The coolest thing of all is this antique well drilling rig. The rig was probably an antique already when it was used at the ranch to drill several artesian wells to supply water for irrigation. The ranch appears to have operated in the 1940’s.

There are 7 buildings on the site, including a main house, several smaller homes, and storage buildings. Except for the main house, all of the buildings are constructed from stacked railroad ties that were covered on the inside with paneling and on the outside with siding. (Somebody must have made a killer buy on RR ties when the railroad tore out a line somewhere!)

On the shores of a dry lake in a very remote area on the East side of Pyramid lake is a cool site we just sort of stumbled upon while out exploring.  The Bonham Ranch has been pretty well stripped and is starting to decay, but there are still a lot of cool things to be seen here.

Several of the wells are still flowing today, making this an oasis in what is otherwise a parched part of Nevada. Here, Andy inspects one of the wells. This water comes out of this one well at about 97 degrees and has obviously been improved to serve as a soaking pool. (More pics on our hot springs page) The other wells are all lukewarm to cold.

A newer addition to the main house has walls covered with sheetrock. Visitors using pieces of broken sheetrock as chalk have turned the remaining walls into a guestbook of sorts.

The writing on this old oil drum reads:
“The standard motor oil for cars, ZEROLENE, Standard Oil Company California”

The buildings are pretty trashed and
bullet-riddled inside. I was afraid to venture too far into this kitchen as it looked like the ceiling here was very close to collapsing.

Another one of the artesian wells. The wells all have a strong sulfur smell, the water gushing out uselessly into the desert. 
Well, not completely uselessly; hoards of small pupfish school around in the rivulets and in the large stock pond nearby. They must be tough little buggars to live in this highly mineralized water!

The dump behind the ranch is full of old riveted well casing and a variety of discarded equipment, including NUMEROUS water heaters. The water water here, though voluminous, is pretty heavy with dissolved minerals. It was no doubt hell on water heaters!

   A hot spring and lots of “stuff” to explore...the Bonham Ranch has now been added to our list of cool places!