Benjamin H. Yandell

1868-1913. Aged 45 years.

Excerpt from Draft Historic Resource Study

Death Valley Scotty Historic District

February, 2009

Prepared for the National Park Service

Researched and written by: Dewey Livingston

[Previous text covers Indian occupation, pioneer farm of Jacob Steininger, etc.]

"Jacob Steininger apparently satisfied the requirements of the Desert Land Act as amended, but the fact that his land had not been surveyed caused problems to later owners, as we shall see. But before he obtained any final decisions on his application, Steininger began a somewhat convoluted process of selling his property (and some that was not his) to others.

A rare document located in the files at the Inyo County Courthouse has filled a gap in the current historical record: a sale agreement dated July 18, 1904, wherein Steininger sold his two ranches to one J.R. Martin of Lida, Nevada, for $1,600.00, to be paid in installments. In the handwritten deed, Martin agreed to 'do all the work necessary to prove up on the lower ranch...[and] to care for &cultivate said ranches in a good and farmerlike manner.' These words raise the possibility that Steininger had not yet completed the improvements needed to 'prove up,' or satisfy the requirements for obtaining the final patent. Apparently, no substantial house, nor fencing to speak of, had been developed at the lower ranch by that time. Possibly, Steininger needed help in getting such work done, as he was about 67 years old at the time (127).

Nothing is known about J.R. Martin; the same can be said about whether he accomplished much at the Grapevine ranches. He did take up residence there, and it is evident that he defaulted on his payments to Steininger, who later complained about it. Six months after purchasing the property, on January 30, 1905, Martin sold the ranch 'formerly owned by Jacob Steininger' to Edgar A. Stout of Big Pine, Inyo County; Independence attourney Ben H. Yandell acted as witness. Stout and Yandell would soon be involved in the tangle of transactions that were to come (128).

While nothing is known about Edgar Stout, Ben Yandell left a legacy as a prominent and well-liked resident of Independence, the county seat of Inyo County. Born in Tennessee in 1868, Yandell was the son of Owens Valley pioneer William Wilson Yandell who had brought his family west in 1880. Ben Yandell taught school in Warm Springs near Bishop and, in 1894, came to Independence where he studied law and was admitted to the bar the following year. The City of Los Angeles employed Yandell as an attorney through the years that the city built the famous and controversial water aqueduct to transport Owens Valley water to that city, a period of development that stretched 1905 to 1913. Yandell was a landowner in the area, and his brothers John and W.W. worked, respectively, as the County Recorder and the County Assessor for many years. Yandell's local practice specialized in U.S. Land Office-related cases. Yandell and Stout obviously had some professional relationship, but the only signatures found on deeds illustrate their association. Yandell died at age 44 in 1913 (129).

On August 21, 1905 no doubt in response to J.R. Martin's default, Steininger appointed Ben Yandell as his representative to sell the two ranches, and to collect money owed to him from various parties, 'espeically J. R. Martin, of Grapevine...' On this document, Edgar A. Stout acted as witness. On september 1 of the same year [1905] Martin sold the same parcels he had recently sold to Stout  back to Steininger (130).

Steininger did not return to reside in Grapevine Canyon. Yandell, acting as Steininger's representative and well aware of the value of the property for its water and development potential, hired a Mr. Dunham to watch the place. By Christmas of 1905, Yandell decided to end the arrangement with Mr. Dunham, writing he would 'rather take a chance on getting rid of any body that goes in and jumps the place.' But Yandell then leased the farm again to Dunham and his wife during the year 1906. Late that year, 'Old Man' Dunham made and arrangement with Greek-born Tomas (Thomas) Argentos and his nephew (or cousin) Spiros to take charge 'for Mr. Steininger,' according to later testimony by Spiros Argentos. Three others joined the partnership, including John Bogonalis and Peter Preanos, and the group worked both the upper and lower ranches. 'We were all equally interested in conducting the Steininger Ranch,' Bogonalis later testified, 'and receiving the profits from it.' Argentos and his companions planted watermelon, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers 'and everything in the vegetable line.' They cultivated some 200 grapevines that Steininger had planted 15 years earlier, and also tended an alfalfa patch that yielded nine tons during the year from three cuttings. The upper farm was fenced with two wires on posts 12 feet apart, and irrigated with spring water. The group sold their produce in Goldfield, a booming mining town at the time (131).

