Washoe couple will offer chance to 'live the cowboy life'

RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
4/9/2004 09:27 pm

Ever wanted to be a cowboy? Wake up in the morning, saddle up a horse and ride off to move a herd of cattle?

Then you might want to check out the Old Yella Dog Ranch and & Cattle Co. in northern Washoe County this summer.

After county officials approved a special use permit this week, Jon and Linda Walters, former Sparks and Minden residents, targeted a June 1 opening for their guest ranch on about 4,400 acres at Vya, 190 miles north of Reno .

“You’re going to be living the cowboy life. You are a hand on the ranch. You are going to be riding. You are going to be roping,” said Walters, who started breaking in horses as a teenager in Amarillo , Tex.

A Reno-Sparks Convention & Visitors Authority official was delighted to hear about the possible new addition for the region’s America ’s Adventure Place marketing theme.

“It’s a great way for a first-hand experience of what Reno ’s heritage is all about,” said Deanna Ashby, marketing director. “And it really helps to put Reno on an international map.”

Walters expects many customers from Germany , Japan and the Philippines , tourists that have been attracted to other guest ranches, some of which have two-year waiting lists.

“They’ve seen ‘Gunsmoke’ and ‘Bonanza,’ too,” Walters said, explaining the foreign interest.

This is no dude ranch, Walter said. “It’s a working ranch.”

Guests at the ranch will help herd 250 head of cattle, help with calving, mending fences and learn to harness wagons, Walters said.

“What’s amazing is people will be paying good money to let us teach them about how to be a cowboy,” he said.

Walters said Old Yella will be one of only about 30 to 40 guest ranches in the West.

“They’ll get to see it the way it was in the 1880s.”

Old Yella got its name from a saloon at the ranch, which Walters said was a freighter’s stop.

No vehicles will be allowed at the ranch and modern trappings will be kept to a minimum.

“If you move around on the ranch, you have to do it on a horse, on a wagon or on foot,” Walter said. “And if you don’t know how to ride a horse, we will teach you that.”

The Walters plan to build a Western town along a main street, starting with a 1927 post office, an old library and a corral built in the 1890s. The couple intends to build a church and a saloon that will double as mess hall and dance hall and eventually build 18 bunkhouses.

The plan is for six bunkhouses, or cabins, to open by early summer. Up to four people can stay in each cabin, which will be assembled from a kit. Each cabin will have a front porch and a bathroom.

And the Walters plan to start construction immediately on their own ranchhouse at the end of town.

For the Walters, the ranch is a dream of a lifetime.

“We want to preserve the history of the state and instill in people some of the old Western values,” Walters said. “I intend to be planted right here.”

County planner Trevor Lloyd told the planning commission he could find no negative aspect to the project after visiting Vya two weeks ago.

“It’s spectacular. It’s really remote,” Lloyd said. “There’s rolling hills and incredible outcroppings. It’s pretty magical.”

Planning director Adrian Freund said the project ties nicely with the county commission’s goal of diversifying tourism by emphasizing the region’s outdoor attractions.

The only thing in the way of the project was a proposed condition on a county special use permit. The ranch was to turn over its water rights to the county for water service and the terms were to be negotiated later.

But the county is not providing water. In fact, the ranch will continue providing water and gravel to the county’s road crew as it has for years, Walters said.

So against the advice of staff, the planning commission deleted the condition.

“We’re looking a gift horse in the mouth,” said Commissioner Stephen Rogers.  

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