeland. 

Over the next fifteen years, the company built cabins all along Range Creek.  They built dams, irrigated pasture, and constructed miles of pole fences.  They built a very nice house, barn, shop, and fruit cellars at their headquarters, called Ladore, and planted fruit trees, grapes, watermelon, potatoes, corn and a large crop of alfalfa.

Day to day living required pots and pans, tools, steel, lumber, and supplies, all of which had to be packed in on mules along a narrow trail over the Bookcliffs from Woodside.  Farm equipment was disassembled in Woodside, packed in piece-by-piece and reassembled at the ranch.

The first Ranch Manager was a mild mannered Latin Professor with Tuberculosis named Clarence Allen.  Referred to by the hands as the Professor, he never quite “carried his end of the log” and spent much of his time gathering artifacts and studying rock art and granaries in the canyon.  Professor Allen lasted only one summer in Range Valley before ill health drove him back to Salt Lake City where he became President of one of the largest mining companies in the Territory.  He defeated Brigham H Roberts in 1895 to become the first elected Congressman from the new State of Utah. 

Also arriving that first summer was Joe Wing, the nephew of one of the company founders.  Twenty-four year old Wing left his home in Ohio to experience the Wild West on his uncle’s ranch.  Well educated, introspective and thoughtful, Wing wrote many letters back home, giving a fascinating account of his experiences in the wilds of Range Valley.  Wing filed his own Desert Land Entry, and for some time contemplated living the rest of his life in Range Valley.  At the request of his ailing father, however, Wing reluctantly returned to Ohio in 1889.  He had risen to President of the company and continued to serve in that role from Ohio.  Wing went on to become one of the foremost agricultural speakers of his time.  As a correspondent for the Breeders Gazette he fascinated readers everywhere with stories of his experiences in Range Valley.  Wing’s activities in Range Valley became the focus of several land disputes in the following years, determining the pattern of land ownership in the canyon to this day.

In 1900, Wing sold the interests of the Cattle Company to three local ranchers who ran a small cattle operation in the canyon for two years before selling to one of the only true cattle kings Utah ever produced, Preston Nutter.  He was shrewd, powerful, and a formidable enemy.  The Nutter empire stretched from the Arizona Strip all the way to Nine Mile Canyon in Carbon County. He raised thousands of cattle, and took advantage of his size and power to secure his grip on every spring, and stream on the plateau.  Many men attempted to do battle with Nutter, and almost all met ruin. 

Two that succeeded were John Niles and John Darioli.  The two filed simultaneous homestead claims for the most highly improved parcels of Nutter land in Range Valley.   The Nutter legal team immediately set to work to destroy these usurpers and the resulting court battles took seven years to resolve.  In the end Niles and Darioli were granted titles to their homesteads and Nutter suffered the first significant loss of a land contest in his life.  The Darioli homestead was the original Range Valley headquarters, with its fine house, shop, and fences.  Niles secured title to what is now the ranch headquarters, and promptly sold it back to Nutter for $6000.00, a horse and some tack.  Added to the legal costs of the court battle with Niles, this was undoubtedly the Nutter’s most expensive Range Creek purchase!

Preston Nutter died in 1936 from injuries suffered when he fell from his horse in Range Valley.   His wife continued to operate the corporation, but the Nutter empire would never again see the success enjoyed by its founder.  In 1951, Ray "Budge" Wilcox and his sons, Don and Waldo, purchased the Range Valley property from the Nutter Corporation and for the next fifty years, they operated a successful cattle ranch, guarding the canyon from intruders and preserving its unique cultural resources.  Don and Waldo divided the ranch after the death of their father.  Don took the upper ranch on the mountain, and Waldo retained the Range Valley land. In 2001, Waldo Wilcox sold his Range Valley ranch back to the United States, completing the circle of ownership from public to private, and back to the public.  It is a beautiful canyon, and a true treasure.