At the end of 1906 Steininger, whose place of residence at the time is unknown, received the patent for the Grapevine Springs portion of this ranches.One day after the patent was confirmed, on December 27, 1906, Steininger sold for $500 a one-half undivided interest in both his properties, including water rights, to Ben H. Yandell, with E.A. Stout once again as witness. The following April 15 [1907], Steininger and Yandell entered a 30-day lease with Tomas Argentos to protect the property 'from the encroachments and claims of others, and [to] use his best efforts to improve and cultivate the same....' Three days later, Steininger sold the remainter of his interest in the two ranches to Yandell, for another $500. The deed is the first to note Steininger's 'possessory claims or right' to the upper ranch (132).

No doubt at the urging of the new owner, Steininger filed a Notice of Water Appropriation on April 20, 1907, claiming all the water at 'Steininger's springs' located about 150 feet from Steininger's house at the Grapevine Ranch. The notice laid claim to the water for all purposes, but 'particularly for agricultural purpose.' Steininger state his intention, although he apparently had already accomplished such, to divert the water 'by means of dams and ditches, and convey it to the place of intended use by means of a ditch 3 feet wide on top and 2 feet deep and having a grade or fall of at least 1/2 inch to the rod.' The notice stated that Steininger had been appropriating water for more then 15 years. He also located the waters of the lower Grapevine Ranch, also for mainly agricultural purposes. The notices had been recorded at the request of Ben Yandell, the latter to replace a lost notice dated September 1903 (133).

So ended the occupation and ownership by Jacob Steininger at his Grapevine ranches. No record has been found of where Steininger went or how long he lived. Steininger left Death Valley by 1905, when the survey team noted the place as being apparently abandoned and Yandell had hired a man to watch the place. Steininger may have lived the next two years in the Owens Valley vicinity, as he was in official contact with Yandell and others during that period. the last record bearing his name was signed in April 1907; he was 69 or 70 years old at the time of this final official transaction (134).

Jacob Steininger played all the parts of a legendary Death Valley pioneer, being a prospector, a loner and a survivor. The fact that he farmed his land in this otherwise intensely dry landscape places him in that rare category of Death Valley agriculturalist; the only others were at the farm at Furnace Creek and the small operations of Hungry Bill and others in Johnson Canyon. Steininger grew grapes, watermelon, figs, other fruits and vegetables, and alfalfa, was apparently self sufficient and probably provided produce to an unknown number of miners, prospectors and passersby. Steininger, despite the relatively sparse record of his activities, has proven to be an important early figure in Death Valley history; his labors laid the groundowork for the subsequent development of Scotty's Castle.

THE GRAPEVINES RANCHES AFTER STEININGER

The period of transition between Jacob Steininger and Ben Yandell's ownership provided to be a busy time at the Grapevine ranches. Mr. Dunham had moved on, the partnership of Greek farmers developed the farm into a business, and one J.H. Davis and his wife claimed and moved onto the property immediately east of the upper ranch. A number of disputes arouse immediately upon the commencement of Yandell's ownership, some involving land rights and others that led to two deaths, one a notorious murder.

Yandell having obtained full title to the Steininger properties in April 1907, continued to lease the property to Thomas Argentos and his cohorts, allowing them to continue their farming business. The arrangement between Yandell and Argentos was complicated that July by the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Davis who set up residence a mile or less from Steininger's old upper ranch, at a location known as the Indian Ranch. Davis claimed the parcel but allowed Tom and Spiros Argentos to keep the watermelons and onions that apparently grew on part of the parcel Davis had claimed. By that time the Argentos group had found some success in their farming endeavor, having sold $500 worth of crops in Goldfield, including onions and hay worth $80 (135).

As soon as he heard of the new resident in the canyon, Yandell wrote to the Davises claiming that he owned the land they had settled on and asked them to vacate. the Davises' attorney, Clay Tallman of Rhyolite, responded with a letter stating that Yandell had no right to the upper Grapevine Ranch:

'Mr. Davis took possession of this ground when it was absolutely unoccupied by any body and wholly abandoned and hadbeen for several months prior to Mr. Davis's occupancy. So far as we have been able to ascertain, none of the gound which Mr. Davis occupies has ever been patented, and, therefore, open to occupation, wherefore...with our present information we must necessarily refuse to remove, and will state further that we fully intend to protect our rights in the premises(136).'

