Before there was the town of Doyle, the place was best known as a stage stop named Willow Ranch. The J.M. Stienberger operated Willow Ranch from 1879 to 1898 when they sold and moved to Reno.
The Lassen Advocate newspaper of October 17, 1889 published this description of Willow Ranch: “For the many years that the traveling public were wont to go between Susanville and Reno by stage, the foregoing title was a talisman to them for they knew, by experience or report—that a good meal and entertaining host and hostess, would make their stay there one to be remembered with pleasure. Mr. and Mrs. Stienberger did not, originally, perhaps to expect to combine a wayside inn with their farming enterprise, but as people who know of the pleasure of stopping with them insisted on being entertained whether or not they finally decided to do their best to entertain all who came, and well have they succeeded.
”Of course since the NCO Railroad has been completed northward from their place there has not been so much travel by teams, but still there is some.
”It’s not many years since their house stood by the roadside without foilage or green shrub to cheer and enliven the weary traveler, but now the dwelling lot is a graced by a front line of cork elm, maple and a variety of shade trees to lend an air of neatness and comfort to the whole place. This season, they have with the profits from their house and farm, built and added to their former house on such an extensive and substantial scale that they may now feel that in the years to come they may enjoy as comfortable and convenient a home as anyone in the county.”