Walking Box Ranch Photograph Collection
The Walking Box Ranch is a 160-acre ranch in Searchlight, Nevada that was owned by silent film stars Rex Bell and Clara Bow from the 1930s through the 1940s. Rex Bell (née George Francis Beldam) purchased the ranch in 1931 from the Rock Springs Land and Cattle Company. The Walking Box Ranch name and cattle brand were inspired by a film making process and motif popular at the time: a box camera mounted on a tripod. The property served as a working cattle ranch, and Bow and Bell had a 5,000 square foot Spanish Revivial home built on the grounds. Rex Bell Jr. (née Rex Larbow Beldam) was born to Bell Sr. and Bow in 1934, and he grew up with his brother George (born in 1938) on the ranch until his parents separated in the mid-1940s. Bell Sr. sold the ranch to Karl “Cap” Weikal in 1951. Rex Bell Sr. went on to serve as Lieutenant Governor of Nevada from 1955 until his death in 1962. Rex Bell Jr. served as the Clark County Deputy District Attorney and also held one term as Lieutenant Governor. He died in 2011. Weikal continued to use Walking Box as a ranch until he sold the property in 1989 to Viceroy Gold Corporation, which used the property as an executive retreat. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) purchased the property in 2005. The ranch was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009 for its association with cattle ranching and its architectural significance.
The Walking Box Ranch Collection (1880-1979, bulk 1930-1945) contains digital images compiled by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Public Lands Institute. The collection consists of images of the Walking Box Ranch (Searchlight, Nevada), the Mojave Desert, and the Bell Family, consisting of American film stars Rex Bell, Clara Bow, and their children. There are also candid and professional photographs of Rex Bell and Clara Bow taken at various locations, some of which include friends and other family members, as well as a large number of unidentified film stills from Rex Bell movies. Images in this collection are from Bell family photograph albums and assorted prints, and were reformatted into digital images by the UNLV Public Lands Institute.
Sources:
Kiraly, Andrew. “Screen Test.” Desert Companion. Nevada Public Radio, April 13, 2013. https://knpr.org/desert-companion/screen-test.
Architectural Resources Group . “Walking Box Ranch Historical Overview and Context.” Bureau of Land Management. Accessed October 7, 2019. https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-office/projects/nepa/5201/13961/14062/06142010_WBR_Prelim_Draft_EA_Appendix_A_Hist_Overview.pdf.
Public Lands Institute. “Walking Box Ranch.” https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/pli_walking_box_ranch/. Accessed October 7, 2019. https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/pli_walking_box_ranch/.
Topics: Agriculture