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The Civilian Conservation Corps in Southern Arizona

American Memory Project, Cienega Watershed Partnership, The Voices of the Cienega Watershed, compiler 



Corkill, Gail Waechter and Sharon E. Hunt. Empire Ranch. Images of America. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2012. 

The Empire Ranch sits in the heart of the rolling grasslands and oak-studded foothills of Las Cienegas National Conservation Area in southeastern Arizona. Its remarkable history and the ranching way of life are told through the stories of the men, women, and children of the Empire, most notably the Vail, Boice, and Donaldson families.

Walter L. Vail and Herbert R. Hislop purchased the Empire Ranch homestead for $2,000 in 1876. The Vail family operated the ranch until 1928, turning it into a cattle ranching empire. From 1928 to 1975, the well-respected Boice family ran a vibrant Hereford operation on the Empire. The Donaldson family used innovative range management methods to continue the ranching legacy from 1975 to 2009.

Today, the ranch, under the management of the Bureau of Land Management, remains one of the oldest continuously working cattle ranches in the area.

Hunt, Sharon E. "The History of the La Posta Quemada Ranch, Vail, Arizona," The Smoke Signal, Tucson Corral of the Westerners, no. 82, 2007

The La Posta Quemada Ranch has been a working cattle ranch in Vail since the 1880s. It is currently located within Colossal Mountain Park.

Excerpt

Empire Ranch, 2012, Arcadia Publishing. Wrote chapters on the Vail family, on the children of the Empire Ranch, and on ranching traditions; collaborated on introduction; copyedited entire publication.