Keys Ranch Historic District: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Joshua Tree National Park, National Park Service

Koch, Kimball; Luellen, Mark; Provencher, Shaun

The Keys Ranch historic district is located approximately twenty miles from the park headquarters and visitor center in the town of Twentynine Palms. The landscape is comprised of two discontiguous sections and contains approximately 1,038 acres. The ranch is found on the west and southwest edges of an approximately 4.5 square mile cluster of large granite outcroppings and boulders called the Wonderland of Rocks. Small canyons along the southeastern face of this cluster create sheltered seasonal washes suited to ranching and homesteading in the Mojave desert environment. The Keys Ranch historic district contains three National Register Properties: the Desert Queen Ranch, Cow Camp, and the Barker Dam. The period of significance is from 1894 until Keys' death in 1969. The district is of local significance (Criteria A and B) for its association with the William F. Keys family and their influence in agriculture and industry (mining) in the Twentynine Palms region of the Mojave desert. The Keys Ranch Historic District contains a wide variety of features including a ranch house, ore milling facilities, ranching compounds, agricultural areas and five dams. Most of the structures built before William F. Keys occupied the ranch were subsequently removed or lost. Several historic landscape and structural features have been lost since Keys' death in 1969 at which time the National Park Service took over management of the ranch. Cow Camp is of local significance for its contribution to the "Cattleman's Empire" sub‑theme and for its association with William F. Keys and his agricultural and ranching influence in the Mojave desert. Located in a small canyon south of the Desert Queen Ranch, the area was first used in 1879 by the "McHaney Gang" to water cattle and provide a place to live. The canyon created a sheltered area for cattle to water and graze. Today the area contains the dam, a house ruin (chimney stack), watering trough, well, retaining wall and barbed wire fence. Keys used the area primarily as a grazing area with limited agricultural use. The Barker Dam is within a large canyon containing a water source that was easily dammed. Although other water impoundments existed, the first Barker Dam was built around 1902 replacing the Meyers Dam located further upstream. The dam still impounds water and is a hiking destination for visitors to the park. The Keys Ranch historic district, a rural vernacular landscape, retains integrity in the following landscape characteristics: natural systems and features, spatial organization, cluster arrangement, topography, vegetation, circulation, buildings and structures, cultural traditions, views and vistas and small scale features. The integrity of land use is the most severely compromised of the landscape characteristics. The associated features still convey the physical character of the ranch as it appeared during the Keys’ occupation. The ranch remains a vivid example of the ingenuity, work ethic and vision necessary to survive in the Mojave desert. The ranch's location in the desert, and its setting amongst the box canyons on the southwestern edge of the "Wonderland of Rocks", remains the same as when the Keys ranched the area. Materials, design, and workmanship retain their original vernacular qualities and are quite evident, represented by the carpentry, stonework, masonry, and metalwork of the buildings and structures throughout the ranch. The association of the ranch with Keys and his family is still apparent and realized through many of the physical attributes and personal items at the ranch. However, without Keys' active management of the land as a ranch, the land use has changed and no longer serves its original function. The loss of the ranching, agriculture, ore processing, and everyday domestic activities has diminished the feeling of the area as a working ranch.

Keys Ranch Historic District: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Joshua Tree National Park, National Park Service

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