NAF News

FEEDING THE MINERS

Ron Ivins is now an oldtimer in an agricultural town that once counted mining enterprises as its major markets. Lund, like a number of other Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints farming and ranching communities in eastern and southern Nevada, relied on miners as their initial customers for the products they produced. Panaca, Alamo and Hiko in Lincoln County served the mining towns of Pioche and Ursine as well as the Railroad town of Caliente. Mesquite, Bunkerville, Overton, Logandale and other mormon settlements along the Virgin and Muddy Rivers in the southern part of the State had the growing community of Las Vegas as a market along with local mining operations. In fact, nearly all of the early LDS settlements in these locations were agricultural. Along with providing a source of food, these communities created desert oases. LDS people treasured trees not only to provide shade from searing summer suns but also to grow apples, pears and other fruits. They also loved lawns as cool green areas to constrast the greys and ochres of the desert and make the dry old Nevada land more habitable. The houses, trees, and lawns were surrounded by bright, green fields of alfalfa, meadow grasses and other crops. The miners and prospectors may have come first but farming and ranching quickly followed.

It was the mining towns of Veteran (later Kimberly), Ruth, McGill and the trading center of Ely in White Pine County that, especially in the early 1900's, relied significantly on food (meats, milk, and crops) produced in Lund and its neighboring town of Preston. While other ranches and farms in the County also provided such commodities, Lund was the primary source. Nevada Consolidated Coppermines (Kennicott after the mid 1930's) at Ruth and McGill and Consolidated Coppermines Corporation at Kimberly both had ranch operations mainly to supply hay for company horses and mules when such animals were the primary means of transportation and cargo hauling. Nevada Con also had a large dairy in McGill that supplied milk to that town and to Ruth. Lund, however, soon became the source of milk for Ely, Kimberly and associated areas. Dairying became the major Lund enterprise. Kennicott went out of the dairy business around 1950 and Lund became the sole source for milk for all of White Pine County. Lund dairymen provided milk to the Marshall Dairy Processing Plant in Ely which produced a variety of dairy products, milk to ice cream. A number of Lund growers also raised beef cattle with a few concentrating in cattle ranching.

"It was still quite common in the 1960's," said Ron, "to trade agricultural products to Ely businesses for merchandise. I remember butchering a steer and trading it to Grant Oxborrow at the Ely Meat and Grocery for various groceries and other supplies." Ron at that time was just newly married to wife Faylene. His grandparents, William and Della Redd Ivins were among the first settlers in that part of White River Valley. They arrived in 1898 along with a number of other LDS people sent by Church President Wilford Woodruff to colonize the area. The place had formerly been a large ranch owned by the Nevada Land and Livestock Company. It was acquired for the LDS Church as reparation for seizures of Church properties and large herds of cattle as a result of the 1887 Edmunds-Tucker Act. These pioneers named the two settlements they established, Lund and Preston. Ron's parents Harold (Had) and Harriet Carter Ivins grew up in Lund with Had becoming a successful dairy farmer and rancher. Ron continues in farming today though not nearly on the scale he once did.

Ron recalled Lund history. "I was well aware of remaining fruit orchards while I was growing up but my Dad and others told me about the numerous fruit trees in the earlier days that produced apples, pears, peaches, apricots, plumbs and some other fruits." he said. It was noted that these fruits were among agricultural commodities along with a variety of vegetables especially potatoes, beef, pork, lamb, chicken, eggs, milk and butter that were sold or traded in Ely and the mining towns. Hay and grain were also important products that were sold to people for their individual needs. At that time many were still using horses for transportation and quite a few had a milk cow, a pig or two and other such animals. Lund oldtimers relate how in the early 1900's and continuing into the 1920's there were regular freight hauls, wagons and horses, from Lund to Ely. "The freighters would haul the agricultural products to Ely, sell them to merchants or sometimes in the case of fresh vegetable, berries, and melons sell them door to door," said Ron adding, "for the return trip they would load up staples, tools, building materials and so forth that were needed in Lund. It was a four day affair."

Water, of course, is the key to desert agriculture. Lund was and is blessed in this aspect. "The Lund Spring," Ron explained, "flows on the average of 4,000 gallons per minute." A similar flow is produced by the main spring at Preston and three smaller springs provide about 2,000 more gallons per minute for some 10,000 gallons per minute total for that area of White River Valley. The "Big Ditch," a canal that carried water from the Lund Spring through Lund and out to the fields for crop irrigation, was the initial way that the water was distributed. It was about six feet wide and ran a stream some two feet deep. Evapotranspiration losses however prompted the town to convert to cement ditches in 1954 and these were an improvement until roots, and other factors began eroding them. A piping project was started in 1980 and by 1985 pipelines carried the water to all points needed. Water wells pumped by windmills and by other means, electricty and deisel power, augment Lund Spring water. Occasionally, during good run-off years, White River flows reach the area.

