Granite Creek Station

The Granite Creek Ranch is located on Highway 34, about 5 miles from Gerlach(Wheeler) at the mouth of Bowen Canyon. At one time, Granite Creek Ranch was known as Granite Creek Station and Camp McKee. Granite Creek Station was established in 1864. In March, 1865, an Indian and three whites were murdered at Granite Creek Station. Litch abandoned the station in 1867.

External Resources

• GNIS: Old Granite Creek Station (historical) Map
  • Citation: "Original township survey plats, published in the 1800's. 1895"
  • Alternate: Camp McKee, "'Nevada': 1881, scale 1 inch=24 miles. A photocopy with no additional information available, Nevada Historical Society document."
• Albert C. Peale, M. D., "List and Analyses of Mineral Springs of the Unites States, p. 326, 1886. "Granite Creek Hot Spring, near Alkali Lake, north of Granite Creek Desert, Humboldt County." (Not sure of the location.)
• Helen S. Carlson, "Nevada Place Names: A Geographical Dictionary," p. 126
  • Granite Creek Desert, between the Smoke Creek Desert and the Black Rock Desert (NK 10-11)
  • Granite Creek named an early station on the Honey Lake Road where two people were killed in March, 1865 (SPD p. 165)
  • Granite Creek: A post office in Roop County: July 13, 1866 - August 6, 1867 (FTM p. 12)
  • Granite Creek: A mining district named by James Raser and James D. Murray. The name was changed to Donnelly District in August 1902. (DM)
• Myron Angel, David F. Myrick, "Reproduction of Thompson and West's History of Nevada, 1881," (1881, 1958) p. 170. George Thayer and Lucius Arcularius killed. Also, a report of Captain Wells killing 32 Indians at Mud Lake Winnemucca Lake on the same day (March 14).
  • Pioneer Reminisces," Surprise Valley Record, Cedarville, July 25, 1928. "In the spring of ’65, George Thayer brought mail into Surprise, charging $1.00 for each letter and 50 cents for a paper. Later Thayer was killed by Indians at Express Springs, located between Tule Dad Canyon and Painter Flat." Note that "Tule Dad Canyon is probably known today as Tuledad Valley. Express Spring is located in California, just over the Nevada line (near Buckhorn?)
  • F. S. Cook, History of Modoc County," Thayer was murdered and scalped on the Madeline Plains. Madeline Plains, CA is near Tuledad valley
• Asa Merrill Fairfield, "Fairfield's Pioneer History of Lassen County, California." (1916)
  • p. 368. "The Murder of Lucius Arcularius"
    • "During the winter of 1864-65, the Granite Creek Station on the road between Shaffer's and the Humboldt River was owned by Andrew Litch ... and Lucius Arcularius"
    • Lucius Arcularius was murdered near March 1, 1864 near Wall Spring. After finding his body, the search party went back to Granite Creek station "and fixed up a box and came back and buried him."
    • Find-A-Grave, "Edward Arcularius," "Lucius ARCULARIUS, born 1838 (1850 Census - Hampton Twp). Family legend says that Lucius went out to California for the Gold Rush in the late 1840s, wrote home saying that he had found gold, and was never heard from again. However, since he was born in 1838 according to the 1850 Census (living in Hampton CO), it's unlikely. Or he'd have to have gone around the mid-1850s, pretty late in the game."
    • "A History of the State of Nevada: Its Resources and People," (1904) p. 290 states that on the same night that Lucius Arcularius was killed that two other men (George Thayer and an unknown man were killed on the Honey Lake Road.
    • "A History of the State of Nevada: Its Resources and People," (1904) p. 425. Description of Andrew Litch, who established Granite Station in 1864. Note that Lucius Arcularius is possibly misspelled as "Lucius Archelaus (sic)"
  • Fairfield, "Massacre at Granite Creek Station," p. 369. Excellent description of the murder of an Indian and the three whites killed: A. J. Curry, Cyrus Creele and Al Simmons.
• "The Deadliest Indian War in the West: The Snake Conflict, 1864-1868," (2007) p. 83. Description of the murders of Arcularius at Wall Spring Station and the murders at Granite Creek Station.
• Joe Blackwell, "Granite Ranch Gerlach" (Photo)
• Sessions S. Wheeler, "The Black Rock Desert," p 157. The Granite Ranch was bought by Louis Gerlach in the 1890s.
• Sessions S. Wheeler, "The Nevada Desert," (1971), p. 60 - p. 73. An excellent description of the murders at Granite Creek Station and Winnemucca Lake. Includes photos of the ruins of Granite Station.
• Theresa and little Joe Ugalde at Granite Ranch July 1941 (Photo)
• Joe Ugalde owned Granite Ranch for many years.
  • Residents buy town, August 16, 1975, Victoria Advocate. Joe Ugalde quoted.
• San Francisco Chronicle, "Death on the Desert" (from the Reno Journal), August 11, 1889, p. 12. Louis Dean reports the death of a L.H. Long from Roseburg, Oregon. Long died within two miles of Granite Station. "He had wandered back within site of the ranch - probably delirious, looking for water. The ground was torn and dug up in every direction."
• Granite Cove is listed on the 1894 Plat as being near "Old Granite Creek Station".
• A 1999 water rights filing by Bright Holland Corporation states that James Raser lived at Granite Cove near Granite Ranch in 1894 and patented the land under patent 7627 Proof Of Appropriation of Water for Irrigation, 1999.