A king's ransom - even if paid in precious gems - couldn't entice most residents to move from Ruby Valley, a 70-mile stretch of land with ranches strung out along a mountain range in eastern Nevada's high desert country.
Named after garnet stones that early settlers found here and mistook for rubies, the valley is home to about 250 people, 58 of whom are Latter-day Saints. To these residents, this valley is, indeed, a great treasure."It's pretty isolated out here, but Ruby Valley has everything anyone in his right mind would really want," said Ralph Vance as he drove a dusty pickup truck down a well-maintained highway past fields of hay in the process of being mowed.
A ranch manager who has lived and worked in New Mexico and various parts of Nevada, Vance is a newcomer to Ruby Valley. He and his wife, Deanna, and their four daughters moved here in 1986. He is trying to put down roots as an independent rancher. In May he was called as president of the Ruby Valley Branch, Eldo Nevada Stake.
Pres. Vance said living in Ruby Valley is like living "two or three generations in the past - and I mean that in the most positive of terms." He said people here seem to have high self-esteem, and part of that esteem comes from knowing each individual is an important member of the family and community. "We don't have to look for busywork to keep children occupied," he said. "Real work is all around. This is the perfect place to raise children."
As a newcomer, the branch president probably has the most impartial view of the valley; still his praise of its beauty, serenity, and neighborliness makes him sound like a one-man publicity campaign for the Ruby Valley Chamber of Commerce. But there is no chamber of commerce. There isn't even a town.
The structures that come closest to qualifying Ruby Valley as a "town" are a school, a church house, a highway maintenance station, a small post office and a "grocery shack" - all miles apart. The grocery shack is at one end of the valley, where there is a cluster of cabins occupied mostly by summer visitors, fishermen and hunters.
The nearest town is Wells, Nev., about 45 miles to the north of where the branch meetinghouse is located; Elko, Nev., is about 50 miles northwest.
In this "middle-of-nowhere" environment, the Ruby Valley Branch meetinghouse is the hub of much of the activity in the valley, for non-LDS residents as well as Church members. Some residents are Catholics, Presbyterians and members of other faiths, but the LDS meetinghouse is the only church structure in the valley. As such, the recently renovated and expanded meetinghouse draws people from all faiths to socials, wedding receptions and funerals.
"In addition to being used on Sundays, the building is used early every day of the week," said Pres. Vance. "We have the only indoor basketball court in the valley. In the winter, a lot of boys and men come to play basketball. Throughout the year, Relief Society sisters and other women in the community exercise several days a week in the cultural hall. The women also meet there for a sewing group."
The meetinghouse was instrumental in the beginning of the annual "Ruby Valley Days" celebration, which was begun last summer in conjunction with a branch open house. The celebration this year will be on Aug. 27. A 10-mile horse relay, foot races, cowboy poetry readings, a barbeque, a dance, and an entertainment program are planned.
"We had more than 200 people attend last year's Ruby Valley Days," said Paul Neff, who served as branch president for nine years. As word of the event spreads, members are gearing up for more visitors and participants from nearby valleys, and from Elko, Wells, and other Nevada towns.
Today, the Church has a strong presence in the valley, but that has not always been the case. The earliest LDS members were among those who were lured in 1913 from Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Colorado to buy lots on a 5,000-acre parcel that promoters hoped to build into a town, "Ruby City." A hotel, a store, a post office and two school houses were constructed, but the efforts to build the "city" died when settlers were unable to get sufficient water to maintain their town and surrounding farms, in addition to the existing ranches. In the ensuing years, the buildings of Ruby City have burned, been converted into homes or barns, dismantled, moved or reconstructed in a museum in Elko.
During the time the settlement was struggling to become a city, some members met unofficially for Church meetings in one of the school houses. When the city failed to catch hold, and most of the Mormon settlers were forced to sell out and move away, all Church meetings ceased.
The first authorized Sunday School was held in 1947 at the Emerson Neff ranch; the Ruby Valley Branch was organized in 1949. Neff and his wife, Beryl, had come to Ruby Valley in 1938. Beryl is a sister to Stan Watts, former BYU basketball coach, and the late LaVern Watts Parmley, a former general president of the Primary. A widow for the past five years, she recalled how she came to Ruby Valley:
"I was single and teaching school in Murray, Utah," she remembered. "During the last few weeks of school, I was very frustrated as I faced the pressures of giving final exams, grading papers, and preparing to close out my classes for the year, when Emerson said, `Marry me, and you'll never have to work again.'"
She believed him. They married that year and moved to Ruby Valley. During the haying season, she cooked three meals a day for 14 people. Keeping food on the table, it turned out, was more work than teaching school.
Her first impressions of the valley were dismal. "I thought I had come to the end of the earth," she said. "The land was barren, deserted, lonely. There were no paved roads, no electricity, no phones, and I had no relatives out here. I was from a family of 11, so I felt very lonely. There was no Church here then. The only thing to go to was a bridge club, and I didn't play bridge."
She began to feel at home in the valley with the births of her children, five sons and two daughters. The sons still live in the valley: David, John, Paul, Steve, and Wendell. Twenty-three of her grandchildren also live here. Family members say they live in "Neffada." With more than half the valley's LDS population coming from one family, the Church community could be divided into "Neffs" and "non-Neffs," but that doesn't seem to be the case.
"We're all like one big family," said Deanna Vance. "My family and I have felt at home from the time we arrived here two years ago. There is a closeness among the people here, not just among members of the Church and the Neffs but also among all the people of the valley. The women in the valley provide a good, strong support group. We are concerned about each other. If there is a problem, people just rally to help."
The cemetery behind the LDS meetinghouse is a reminder of the valley's rallying spirit. In 1981, the 2-year-old daughter of John and Kathleen Neff drowned. The valley had no cemetery, but when neighbors learned the parents wanted to bury their daughter in the valley, they formed a cemetery association almost overnight. Ruby Valley now has a cemetery, complete with a lawn, a sprinkling system, and an arch over the gate. Burial plots are available to all families.
Friends, neighbors and relatives come together not only in time of crises, but also for work and play. Cattle branding time often turns into social events, as neighboring ranchers gather to help each other and, after the branding is finished, share a supper, conversation and, at times, some form of impromptu entertainment.
Valley residents have little leisure time, but when they are able to pause from work, they know how to have fun. On some summer nights, for example, one can see lights flickering in hayfields as children and adults engage in flashlight wars. Players hide behind stacks of hay and try to reach home base without getting zapped by an opponent's beam.
Younger students attend a school in Ruby Valley, which has three teachers. In order for high school students to attend school, they must board with families in Elko. Cindy Neff, 18, and her brother, Jared, 16, said they actually miss being able to come home after school and work on the ranch. While high school students are anxious to return home, younger students seem to exhibit no desire to leave the valley.
Beryl Neff, who taught school in Ruby Valley from 1968-80, said one of the teachers assigned an essay to her young students. They were to write about any place in the world where they would like to go. One young boy wrote, "Why would I ever want to leave Ruby Valley?"
As one looks out across this peaceful valley, where cattle graze, and where the deer and antelope really do roam, one might ask, "Why, indeed?"