The Davises were correct: the only land that Jacob Steininger had actually obtained through a legal patent was the lower ranch. Steininger claimed the upper ranch purely out of longtime possession, but nothing had been recorded other that the water rights that had been finalized in April 1907. Nonetheless, Yandell sued the Davises for ejectment in Superior Court and was apparently successful.

MURDER AT SCOTTY'S CAMP

Newspapers in eastern California and Nevada reported a murder at Grapevine Springs in July 1907, and the following investigation and trials riveted local residents for almost a year. Tomas (referred to as Thomas in subsequent accounts) Argentos allegedly murdered John Pavlovich of Goldfield, Nevada and left his body near the site of the later Scotty's ranch house. A trial resulted in a murder conviction and life imprisonment for Argentos, and apparently ended the period of farming the ranch by Greek immigrants.

A business deal concerning some mining claims in Death Valley set the stage for the events to follow. At some point prior to April 1907, Argentos owned more than 20 mining claims in the ubehebe and Grrapevine districts. He sold his interests in the latter district, including the Calumet, Omaha #1 & 2, Nashua #1 & 2, Argus and Athens mines (the last two located near Stovepipe Wells), for $160 to W. W. Wetterson and White Smith on April 12, 2007. On June 10 Argentos sold an undivided 1/2 interest in 18 mines in the Ubehebe Mining District, to John L. Pavlovich, a Serbian immigrant living and working in Goldfield (137).

According to newspaper accounts, after Argentos had been arrested for horse theft and jailed i Tonopah, he convinced Pavlovich to post a bond for his release in return for a larger share in the mines they jointly owned. Argentos then took Pavlovich on a trip to inspect the mining claims at Ubehebe; the article insinuated that Pavlovich was wary of being 'swindled' by Argentos. After renting a horse and 'light rig' at Bonnie Clare on July 6, the two headed down Grapevine Canyon; Argentos later returned with the buggy but without Pavlovich and no explanation for his absence. [Other accounts stated that the buggy originated at the Grapevine Ranch and Argentos returned through Bonnie Clare on foot.] Soon Argentos found himself jailed again for threatening a man's life in Bonnie Clare, for which he was sentenced to six months in jail at Tonopah (138).

Meanwhile, a prospector named Gallagher found a decomposed body, wrapped in a blanket and with two bullet holes in the head, at the lower Steininger Ranch in the vicinity of a stone house and reservoir. Relatives, suspicious of the disappearance of Pavlovich, traveled to the site and identified the body as his; authorities followed, recovered the body, and began an investigation. Newspapers reported the unfolding events day by day, alwasy pointing to Argentos as the suspect. Accounts of 'all manner of desperados' occupying the Steininger Ranch surfaced. Argentos was charged by the Goldfield newspaper as a 'fraud,' who 'worked everyone in Tonopah, Columbia and Goldfield...' The paper claimed that Argentos had sold the Steininger Ranch to a cousin even though he did not own it (the reporter claimed that Mr. Davis owned the ranch), and one account spelled out the alleged misdeeds of a 'gang' that had occupied the lower ranch during the previous year:

'[Esmeralda County] Constable [Claude] Inman unhesitatingly states that there is an organized gang of thieves and murderers that makes its headquarters in the locality where the body of Pavlovich was found. An old prospector, who has been there, states that the band consists of two Indians, three greasers, and enough white outlaws to make up a party of ten or eleven men. Some of these are known and wanted for various offenses...Some of this band of outlaws are wanted for postoffice robberies and others for murders in the southwest, and many prospectors have gone to that locality and disappeared there (139)'

The article went on to state that the ranch provided a 'perfect stronghold' due to the constructed and natural battlements and availablilty of water; the outlaws rustled cattle at nearby settlements and would likely have held them in the hidden upper pastures of the Grapevine Springs mesa.

Argentos was taken to Independence for two trials, also reported regularly in the local newspapers. The first trial, held at the Inyo Count Courthouse in December 1907, ended in a hung jury. A second jury brought a conviction for first-degree murder in February 1908; Argentos was sentenced to a life term in state prison (140).

