NAF News

A RANCHER AND A SCHOOL TEACHER

Novels about the American West most often don't leave the white hatted cowboy hero to face life and the black hats alone. There usually is a lady among the pages and thus a romance. A recurring theme in many of these romances is that of the school teacher, the "schoolmarm," who comes from back east or the big city to face the harshness of the frontier land. She is helped by the handsome cowboy hero. Zane Grey, Harold Bell Wright, Earnest Haycox, Luke Short and other western writers have, one time or another, resorted to this theme. Best known of the school teacher cowboy romances, however, is probably Owen Wister's " The Virginian." Two movies of the book have been made, one starring Gary Cooper and the other Joel McCrea, and also a TV series.

Is or was this romantic link merely an invention of such novelists? Not hardly! It happened in real life a lot more than one time. Lina Punjuv was born 1919 in Los Angeles, the daughter of Yugoslavian immigrant parents. Her family moved to Las Vegas 10 years later where her father set up a welding business. She grew up there attending local schools. The town was small but a long ways from a "cowtown" say in the manner of Elko. The male population in "Vegas" was much more likely to be workers involved in building Boulder (Hoover) Dam than cowboys. The ranching, cowboy life was far removed from young Lina's experience.

Following high school Lina attended the University of Nevada in Reno completing the two year normal progam which, at that time, earned her a Nevada Teaching Certificate. When she applied for a teaching job she found that there were only openings in the State's rural schools. She chose the Blue Eagle School in Nevada's remote Railroad Valley. It was a choice that governed the rest of her life. She arrived at the small school in the fall of 1940. She is still there and by this time could easily be described as the Valley's "First Lady" in terms of influence, achievement and the many lives she has benefited.

Railroad Valley for those unfamiliar is located in south central Nevada towards the State's eastern side. It is in Nye County and is reached from the north by US Highway 6 between Ely and Tonopah. Ely is the nearest of the two. The Valley stretches close to 80 miles north and south and as much as 20 miles wide. It is a land of space and remoteness generally colored dull grey and ochre by its high desert vegetation.. Sagebrush species, shadscale and similar shrubs vegetate the Valley along with meadows and native grass fields or pastures fed by springs which dot the area. Bordering the Valley to the east is the Grant Range which rises to over 11,000 feet at the summit of Troy Peak and further south, the Quinn Canyon Range. These ranges provide the watershed for the valley which fuels some small creeks and the Valley springs. On the west some smaller mountain chains, mostly treeless and sparsely vegetated, flank the Valley. Historically, it was cattle country and still is except for a number of operating oil wells in its northern reaches. The oil wells came many years after the cattle.

George Henry Sharp, a boy from the Hiko area of Pahranagat Valley, found work cowboying in Railroad Valley and moved there in 1884. In 1895, he purchased the Butterfield Springs Ranch in the Valley from Alex Beaty. The same year his uncle purchased the Blue Eagle Ranch from former Nevada Governor Jewett W. Adams. In 1901, George married Mary MCann. This union was that of the cowboy-rancher and the school teacher. The couple had six children, the second youngest of which was Jim Sharp. By 1917, George owned all the deeded land at Butterfield, Blue Eagle and Bacon Field Ranches and the water rights to all springs in central Railroad Valley draining off the west side of the Grant Range.

The one room Blue Eagle School was located, of course, near the Blue Eagle Ranch. Most of the children were Sharps. It was Lina's first experience at school teaching, ranch living, being surrounded by sweeping remote vistas, and having to contend with yapping coyote seranades and other desert inhabitants. Her living quarters was an old cabin described as not much more than a miner's hut. It contained a bed and a potbelly wood stove in the room's center. The story is told that Lina had never before built a fire but knew that paper was required to ignite the kindling wood. She had problems on her first attempt, however, since she placed the paper on top of the kindling.

Jim Sharp, by that time, was an active hard working young man capable of turning a girl's eye. He was a rancher having inherited a part of his father's ranch. George had died in 1934. It's probably fair to say Jim quickly noticed the pretty young school teacher and she, the rancher. In 1941 they were married. It was real life, "The Virginian."

A couple of years later the Blue Eagle School closed due to lack of students and, for a time, ended Lina's teaching career. It allowed her, however, to spend time with their growing family. They were to have five girls whom she home taught in the early years. Rancher's families tend to be large. The children provide a work force. When the youngsters are girls they wind up buckarooing just like boy offspring. They spend long hours in the saddle, they rope, brand, dehorn, castrate, earmark, give shots, work on haying crews and a host of other cowboy duties. In their spare time they learn and do all the "women chores" from cooking to canning, clothes washing and all the rest. One of the Sharp girls, Jeanne Sharp Howerton, is co-author along with Robet D. McCracken of the book, "Railroad Valley, Too Tough for Others, Just Right for Us." She is a Las Vegas School teacher. Much of the information in this writing was taken from the book.

Another daughter, Carole Sharp Hanks along with her husband Carl, now operate part of the ranch. When Jim died in 1965 Lina became owner of the family holdings. Carl and Carole bought out her mother in 1968. The total ranch once owned by George is now divided with the Hanks owning one part and Norman and Gerald Sharp, the other.

In 1955 Lina returned to school teaching. The Blue Eagle School opened again with six children. When it closed a few year later Lina went on teaching at the Currant School a few miles north From there she went to the Duckwater School teaching many Native American students. Later she taught at Tonopah and at Twin Springs. Essentially she taught in every school in the Railroad Valley area. In the course of her teaching career she earned numerous awards and recognitions for her long, dedicated and fruitful teaching career. A host of young people coming off isolated and lonely ranches or Indian children on the Duck Water Reservation began their education under her very capable tutelage. Many will long remember her.

Nevada Governors, Grant Sawyer and others, were aware of her accomplishments. Sawyer even visited her, 1965, at the Currant School. University of Nevada Reno educators, among them Joe Stein, longtime Associate Director of the Cooperative Extension Service and Ray Cox, State 4-H Leader; both in the Ag. College plus faculty in the College of Education recognized her efforts and how they benefited young people of her area.

Finally, how did Blue Eagle get its name. One can look from the ranch east to a mountain peak in the Grant Range. The pattern of tree and vegetation cover resembles an eagle with its wings spread. It is particularly visible when snow is on the ground.

Meanwhile Lina Sharp remains in the Valley. Now in her mid 80's has she quit bringing knowledge to children in the area? Her daughter Carole is not quite sure. "I guess she has retired," she says, "but I wouldn't bet that she still wouldn't substitute, or fill in for a longer time if some teacher needed her."

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Lina Sharp, right, visits with Nevada Agricultural Foundation Executive Director/Secretary Gail Munk of Lovelock during a recent visit to the Blue Eagle Ranch.

Blue Eagle Ranch in remote Railroad Valley. The snow capped Grant Range rises up in the background.