The History

Introduction

The history of Kiley Ranch began in 1929, when Marian Louise McIlravy-Kiley and James Stead joined together to raise their boys, William and Croston Stead and L. David Kiley on their ranch in Spanish Springs Valley, Nevada. The two older boys went on to leave legacies in northern Nevada and now L. David Kiley is endeavoring to leave a legacy of his own with the creation of the Kiley Ranch Master Planned Community.

Kiley Ranch Communities and each guest builder within Kiley Ranch is responsible for maintaining the established vision of Kiley Ranch and ensuring a lasting legacy for northern Nevada. The Kiley Ranch Community will keep the feeling of the original ranch in its architecture, landscape and environmental graphics, with the inspiration coming from the Kiley Ranch family history, the ranch buildings and artifacts, as shown on these pages. The designs will be timeless, classic and with simple understated elegance and quality.

The Kiley Family

In 1929 Marian Kiley Stead moved from New York to Nevada with her three sons William, Croston and L. David. Shortly after arriving in the Silver State, Marian married James E. Stead and purchased land in the Spanish Springs Valley to form the roughly 2,000-acre Nevada Hereford Ranch.

The Nevada Hereford Ranch

Shortly after James and Marian Stead purchased the lands from Trosi and D'Andrea, they began the Nevada Hereford Ranch. The ranch specialized in raising show Herefords and hunting dogs. Both enterprises were successful and some of their bulls became quite valuable.

For a period of almost 30 years, Harold's Club leased and operated a Gun Club on the north-western boundary of the ranch. More recently, Lazy Five Company, a Kiley Ranch subsidiary, owned and operated the Gun Club which today is the Lazy Five Regional Park.

After WWII, the Nevada Hereford Ranch operated mainly as a cattle ranch. It was commonly known as the Stead Ranch. Operations included raising cattle, farming alfalfa, hay, potatoes and land management. In 1980, L. David and his son, David A., inherited the ranch. In 1998, the ranch name was changed to Kiley Ranch, LLC.

The Kiley Ranch Land History

The area where the old D'Andrea house sits was originally patented on December 27, 1888 by Richard E. Queen. Some of the property was patented to the Central Pacific Railroad on June 7, 1878. The present ranch was established by Mr. Hayden, and the water rights date back to 1864. A 1921 map of Truckee Meadows shows that Adelanea Trosi owned some parts of the ranch. In 1932, the ranch was purchased from the Trosi and D'Andrea families by William N. McIlravy, Marian and Jim Stead.

The Ranch Buildings

The Trosi Ranch House was purchased along with the land from the Trosi family and was known to the family as the White House. Marian, James and their boys called this their home. They raised hunting dogs, rabbits and chickens.

In 1932, William McIlravy, Marian's father, left cosmopolitan New York for the wilderness of the West. He purchased land in Nevada and built a large beautiful stone home from the resources of the land. Although he considered this his home, he often traveled back to his roots, New York.

The rustic bunkhouse is a charming wood frame house with split log cladding where the ranch hands resided during the operation of the ranch. Nearby is a brick building that served as the ranch kitchen.

William Stead and the Reno Air Races

In 1964, William Stead, a Nevada rancher and World Champion race driver of unlimited class motor boats came up with the idea to have the Reno Air Show. He worked with Reno businessmen for sponsorship of the races, including national aerobatics and balloon championships, skydiving competition and a performance by the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. Stead also arranged for ABC to cover the event.

For two years, the race was held at the Sky Ranch Airport, which had available a 2,000-foot dirt runway that pilots were reluctant to use. Once Reno's Stead Air Force Base was closed in 1966, it was renamed Stead Airfield, after William's brother, Croston Stead, and christened the site of the Reno National Air Race.

The Legacies

William and Croston, who took their stepfather's name (Stead), were raised on the ranch. Both boys had a taste for excitement and took an avid interest in airplanes. Their interest worked to the benefit of the community as William went on to establish the Reno Air Races. Croston served in WWII as a pilot and later served in the Nevada Air National Guard. His P-51 fighter crashed on December 11, 1949 at what is now called the Stead Air Force Base in his honor.

L. David Kiley, keeping his father's name (Kiley) called both New York and Nevada home while growing up. L. David attended Sparks Junior High School. He went to New York where he graduated from New York Military Academy in 1944 after which he served in the 99th Infantry Division in Europe during WWII. He returned to Nevada in 1946 to pursue his education at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he graduated in 1950 with a bachelor of science degree in Engineering. After college, L. David chose to plant roots in the open valley and rolling hills surrounding Kiley Ranch, never returning to live in the state of New York. Today, L. David Kiley creates a legacy with the Kiley Ranch Master Planned Community.