In 1931, Hollywood silent film stars Clara Bow (aka "The It Girl") and Rex Bell bought a cattle ranch in the desert west of Searchlight, Nevada (area map) for a place to get away from it all and relax. They named it the Walking Box Ranch in reference to a box camera on a tripod, which in old-time Hollywood was referred to as a "walking box camera." The ranch logo is a stylized image of a walking box camera (above, upper-left). Bow and Bell lived here, raising two boys in the ranch house they built, until the mid-1940s when they moved to Las Vegas. Bow faded into history, while Bell went into politics and served as lieutenant governor of Nevada from 1955 until 1962. The ranch property changed ownership several times, was markedly upgraded by the Viceroy Gold Corporation for a field office and executive retreat, and is currently owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Link to documentary on YouTube about Clara Bow.

The site was a working cattle ranch from the 1890s to the 1980s. An old barn, corrals, water troughs, and other ranch features remain. In the 1990s, Viceroy Gold rehabilitated and remodeled the ranch house, replaced the bunkhouse, constructed tennis courts, and removed some older buildings. The site remains more-or-less unchanged since the Viceroy era.

A 40-acre parcel of the ranch (ranch map) was managed cooperatively by the BLM and the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, but now the BLM manages it. In addition, the surrounding lands are protected by Nature Conservancy conservation easements to maintain habitat for desert tortoises. In cooperation with the BLM, the Friends of Avi Kwa Ame help maintain the site and offer occasional tours.

The area is watched by a caretaker, and three law enforcement officers live on-site in travel trailers. The site is available for researchers, but otherwise it is closed to the public until the old buildings and facilities are restored and new research and housing facilities are built.

UPDATE: Photos and a bit of text from our 2012 Visit.