Nevada Centennial Ranch and Farm Awards Program

Apply for the 2018 Centennial Awards

The application deadline is Oct. 5, 2018.

To qualify as a Centennial Ranch or Farm, an applicant’s ranch or farm must have belonged to his or her families for at least 100 years and must be a working ranch or farm with a minimum of 160 acres or if it is less than 160 acres, it must have gross yearly sales of at least $1,000.

Return your completed application to:

Rebecca Allured
405 South 21st Street
Sparks, NV 89431

or via email to rallured@agri.nv.gov.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Rebecca Allured at 775-353-3603 or at rallured@agri.nv.gov. Thank you in advance for your help.

About

The Nevada Centennial Awards Program recognizes agricultural families who have owned and operated the same land for 100 years or more. Forty-nine families have now been inducted into the program that began in 2004.

The awards program is sponsored by the Nevada Agriculture Plate funds, Farm Bureau, Agricultural Foundation, Nevada Department of Agriculture, Cattlemen’s Association and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Bottari Ranch

Bottari Ranch, located in Lamoille, Nevada, was purchased by John and Cicilia Palena in 1916. In the early years, the Bottari Ranch had a small herd of 100 head of cattle. The ranch took the Bottari name when their daughter Guiditta married Pete Bottari, who bought the farm from the Palenas in 1967. When both Pete and Guiditta passed away, the ranch was left with their sons Duilio and John, who took care of it together until John sold his shares to Duilio. Duilio married Ella May and lived on the ranch until 2013. Ella May is still on the ranch, cooking on a wood and propane kitchen range. She is known for making delicious pies.

The Bottari family is still very close and meets to celebrate birthdays and holidays on the ranch. The Bottari Ranch is currently in a family trust and intended to be kept in the family as a working ranch for as long as possible.

de Braga Ranch

Located in Fallon, Nevada, the de Braga Ranch was established in 1917. The original owner, Joe de Braga, moved from the Azore Islands off the coast of Portugal to Austin, Nevada in the late 1800s. After receiving a flier enticing people to move to Fallon to participate in the water project from the Lahontan Dam, Joe and his wife Marguerite de Braga loaded up a wagon and took their family to Fallon in hopes of a new and better life.

Their son Frank met and married Goldie and built their own life on the farm until Frank passed away in 1989. Frank’s son Ted de Braga owns the land that Joe and Marguerite homesteaded 100 years ago and the ranch still stands strong to this day.

Buffalo Ranch

In 1892, brothers Jose and John Zabalbeascoa moved to America from the Basque country in Europe to work for a sheepherder in Nevada. After they both agreed to accept sheep as payment, the brothers began to herd their own sheep alongside their employer’s. In 1917, Jose, who had changed his name to Joe Saval) acquired the Buffalo Ranch in Buffalo Valley, Nevada and one year later, he married Jesusa Saval.

John was killed in 1918 due to a car accident, and when Joe passed away in 1938, the ranch operations were left to Jesusa. Up until her death in 1982, Jesusa ran the ranch and cared for her three children, all while making difficult choices about the ranch’s future. After liquidating the northern Nevada ranches, she kept the southern ranching properties and approximately 200 head of cattle, which she used to rebuild the operation after Joe’s death. Buffalo Ranch is currently operational in the name of the Joe Saval Company.

2015 Recipient and Nevada's First Sesquicentennial Award Recipient, Stewarts Ninety-Six Ranch (1864)

Stewart’s 96 Ranch, as old as the State of Nevada, celebrated its sesquicentennial in August 2014. The Ranch was founded in Paradise Valley by German immigrant Friedrick Wilhelm Stock (he later took the English form of his name, William Stock) in 1864, and started as a simple homestead. Through the years, the Ranch has grown into one of Nevada’s most iconic ranching operations.

Today, Fred Stewart, with the help of his wife, Kris, and their daughter, Patrice, manages the Ranch. The Ranch’s new cattle herd has grown to nearly 800 mother cows - all commercial Hereford and Angus. Patrice owns and managers her own small herd of top comercial beef cattle on the ranch, is involved in all ranch decisions, competes in youth and high school rodeo, FFA leadership and plans a career and life managing the same Paradise Valley ranch that her great, great grandfather William Stock founded as a simple homestead in 1864.

2014 Recipient Johnson and Springmeyer Families (1870)

In the name of the Johnson and Springmeyer families, we honor the original ranch, formerly the Lazy J Ranch in Douglas County. Chris Johnson was born in Denmark, and his wife, Celia, was from Germany. It is said that they came to the Carson Valley in the 1870s with Mormon Settlers, where they purchased the ranch and raised a family at their Mottsville Lane property.

Carson Valley in the 1870s with Mormon Settlers, where they purchased the ranch and raised a family at their Mottsville Lane property.

After Chris Sr. passed away, Chris Johnson Jr. retained the ranch and partnered with Knox William at the nearby Judge Hickey ranch to raise Hereford cattle and hay. Knox William passed away in 1934 after falling off his horse on Mottsville Lane. After his death, his wife Stella Van Dyke Johnson, a single woman with three small children, took over the cattle operation on her own until her son, Knox Van Dyke continued to operate his portion of the ranch while grazing in the summer at Lake Tahoe.

