{"nrhp_refnum":"75000174","name":"Keys Desert Queen Ranch","other_names":["McHaney Ranch","Bill Key's Ranch"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"SW of Twentynine Palms in Joshua Tree National Monument","address_restricted":false,"city":"Twentynine Palms","county":"San Bernardino County","state":"CA","lat":34.044548337000066,"lon":-116.1676686605248,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1975-10-30","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Agriculture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 160-acre ranch district southwest of Twentynine Palms in Joshua Tree National Monument, San Bernardino County, California. It holds the ranch buildings, dams, mining equipment and artifacts of Bill Keys, built on a site Bill McHaney began about 1894.","why_significant":"The ranch is argued to be of local historical significance in agriculture and mining. It reflects the career of William F. Keys, described as perhaps the most persistent rancher, farmer and miner in the high desert region. He ran livestock, grew fruit, built many dams to catch scarce rainfall, and prospected and mined, living a lifestyle more unusual than that of typical regional ranchers and miners.","narrative":"Keys' Desert Queen Ranch is a desert homestead complex southwest of Twentynine Palms, within Joshua Tree National Monument. It includes a two-story frame ranch house, a school house, a guest house, a tack house made from two cyanide tanks, an arrastra, an ore-loading hopper, a windmill, a cemetery, several dams and a large collection of mining and farm machinery. Bill McHaney began the ranch about 1894 with three adobe buildings, and only a fragment of his adobe barn survives. William F. Keys settled in the area after 1910, took over the ranch and built most of the wood-frame buildings from salvaged materials. He ran cattle and livestock, grew fruit, mined, and built dams to capture rainwater. He expanded the homestead from 80 to 240 acres, raised seven children there and arranged teaching on site. The ranch was listed for what it shows of ranching and mining life in the high desert between 1894 and 1969.","period_of_significance":"1894 - 1969","architect_builder":"Bill McHaney, William F. Keys","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Many structures are described as deteriorated, decayed or partly collapsed; the form checks the condition as deteriorated. The Keys-built buildings were flimsy, mostly unpainted and without foundations.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:32.273149-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/75000174.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75000174/57a3ac834d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75000174/57a3ac834d-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"Jarek Tuszyński","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Desert_Queen_Ranch_-_house.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Jarek Tuszyński</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Desert_Queen_Ranch_-_house.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123860768","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keys_Desert_Queen_Ranch","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14682963"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/san-bernardino-county/keys-desert-queen-ranch-75000174/"}