It just never ceases amaze me, how some folks settled in an isolated location, when there were prime property to be had. A case example was Frank Eben Horne. When Horne came to California he settled in the Marysville region. By the late 1860s, he relocated to the Smoke Creek Desert, Nevada. In 1870, Horne became one of the first settlers of the Madeline Plains. He kept his Smoke Creek for summer pasture. Horne retired from his ranch in 1905 and turned it over to his sons. Actually, his son Will took over the home place, Arthur took Smoke Creek, and Frank, so the story got an education and moved on.
Will was quite the promoter. In 1914, he came of with a Russian Colony scheme. About three dozen Russian families arrived on the plains. After all, it was noted, if these Russians could make a living at farming in Siberia, than they could be really prosperous on the Madeline Plains. It did not work at well. Noted Madeline Plains historian, Don Garate, wrote the Russians were a lazy bunch.
One of the Horne’s family enterprises was the development of the Buckhorn Reservoir. In the annals of Madeline Plains history it was home to many irrigation/reclamation schemes. On March 28, 1917, Frank L. Horne, William R. Horne, and Arthur T. Horne, along with Raglan Tuttle and Grant M. Lorraine, formed the Horne Development Company–a promotion of a reclamation project. Things did not go as planned and on April 27, 1927, the Farmers & Merchants National Bank of Reno, Nevada, foreclosed on the Horne Development Company for $38,791.11 and became the owners of the Horne Ranch.
In the 1990s, the Horne Ranch had a new lease on life when it was incorporated in R.C. Robert’s Spanish Springs development. This and other properties were made available to guests, whether their interest was equestrian pursuits, hunting, etc.