Preserving Nevada’s ranching history, while providing a space for community.

The Dangberg Home Ranch is a public park preserving Nevada’s ranching history and sharing four generations of love, loss, land, livestock, and the bottom line.

Heinrich Friedrich Dangberg was only eighteen when he came to America in 1848. He came west in 1853, where he built a log cabin, cleared and irrigated his claim, and married Margaret Ferris, the daughter of a notable American family. A self-made man, his hard work, foresight, and leadership lead to prosperity and influence. The cabin grew into a house as Heinrich and Maggie raised five children who eventually inherited one of the largest ranches in western Nevada. In 1902, the family formed the Dangberg Land & Live Stock Co. and over the next few decades the ranch expanded to almost 50,000 acres supporting cattle and sheep, vegetable crops and other products. In 1905, the family founded the town of Minden and there, by themselves or in partnership with others, established several businesses focused on agriculture, banking, and a hotel. Today, the Dangberg Home Ranch Historic Park preserves this fascinating chapter in Nevada’s history. Nevada’s elite once passed through the doors of the Dangberg Home Ranch, and now you’re invited to visit, too.

Four generations of Dangbergs lived at the Home Ranch, and they each help in understanding the changes that occur in the histories of American ranching families.

They also left a fascinating collection of artifacts, photographs and documents dating from the early 19th century all the way to 1990. Many of these connect with daily life in Carson Valley, and many others show the family’s private lives.

Today, you can see the historic Dangberg Ranch House, built 1857-1917, as well as the stone cellar (built 1870), laundry house (1906), and carriage house (built 1917).