Description of the Steininger Ranch as of July 1907

Transcripts of the 1907-1908 Argentos court case provided accounts of the physical conditions at the upper and lower Grapevine ranches near the time of Steininger's departure. These descriptions provide a foundation for the physical history of the sites and may aid in the understanding of the evolution of the resources at what would become Death Valley Ranch.

As of July 1907, testimony referred to four distinct sites: 1) the Davis place or Indian Ranch, located between 1/2 and one mile east of 2) the upper Steininger Ranch at Grapevine Canyon, current location of Scotty's Castle; 3) the lower Grapevine Ranch, current location of Scotty's Ranch house; and Scotty's Camp, about a mile north of the lower ranch (141).

The Davis Place

A few mentions of the Davis house did not provide any description other than it being 'a tent shack' located on a former 'Indian Ranch,' but left the impression that the dwelling was located near today's spring developments of Scotty's Castle, on the road towards Bonnie Clare. This location would have provided Mr. and Mrs. Davis with ample water. It does not appear to be the location today known as Indian Camp. Davis had a mule, housed in a stable with a corral, and a reservoir below the house. There were small gardens at the Davis place;the men living there traveled downstream to tend most of the fruit and vegetables (142).

The presence of Davis to the east caused some confusion in interpreting the testimony; some accounts tend to refer to the Davis place as the 'upper' and Steininger's as the 'lower', while other testimony clearly defines the upper and lower ranches as those understood to this day, with Davis located above the current-day upper ranch.

Steininger's Upper Grapevine Ranch  

Various parties stated that a house (called a shanty by one man) stood near a large willow tree. The house was located about 60 feet from the water source. There was no corral, leaving the men to tie their horses under the trees. Watermelons grew in the garden, and one man noted a pasture, and another spoke of tomatoes, onions and cucumbers. A sketch map, produced as Exhibit E in the court case, showed the layout of the upper ranch gardens and, although difficult to decipher, denoted the locations of the grapes, melons and other fruit, alfalfa, pasture and wheat, with fences, ditches and a road passing through (143).

Lower Grapevine Ranch

A.R. McDonald described a house: 'it was a great large boulder there in the side of a hill [with] other rocks laid up around to make walls to the building and it had a tule roof over it with a wooden floor.' He continued, 'This rock house or cabin...did not have the appearance of anyone having lived there recently. There were no articles around, no stove, tables, or anything in it. There was a door. It was closed, just so it would swing back and forth, no latch on it.' Inyo County District Attorney William Dehy testified about an old camping place with 'just a little' water, trees and ' quite a thick undergrowth of brush and a short of wild grapevine;' the brush followed the stream until the latter disappeared. Remains of a rock house built into a natural rock formation can be found near Scotty's blacksmith shot today (144).

Scotty's Camp

The location was market 'Scotty's Camp' on a notice signed by a man named Sait or Bait, possibly Scotty's agent [or is it an illegible 'Scott'?], and nailed to a tree. Two stone cabins, that hadn't been 'kept up' were reported there although there is confusion on this point. No one lived there at the time, but people had been camping there recently. Dehy stated, 'There was an open place where one could camp and the water was close by.' The campsite consisted of 'some boxes and a piece of canvas and some brush thrown up as a kind of windbreak.' The camping ground was located behind a reservoir in a grove of trees. About 600 yards away from the camp, the springs' site was marked by 'trees, wild grapevines, grass, kind a jungle there.' The springs ran into a common channel that filled a reservoir held by a dam. Weds and willows grew in the reservoir, which overflowed due to an abundance of water. the road to Ubehebe passed close to the reservoir, which overflowed due to an abundance of water. The road to Ubehebe passed close to the reservoir. Dehy testified, 'At that place there was a little patch of alfalfa covering about...an acre with little patches of alfalfa scattered over it an a little stream of water' (145).