On his retirement in 1992, Knox Van Dyke leased the ranch to Helen Kolbe.

Helen Kolbe Johnson took the reins and continued to raise Hereford/Angus cross cattle on Knox’s ranch with the help of their son Drew Kolbe. Therefore, Drew raises cattle on the same property as his great, great grandparents. Majorie Springmeyer retains ownership of her portion of the Lazy J Ranch with her daughter-in-law Bonnie, and her grandchildren: they lease it to a local rancher.

2014 Receipent Triple S Ranch (1874)

The Triple S Ranch of south Reno raises cattle, sheep and bees. The original operation was acquired in 1874 by Ferdinand Ritter but is now held by the Lorraine Dodge Family Trust.

Originally purchased for $2,600 in gold coins, the property encompassed 160 acres. Ritter initially bought the property to keep his four sons and daughter safe from the “many wild and rowdy inhabitants of Virginia City.”

The land was lush with springs and even attracted some gold mining claims. Ritter and his son Herman used the ranch for their own food and to sell vegetables in Virginia City.

In the 1960s, the ranch was leased to family friends who took over its operation.

Now, Lorraine Dodge’s daughter Michelle, and her husband Jack Spencer Jr., have assumed the ranching and farming. The Triple S Ranch was named to honor past and present family members—Sullivan, Savery and Spencer—who envisioned the property as a place for future agricultural production. Jack and Michelle Spencer, along with their sixth-generation boys, Hunter and Chase Archer, carry on the tradition of ranching and farming by immersing themselves into the production of cattle, sheep, bees and pasture land. Hopefully, this small but highly desirable property will prosper for another 140 years.

The Nevada Centennial Award is presented to the Johnsons and Springmeyers for the longstanding contribution to Nevada agriculture and the rich heritage they have given to the state.

Past Winners

2013 Recipients
Martin Ranch, Eureka and Nye Counties (1887)
Manha Farm, Lyon County (1912)

2012 Recipients
Day-Annett-Costa Ranch, Lyon County (1905)
Lytle Ranches, Lincoln County (1865)

2011 Recipients
Robert Getto Farm, Churchill County (1911)
Getto Farms, Churchill County (1911)

2010 Recipients
Anker Ranch, Pershing County (1877)
Anker Ranch, Inc., Pershing County (1877)
Ankers, Inc., Pershing County (1877)
Quilici Ranch, Lyon County (1881)
Skip’s Place, Churchill County (1907)
Lawrence Ranch, Churchill County (1908)

2009 Recipients
Bradshaw “End of the Rainbow” Ranch, Lincoln County (1873)
Bailey Ranch, Eureka County (1875)
Testolin Ranch, Churchill County (1907)
Ranch No. 1 (Trimmer/Giovacchini), Douglas County (1909)
Perfecta Vista Ranches-Mathewson Ranch, Churchill County (1909)

2008 Recipients
Kallenbach-Ormachea-Sherman Ranch, Churchill County (1908)

2006 Recipients
The Capurro Brothers, Sparks, Washoe County (1869)
Duval Ranching Company, Ruby Valley, Elko County (1870)

2005 Recipients
Blue Eagle Ranch, Tonopah, Nye County (1895)
Bunker Farm, Bunkerville, Clark County (1901)
Ferraro Cattle Company, Paradise Valley, Humboldt County (1902)
Green Springs Ranch, Duckwater, White Pine County (~1899)
Heise Family Ranch, Gardnerville, Douglas County (1902)
Krenka Ranch, Ruby Valley, Elko County (1865-1870)
Laura Springs Ranch, Gardnerville, Douglas County (1863)
Snyder Livestock Company, Yerington, Lyon County (1887)
Riordan Ranch, Jiggs, Elko County (1900)
Stodieck Farm, Minden, Douglas County (1868)
Wilkinson Little Meadow Ranch, McDermitt, Humboldt County (1900)

2004 Recipients
Andersen Home Ranch, Carson City (1880’s)
Buckle D Ranch, Ruby Valley, Elko County(1889)
Calcutta Ranch, Vya, Washoe County (1885)
Capurro-Durkee Ranch, Reno, Washoe County (1890)
Cushman-Corkill Ranch, Fallon, Churchill County (1860)
Dalton Ranch, Clover Valley, Elko County (1892)
Glaser Land and Livestock, Halleck, Elko County (1883)
Heinz Ranch, Reno, Washoe County (1885)
Henningsen Family Ranch, Gardnerville, Douglas County (1878)
Hussman Land and Livestock, Gardnerville, Douglas County (1872)
Mack Land and Cattle, Minden, Douglas County (1860’s)
Overland Land and Livestock, Ruby Valley, Elko County (1873)
Pinson Ranch, Golconda, Humboldt County (1884)
Prunty Family Ranch, Mountain City, Elko County (1894)
Scossa Ranch, Gardnerville, Douglas County (1872)
Stewart’s Ninety-Six Ranch, Paradise Valley, Humboldt County (1864)