Welcome to Gardner's Ranch
(elevation 4667')
Nevada State Historical Marker No. 194
Welcome to the site of the Ranch once owned and operated by Matthew C. Gardner. Depsite local legends, however, he is NOT the nameskae of Gardnerville to the south. Gardnerville is named for John and Mary Gardner, who sold a portion of their Carson Valley ranch to Leander S. Ezell on November 28, 1877 and to Lawrence Gilman on April 5, 1879, and not after M. C. Gardner.
Nonetheless, Matthew C. Gardner was a prominent Nevadan. According to his obituary in the Carson City News (June 3, 1908), the Arkansas native found his way to Carson City via California in 1861. Gardner's ranch on the southern outskirts of the capital city was among the largest in Eagle Valley. "He was a central figure in the logging and lumber industry of the early days, and traces of his work can still be seen from Carson City over the mountains to Tallac," wrote the News. Gardner's pallbearers included two former governors and a supreme court justice.
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Marker Text:
On this site in the period from ABCD until EFGH stood the ornate two-story home of Matthew Culbertson Gardner, rancher and lumberman. The residence was headquarters for Gardner’s 300-acre ranch in the meadows to the southward.
Here was located, 1870 to 1898, the Carson-Tahoe Lumber and Fluming Company large lumberyard here. During the 1870s and 1880s, Gardner logged south of Lake Tahoe for the company and built the only standard gauge logging railroad in the Tahoe Basin. He maintained his home here.
Gardner died in 1908. The residence was destroyed by a fire August 20, 1918. Many of the old trees on the ground once shaded the Gardner family.
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Fill in the missing marker text numbers to solve for the cache coordinates.
FINAL LOCATION:
N 39° 09.(F-C)(A+G)(H-E)
W 119° 46.D(B/2)(C-A)
The final location is not too far away. You can take brief walk or a tiny little drive.