Yandell Estate and the Hunter Period

The record is practically empty concerning the years 1908-1916, other than a 1909 government report to travelers of an 'unlimited supply of good water' available in Grapevine Canyon (147) and the death of owner Ben Yandell in January 1913. Whether Yandell leased the property to others during the period before his death is unknown, although a hay and grain crop and a large number of chickens existed on the property as of 1916. he was busy with his Independence law practice and his work for the City of Los Angeles, as noted in this tribute posted in the Inyo Independent:

'No better example could be given of the high esteem and trust in which Mr. yandell is held in his home country than the absolute trust witch everyone had in him as an attorney for the Los Angeles Aqueduct. While there has been much bitterness between the people of the valley and Los Angeles, never was there any distrust about the actions of Mr. Yandell in dealing with these affairs. He was fair to the people here and fiar to Los Angeles' (148). 

The newspaper article also stated the following:

'Indians, who he had befriended, stood on the outside of the family home and wept, knowing that in his death they had lost a man who they could trust.'

Official records showed that Yandell's estate sold the lower ranch on September 12, 1917 to Beveridge Hunter of Independence and Fred M. Sayre of Los Angeles. There is little doubt that the two men were familiar with Ben Yandell: Hunter grew up in the Independence area, and his father's name appears on many of Yandell's documents as the Inyo County Recorder; Sayre worked for the City of Los Angeles on the aqueduct project.

Beveridge Porter Hunter was the namesake of his father's two partners in a successful mining venture. Known as Bev, he had been raised in the Owens Valley in a family guided by a man who had an intimate grasp of the doings in Inyo County. His father, William Lyle Hunter arrived in the Owens Valley vicinity some time in the 1860's and soon found success. He and his partners, John Beveridge and J. L. Porter, promoted the discovery of the Belmont Silver Mine in east Cerro Gordo, from which $1.5 million worth of silver ore was extracted. Hunter was also the first to locate copper deposits at Rose Springs in northern Death Valley, which he named the Ubehebe mining district. Hunter also ranched in the area long known as Hunter Mountain, and eventually settled on a large cattle ranch south of Independence. W.L. Hunter served as Inyo County Clerk and supervisor of Inyo County; he died in 1902 (149).

Hunter's son Beveridge was born in 1880. He took up ranching at a young age, riding cattle drives and eventually joining the Miller Brothers' 101 Ranch Wild West Show out of Oklahoma where he traveled the west as a champion bronc rider and steer roper. After leaving the circuit, Hunter and a partner brought hundereds of wild horses to the Owens Valley from their hunting grounds around Lida. Hunter and his wife, the former Ruth Willis whom he married in November 1913, operated cattle ranches around Inyo County, including in the northern Death Valley area and a mountain ranger near Lida in Esmeralda County, Nevada. Hunter no doubt had long known of the Grapevine Springs area, with its water supplies and livestock range, from his travels and his father's tries with Ben Yandell. However, the amount of development known to exist at Lower Vine during that period does not support its purported use as a headquartrs, with no corral or shipping structures (150).

Bev and Ruth Hunter apparently occupied the lower ranch for a short time during the Yandell tenure, perhaps under agreement with the latter. the Hunters reportedly used the ranch as their seasonal headquarters for the grazing operation that stretched north to the Lida area. No date has been found as to when they moved there. The Hunters built a small wood frame cabin at the foot of the cliffs on the eastern part of the lower Grapevine Ranch. They grazed their cattle on the mesa above the cabin during the winter, and moved them in the late spring to the Hunter Mountain Ranch where they occupied a log cabin (151).  

Albert M. Johnson later wrote that Hunter had never lived in this part of Death Valley until around 1916, when 'he built a cabin, or wooden shack, consisting of 12-foot boards placed upright and a board roof, about 8 x 12', and did a small amount of wire fencing upon the bench and down below and lived there about six months with his wife-during one spring and part of one summer.' The Hunters never lived there again but for many years 'kept a few horses and mules, 8 or 10 in number, running on the Lower Vine.' Although Johnson did not visit the area often enough to know all the facts about the Hunters, his local contacts probably provided him with such information (152).

Until 1917, no sign of legal ownership by the Hunters or Sayre appeared in official documents. At an unknown date, Ruth Hunter filed an affidavit stating that she had posted and intended to settle upon 160 acres (S 1/2 of NW 1/4 of SW 1/4 of Section 11) adjacent to and east of the lower Grapevine property. Mrs. Hunter's location claim was not recorded and was later invalidated (153).

A number of rather confusing transactions occurred in 1916 and 1917, some recorded officially and others lost to history."

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Benjamin H. Yandell

1868-1913. Aged 45 years.

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