By Arizona Cowboy Poets Assocation Committee 

Whoever named the Las Vegas Ranch knew what they were talking about. In Spanish, Las Vegas means "the meadows." At one time, the ranch extended from Williamson Valley west to Camp Wood and was known as the Otis and York Cattle Company. It covered many sections of the most beautiful land in northern Arizona.

Located seventeen miles northwest of Prescott, at an elevation of 4,600 to 5,100 feet, the Las Vegas sits at the very heart of Williamson Valley, in a sub-irrigated bottom with shallow and artesian wells. Water and grass are abundant with a wide variety of flora and fauna. 

The Pierce family purchased the ranch in 1959. Delbert Pierce eventually moved his family to Prescott in 1962 and began efforts to purchase ranches adjoining the original Las Vegas Ranch. In 1972 Steve Pierce graduated from the University of Arizona with a degree in animal science. After college, Steve married Joan Reed. He was ready to return to the ranch and continue the tradition of ranching. At that time, the Pierce family purchased the Seven V Ranch, an historic property where Harold Bell Wright worked as a cowboy and wrote the novel "When A Man's A Man." 

Steve and Joan moved into the original house built by Barney York on the Seven V Ranch and raised their family of three sons and a daughter. They still live in this house they've called home for the past 33 years. 

By 2004, through family business decisions, the ranch had evolved into the current location and boundaries. Steve's son, Nelson, has returned to the ranch to help continue the family heritage and continuing the Hereford tradition so familiar to their area. 

Records will show the first registered Herefords in Yavapai County grazed the pastures at "the meadow." Barney York purchased high quality animals from Albert K. Mitchell of the Tequesquite Ranch in New Mexico in the late 1920s. In the late 1970s, the Pierces decided to add some new blood to the herd with Carpenter-Williams cattle. Those cattle, with their inherent ability to grow and gain, plus good management practices brought to the ranch by Larry Stark, put the Las Vegas Ranch on the road to success. In the early 90s, Angus cattle were introduced due to demand from the buyers, and both breeds are raised on the ranch today. 

Currently the ranch runs a commercial Hereford/Angus cross herd, a registered Hereford herd, and a registered Angus herd. Hay is their only supplement. In winter months, about a half ton of hay per cow is fed. Their meadow hay is primarily native grass of Kentucky bluegrass with some western wheat, alkali sacaton, sedge, birds-foot trefoil and clover. 

The Pierces are among the few purebred breeders to follow their cattle through the feedlot. The commercial calves are sent to Hitch Feeders of Guyman, Oklahoma, and hung on the rail by the time they reach 16 months of age. The Pierces feel that the Hereford/ Angus cross has enabled them to be successful in this program. 

Las Vegas Ranch has been recipient of many awards for their cattle. Show cattle have been champions and reserve champions through the years, from the Arizona National to Denver's National Western Livestock Show. 

The ranch uses a sixty day breeding period and calves in both spring and fall. The cows are culled rigorously for non-performance. The American Hereford Association and American Angus Association are used for the registered herds and have been for over forty-eight years. 

In addition to their many honors in the cattle business, the Las Vegas Ranch has been a leader in protecting the environment and working in harmony with the land. The family tries to preserve and protect nature because they are aware that their future generations will depend upon the management of renewable resources. The Society for Range Management has awarded the "Range Managers of the Year" for Arizona to the Pierce family. In 2005, the Arizona Game and Fish Commission presented the ranch with the "Wildlife Habitat Stewardship Award". In 2006, the Fish and Wildlife Agency awarded to Las Vegas Ranch the "National Private Lands Fish and Wildlife Stewardship Award," which represents all of the United States and Canada. 

Working to improve the land is not always an easy job. Mother Nature deals a difficult hand now and then. Weather patterns have changed drastically in recent years, and most of the area's moisture now comes in late winter and spring with drier summers. Consequently, the blue and black grama grass which once covered the hills is dying back for lack of moisture. The family has adapted to this hardship by pump irrigating about 400 acres with a very shallow lift. Irrigated land is mostly fescue with a sprinkling of orchard grass. Some of the smoother native meadowland produces three to four tons of hay each year. 

The Pierce family has worked hard in the cattle industry, and they are concerned about its future. Government intervention and private property rights are taking a toll on the ability of ranching to continue and to grow in the state of Arizona. Water Rights are a major issue in Yavapai County as they are elsewhere in the West. The right to lease public land from the U.S.Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the State of Arizona is being impeded by environmental agencies and groups who only recently are making an effort to understand what it has taken ranchers generations to ascertain. 

The Las Vegas Ranch will continue to be influential through the Arizona Cattle Grower's Association, the National Cattlemen's Association, Arizona Beef Council, U.S. Meat Export Federation, Society for Range Management and the Arizona Hereford Association. 

Today, the Pierce family owns and races a few quality quarter horses that have won recent futurities in Arizona.  In recent months a large portion of the ranch has been subdivided in order to settle family estates and aid in finding a way to maintain the growth of a herd that spans four generations in Williamson Valley. Steve Pierce has made a decision to run for an Arizona State Senate Seat in 2008 for Legislative District #1. In this way, he intends to work toward maintaining the culture and heritage of ranching in Arizona. 

Illustrating image
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(L.V. 2) Reuse only by permission.
The Pierces: Delbert Pierce, standing; on horseback from the left, Nelson with Walker, Steve, Tyler with Aiden and Steve II. 

Illustrating image
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(L.V. 1) Reuse only by permission.
The Reserve Grand Champion of the 1998 50th Arizona National Livestock Show.