The Story

Bill Smith arrived in 1923 in a Model-T Ford and, with his brother Harry, drilled a well that supplied early homesteaders. The 2021 brochure also remembers Bill’s shower and pool as welcome places to cool off in the desert heat. After Bill married Thelma Mead in 1930, the couple developed Smith’s Ranch with an ice house, dairy, ice cream parlor, outdoor theater, recreation hall, and trailer park while raising six children.