The Oldest Ranch House In Mojave County Is Located
At The Exclusive Grand Canyon West Ranch

HISTORY OF THE GRAND CANYON

Prehistoric volcanic eruptions, hot magma, flowing from the depths of the the crust built magnificent stratovolcanoes. Explosive volcanic eruptions submerged the region under ash, volcanic debris and lava flows. Deep underneath the volcanoes were pockets of molten rock (called magma chambers) that supplied the volcanoes above. As new chambers and volcanoes formed, older magma chambers cooled to form solid igneous rock masses. » Read More

The Early Explorers

In 1540, Spaniard Francisco Vasquez de Coronado was searching the Seven Cities of Cibola and its gold when Indians told him of a great river to the north. Coronado and a party of 12 men were guided by the Hopi Indians and 20 days later found themselves at the edge of a great chasm - the mighty Grand Canyon. After three frustrating days searching for a way down the river Coronado and his men moved on, in search of other legends.

The Grand Canyon and all of its splendor was then left to its original inhabitants, the Indians, and remained so for over three more centuries until 1869, when a one-armed civil War veteran Major John Wesley Powell set out with four boats to explore the Colorado River. After losing two of this boats and three of his men. Powell eventually navigated the Colorado, reached the point where the Hualapai Indian Reservation and Lake Mead are today, 72 days later. Major Powell’s published account of his journey encouraged scientific study of the majestic canyon.

Historic Grand Canyon West Ranch

The original ranch headquarters is located next to Diamond Bar Springs that has been known to Native Americans for the last 3,600 years. The oldest inhabitants at the springs were the Cohina Indians whose roasting pits have been carbon dated back to circa 1600 B.C. In 1871 the Wheeler expedition first surveyed the springs during their exploration of the Grand Canyon. The Indians called the springs, Tanyaka Springs or Grass Springs.

Around 1860, after the Hualapai War, gold miners built a Stamp Mill to crush ore for the King Tut Gold Mine. They named the springs Guffan Springs. From the 1870’s onwards the Mormons used the springs as a resting and watering place for wagon trains which used Diamond Bar Road. In May of 1889 the Hualapai Indian Tribe's first Ghost Dance ritual was held at these Springs. All participants were dressed in white and danced for five days and nights. » Read More

In the late 1800’s Wellington Starky started a cattle ranch and called it Diamond Bar Ranch. In 1904 at the age of 41 a notorious gunfighter and cattle rancher called Tap Duncan bought the ranch to escape from his previous... "profession." It is believed Tap rode with Kid Curry and the hole in the wall gang. Tap Duncan became one of the most well-known and widely respected pioneer cattlemen running over 2,000 head of cattle on over a million acres. His other ventures included involvement in the aforementioned King Tut Gold Mine. He was eventually killed at the ripe age of age of 74, ironically, run over by a car in Kingman, Arizona.

From 1915 onwards an unknown cowboy called Bruce Kiskaddon worked for Tap. He wrote about the ranch and in doing so started cowboy poetry. In 1915 cowboy poets were not popular but he was encouraged by Tap. The Los Angeles Times published his works for 30 years. "Rhymes and Ranches" published in 1947 is about Tap and Diamond Bar Ranch. Bruce became one of the most famous Cowboy Poets, and even Louis L’Amour, the prolific writer of Western sagas, once admitted that Tap Duncan taught him everything he knew about "cowboying."