Lund and Preston were laid out similar to most LDS farming and ranching communities. There is a town area surrounded by the fields. In Lund's case most of the fields were to the west of the town. House lots, in the settlement area, were around five acres in size. It was on these lots that the orchards or fruit trees were located and where large vegetable gardens were planted. Potatoes and sometimes corn, however, were planted in the field areas for greater production. General field crops included alfalfa hay and various grains such as winter wheat, barley, and oats as rotation crops. Alfalfa seed as a money crop was also grown. All fields except some pasture areas were farmed and this gave a neat and orderly appearance to the crops areas.

Time is a conduit for change and over the years there have been many changes where Lund is concerned. While dairying was a major enterprise in Lund roughly from the early 1920's through to the late 1980's, there are no longer any dairy herds in the town. At one time there were 35 farmers milking. When electric power after World War II became available 17 Grade A milking barns were built. Milking, before done by hand, was then done by electric milking machines. During those year milk was poured into 10 gallon cans and transported by truck to the Marshall Dairy in Ely. Clinton Scow and Vance McKenzie for years operated the milk truck, morning and afternoon, journeying around town picking up cans at each dairy herd location. Later by 1967 the number of Lund dairies dwindled. Rod McKenzie in '67 built a first class milking facility called the "Lactorium" milking his own cows and contracting with various other dairymen to milk their herds. The Marshall Dairy Processing Plant closed not long after and the Lund dairymen contracted with the James Canyon Ranch of Genoa, Nevada to buy their milk. When this fell through around the late 1970's, the remaining dairymen trucked milk to Salt Lake City but transportation costs soon ended that endeavor. At the end of the 1980's dairying in Lund was over. The last dairy herd in Lund belonged to Ron Ivins. However, a number of people still run beef cattle, mostly in Cave Valley. Ron estimates roughly that this involves about 2,000 head, near the same as when he was a child. This was in the late 1930's and through the 1940's. However, there were considerably more cattle previously.

What is Lund like today? Alfalfa hay is still raised and Ron is involved in growing the crop. They are also growing sorghum, Triticale, and other such forage species. This is fed to local cattle and also sold. Some fields though are now leased for pasture with remenants of alfalfa plants and various grasses providing the forage. Lund now lacks the ordered, clean farming look it once had but has a more natural look with overgrown borders in some fields and brush or willow patches in others. There are about as many families now in Lund as were there in the days of its highest productivity but, Ron explained, families now have fewer children. Many living there now are offspring, grandchildren or relatives of those earlier settlers. Probably half or more work at jobs in Ely or surrounding areas rather than farm. They have moved there because they love the rural setting, the green surroundings, the quiet, and the healthy environment. It's a good place to raise children, they say. The old schools built in Lund in the early 1900's were replaced just four or five years ago by a brand new school complex that was dedicated August 10, 2004 by Governor Kenny Guinn.

Ron now raises about 300 tons of alfalfa and sells all but a small portion of it. This he feeds to his horses including an old white mare that is 52 years of age. This is extremely aged as far as horses are concerned but the mare still gets around good enough and is considered safe for Ron's grandchildren to ride. He no longer has any cattle. Along with farming his own alfalfa he works for others in the area doing some buckarooing, haying, irrigating or whatever is needed. Two of his and Faylene's five children live in the area and this means the two have a number of grandchildren nearby to enjoy. They have watched Lund change through the years to conform to a changing America. Agriculture throughout the country has adapted to population growth and urban sprawl, technology advances, and environmental concerns. The need for food and associated agricultural products has not diminished but has increased. The importance of the industry remains as high as ever.

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Ron and Faylene Ivins have watched Lund change through the years but both remember the town in earlier days when it supplied milk to most of the people in White Pine County.

Lund's Main Street today looking south towards the Egan Range, the highlands that help sustain the flows of the Lund Spring.

The Lund spring, crystal clear (some moss around the edges) that flows 4,000 gallons per minute with little variation year to year.

Ron Ivins provided this photo of early day freighting in Lund. The wagons here are loaded with lumber for building in the area.

Ron's old white mare pictured in 1998 with grand kids aboard. This was taken during Lund's centennial celebration featuring a wagon train reminicent of 1898.