Murder in the Desert Virtual Cache
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We have lived in Nevada for 40 years and are always interested in the history of our state. The coordinates take you to the location of the historical marker for the Kyle (Kiel) Ranch. The history of this site is very interesting:
In the late 1800's there were only two major ranches in the Las Vegas valley. The 240 acre Kiel Ranch, established by Conrad Kiel in 1875 and a ranch owned by Octavious Decatur Gass. In 1881, Gass defaulted on a $5,000 loan to Pioche rancher/businesman Arichibald Stewart who took posession of the ranch and named it the Stewart Ranch. Arichibald Stewart moved his children and wife, Helen, to the ranch in 1882. In 1884, one of the Stewart's ranch hands, Schuyler Henry, quit and went to work at the Kiel Ranch. Several versions of this story have been told with the generally accepted one being that Archibald Stewart was out of town and Schuyler Henry approached Helen Stewart for his severance pay. For whatever reason, the story goes that Henry offended Helen in some manner. When Archibal returned home on the morning of July 13th, Helen told him about Henry. Stewart saddled his horse and rode for the Kiel Ranch. He tied his horse to some grapevines and crept toward the Kiel place on foot. Henry saw Archibald from inside the ranch house and grabbed a shotgun. No words were excanged. Stewart opened fire, grazing Henry's arm. Henry fired striking Stewart in the chest just as Stewart fired hitting Henry in the hip. Henry then shot Stewart in the head killing him. It is thought that there was animosity between the Kiel's and the Stewart's because Conrad Kiel and O.D. Gass were good friends and Kiel resented the Stewart's acquisition of the ranch Gass had once owned. Conrad Kiel had not been at the ranch during the gunfight having an alibi that placed him some 55 miles away in El Dorado Canyon. When he returned accompanied by a gunfighter named Hank Parish, he sent a "terse" note to Helen Stewart telling her, "Mrs. Sturd, send a team and take Mr. Sturd away--he is dead." Helen rode over and retrieved her husbands body and buried him on the Stewart Ranch. Helen forever believed that Archibald's murder was a conspiracy by Henry, Kiel and Parish. Henry's account was a matter of self defense and with no witnesses from the Stewart camp, a grand jury declined to press a charge for murder. After the murder of her husband, Helen made up her mind to remain at her Las Vegas ranch and run it on her own. She refused to ever again communicate directly with Conrad Kiel and conducted all transactions instead through his son, Edwin, until the old man's death in 1894. Then on October 11, 1900, both of Conrad Kiel's sons were found dead at the Kiel Ranch. Coincidentally, the bodies were found by Helen's foreman and her son Will. Edwin Kiel was found on the kitchen floor with a pistol near his right hand and a gun shot wound to the head. William Kiel was found lying partially submerged in an irrigation ditch about 30 feet away from the house with an unloaded and unfired shotgun at his feet and shotgun wounds to the head and left arm. The original jury report concluded that Edwin Kiel had an entry would above the right eye. William Kiel had sustained several injuries including a shotgun wound to the left arm between the elbow and wrist, a second that passed through the trunk, and a thrid that lodged in the head near the left eye. There was speculation at this time that Archibald Stewart's son Hiram had sought revenge on the kiel brothers for their possible involvement in the death of his father on the Kiel Ranch in 1884. Due to the wounds and powder burns on Edwin's body and the location of the guns, it was decided that Edwin had killed William and then in remorse killed himself...a murder/suicide. But our story doesn't end here. In 1975 the historic family cemetery located on the Kiel Ranch was excavated as part of the acquisition of the land by the City of North Las Vegas. It was determined that the land the cemetery was located was going to be impacted and therefore the bodies should be exhumed and eventually reinterred on city-owned land. The bodies were exhumed and the UNLV Forensics Lab provided a detailed analysis of the wounds and cause of death. Their examination revealed that one of the shotgun wounds was to the left lower arm shattering the ulna and radius, perhaps as he threw up his arm in defense. The second shotgun wound struck the head from a different angle than the first, indicating that this was a murder maybe by more than one individual and with at least two different weapons.
In the early 1970's several structures in various states of disrepair were present on this site including the Park Mansion. AkitaMom was lucky enough to have been able to walk the grounds and visit the structures and grave sites. The Park Mansion burnt to the ground in 1992 and about the only thing left are the springs and a small adobe building that is said to be the second oldest structure in Southern Nevada. A charity was formed-Friends of Kiel Ranch-to raise funds for restoration and their web site describes quite an ambitious plan by the City of North Las Vegas, but very little progress is visible. We are always amazed that huge, glitzy mega resorts spring up like weeds, while the rich history of our state is largely left to decay...
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