Friends of Dangberg Home Ranch celebrate 10 years

The Frances C. and William P. Smallwood Foundation has awarded a $13,746 grant to Friends of Dangberg Home Ranch to assist the nonprofit in its work at the county-owned Dangberg Home Ranch Historic Park.

This is the 10th consecutive year that Friends of Dangberg Home Ranch has received a Smallwood Foundation grant. 

The group operates the public park in cooperation with Douglas County and celebrated its tenth anniversary this summer. In that decade, the Smallwood grants have made it possible for the Friends of Dangberg to raise more than $1 million for the facility's care, restoration, and public programming.

The Smallwood Foundation gift funds a significant part of the group's core operating expenses, paying for telecommunications and staffing that not only makes additional fundraising possible, but also supports visitor services, events, and care of an extensive and historic object, photograph and document collection.

"The Smallwood Foundation's support over the last decade has truly yielded results at the Dangberg Home Ranch," said Suzy Stockdale, a Minden resident and Smallwood Foundation trustee. "Friends of Dangberg has continually worked to improve the park and find ways to share it with all of us, and we're excited that the Smallwood grants are the foundation for the group's accomplishments."

The Frances C. and William P. Smallwood Foundation was established following the death of Mr. Smallwood in April 1968. A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Smallwood resided and worked in Dallas, where he was a co-founder of First Southwest Company, a prominent regional investment banking firm specializing in public finance, bond underwriting, and the raising of capital for developing regional companies.

The establishment of the foundation represented the culmination of the Smallwoods' lifelong support of a broad range of charitable organizations. In addition to the Friends of Dangberg, the foundation awards several grants to non-profits and other organizations in Carson Valley each year.

"Everything that Friends of Dangberg has accomplished over the years can be credited to the Smallwood Foundation's initial $3000 grant in 2012, and then its continued support," said Mark Jensen, Friends of Dangberg director. "Along with the help of our individual members and Douglas County, the grants have created many opportunities, particularly the pursuit of additional grants and sponsorships that make restoration work and public programming possible."

The Park is located at 1450 Highway 88, south of the roundabout with County Road. It preserves the home of H.F. Dangberg and his descendants, a prominent ranching family in Carson Valley history that founded Minden in 1906. The site includes eight historic structures built between 1857 and 1917, along with a large collection of artifacts, documents and photographs original to the home. More than 5000 visitors come to the park each year for guided tours and events.

Friends of Dangberg Home Ranch began caring for the park in 2011, when Nevada State Parks ended its management agreement with Douglas County. Since then, the group has directed more than $1.1 million to the park's development, supporting arts and culture programming, building maintenance and historic restoration, volunteer management, and professional services. Three dozen volunteers together contribute more than 3000 hours of assistance annually.

Highlights of the group's accomplishments include one-time and repeating grants from Douglas County, Nevada's Division of State Parks, E. L. Cord Foundation, Nevada Commission on Tourism, Nevada Arts Council, Nevada Humanities, Nevada's Commission for Community Centers and Historic Preservation and several family foundations.

Friends of Dangberg is currently focused on a major restoration and repair project funded in part by a $100,000 historic preservation grant.  The work involves interior restorations for a garage and carriage house, as well as the two brick gateway pillars designed by noted Nevada architect Frederick Delongchamps. The group still needs $20,000 of additional funding to complete the project, with more information and a donation link available at Dangberg.org.

The organization provides the park's visitor services, such as facilitating public access inside the ranch house and other buildings for tours and interpretive programs. In 2020, it funded interpretive signage for the park's buildings to help visitors understand and enjoy the Dangberg family story and the history of Carson Valley. 

Many come for the Dangberg Summer Festival, an annual presentation of several dozen arts, music and history events. In the last decade, staff and volunteers have served more than 37,000 visitors, including 10,000 tourists bringing money to local businesses.

Grants, community donations, and business support have helped complete several landscaping projects, including the planting of 16 young trees, a new sprinkler system, and 10,000 s.f. of new sod. The group has also finished several interior and exterior restoration and preservation projects for the park's buildings, all of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The continuing financial support of more than 600 individuals and businesses provides the foundation for these and other activities, particularly the professional management of thousands of historic artifacts, photographs and documents given to the county by the Dangberg family.

Friends of Dangberg is especially proud of the $95,000 that has been donated to create a permanent endowment dedicated to the park's future, established in 2016 and managed by the Community Foundation of Northern Nevada. An additional $50,000 donation to the endowment has been pledged by Park Cattle Co., the park's neighbor.

"We're eagerly seeking patrons with a love of American history to help build the endowment and thereby ensure the park's future," Jensen said.