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Marge Prunty, matriarch of the Prunty Ranch

Marge Prunty
Marge Prunty, matriarch of the Prunty Ranch, lives in the home she moved into as a bride in 1952.  The home is one of the few buildings remaining at the old town-site of Charleston, Nevada along the Bruneau River.  It sits below a hill bearing crosses marking the graves of Marge’s husband of 48 years, Shorty Prunty and her oldest son Dick.  Her kitchen window looks out on the upper pastures where the yearling colts and saddle horses range.The Prunty Ranch is located 85 miles northeast of the nearest town, Elko, Nevada, and 25 miles from the nearest paved road.  Marge says the roads are snowed in, isolating the ranch, for about three months every winter.  Mail delivery comes twice a week in the good weather, but during the winter months mail is delivered at the state highway 25 miles away.  Snowmobile is often the only method of winter access to the ranch.  Marge loves her home and remains there even during those solitary months.

            The Prunty Ranch is well known for its herd of colorful 
Diamond A Desert horses,
numbering about 150 head, that were featured in the April and May, 2001 issues of Western Horseman Magazine.  They also run about 300 head of mother cows on National Forest and Bureau of Land Management permits and their own 1100 deeded acres.


            Marge was born on a ranch near Elko in 1926.  She married Shorty Prunty in 1948 and they worked on other ranches for a few years until they settled on his home place in 1952.  When her older son Dick started school, Marge taught at the one-room school in Charleston for two years.  She and her son and other students rode their horses to school.  Then she taught up to 22 students from first through eighth grades in a country school on the North Fork of the Humboldt River about 25 miles away. She talks happily of the seventeen years she spent teaching, first in the one-room schools and then in Elko. 

            Today, many changes have taken place in rural Nevada.  The thing Marge says she notices most is that where neighboring ranches once supported young families, they have now been bought by corporations and for the most part have no people living on them.  Granddaughter Becky, when mentioning the old town of Charleston, says, “We are Charleston.  We are all that’s left.” 

            Marge’s son Gary and her two college-age granddaughters Becky and Kyla take an active interest in the ranch and the Pruntys’ historic horse herd, although they do not live on the ranch at the present time.  Marge also retains a full-time hired man.  But she says being the boss of the ranch is a very hard job.  At 74 years old, Marge still loves to ride her favorite horse Ribbon and she uses a four-wheeler to haul salt, check her livestock and to check irrigation water.

            Marge says her main concern for the future is “the fear every old-timer, rancher, and stockman has for the future, maintaining their access to public grazing lands.”  Her land is bordered on the east by a wilderness area and on the north by lands controlled by the Elk Foundation.  She maintains that all the rules and restrictions imposed by people that are new to the land are often difficult to deal with and hopes they will not become prohibitive to her family’s way of life.

A version of this article by Lee Raine appeared in November, 2001 Western Horseman Magazine.

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  • Home
    • Web Site Design >
      • Privacy Policy
    • Links
  • Gear
    • Pistol River Saddlery
    • Cowboy Gear - Tips and Tricks: >
      • Three-Way Hobbling
      • Piggin' String
      • Stirrup Hobbles
      • Tying Your Rope Up
      • Buckaroo Scarf Knot
      • Cowboy Night Latch
      • Cut-away saddle pad
      • Center-firing your Cinch
      • Pack Saddle Latigo Safety Knot
      • Quick Keeper
      • Tire Changer Aid
      • Safety Tie-Up
      • No Roll Saddle Stand
    • Saddle Makers >
      • Wade Saddle History
      • Don Howe Working Cowboy Saddle Maker
      • Hamley and Co.
      • Bill Maupin
    • Spurs >
      • E.F. Blanchard Spurs >
        • How to tell authentic Blanchard spurs.
        • More Blanchard Spurs
      • Garcia Bits and Spurs
      • Amozoc Spurs
      • Prison Made Spurs
      • Adolph Bayers Spurs
  • Arts
    • Poetry >
      • Cowboy Poetry by Gary Vorhes
      • Charlotte Thompson Poetry
      • Mike Meaux Poetry
      • Audrey Hankins Poetry
      • Carole Jarvis Poetry
    • Rodeo Photos
    • Cowboy Photos
    • Horse Photos
    • Cattle Photos
    • Gear Photos
    • Dogs and Animals Photos
    • Reminders of the Past Photos
    • Windmill Photos
    • People Photos
    • Ready to Rodeo
    • Books by Dale Woolley
  • Horses
    • Diamond Z English Shire Horses
    • 5 Tips for Traveling
    • Harnessing A Team
    • The Dameles and the Curly Horse
    • Rounding Up Wild Horses
    • Extreme Horse Camping
    • First Pull on the Latigo
    • Twister Heller Starts a Colt
    • Cowboy Martingale
    • Cowboy Training Halter
    • Cowboy & Colt Clinic
    • Using the McCarty
    • Teach a Horse to Stand
    • Cowboy Draw Reins
    • War Knots >
      • Tying War Knots
    • Tail Knot for Pack Horses
    • Cavvy Marks
    • Deworming Your Horse
    • Safe Fall Trail Riding
    • Horse Remedies
    • Hormone Implant
    • How to buy a mule
  • Brands
    • Brands II
  • Chuckwagon
    • Dutch Ovens
    • Recipes
    • Sourdough >
      • Grant's Sourdough
    • Cowboy Coffee
  • Articles
    • Grubbing Hoe Ranch
    • Trevor and Emily Fuhriman
    • Land of Extremes
    • Jersey Valley Cattle Co
    • Diamond Tail Ranch
    • Gang Ranch of British Columbia
    • TS Ranch of Nevada
    • When the TS Ran a Wagon
    • IL Ranch
    • Basque Ranching
    • Crystal Rose Cow Dog College
    • Wyoming Honor Farm Inmate/Wild-Horse Program
    • Cowboy Etiquette
    • Arizona Trigger
    • Longhorn Cattle
  • Stories
    • For the Love of a Horse
    • Breakheart Station Master
    • Freighters Outbound
    • DK Cowboy Stories: A Prophet With Antlers
    • Ben's Trail
    • Spendin’ Time at Cow Camps
    • Slewfoot The Black Bear
    • Orphan Boy
    • Mooney's Stories - The Circle A Ranch of Nevada >
      • Cotton the Horse
      • Wigwam, the Wrangle Horse
      • Spanish Ranch 1
      • Spanish Ranch 2
      • Spanish Ranch 3
      • Spanish Ranch 4
      • Miss Beymer’s Boyfriend by Bill Mooney
      • Recollections by Bill Mooney
      • Branding out of a Rodear on the Spanish Ranch, Part 1
      • Branding out of a Rodear on the Spanish Ranch, Part 2
      • C Ranch
    • Wild Horse Casey >
      • ​A Dirty Ole Mustanger Like Me
    • Hero Cattle Dogs
    • Ranching Traditions
    • Life Lessons
    • Dave’s Summer Adventure
    • Fire-Proofing the Range
    • Cowboy Superstitions
    • Cowboy Humor
    • Portrait of a Cowboy >
      • Cowboy Obstricition
    • Tons of Silver
  • History
    • Fort Worth Stockyards
    • Horseshoe Ranch
    • Andrae - Marvel Nevada Oral Histories
    • Texas 6666 Ranch Historical Photos
    • Gerlach Cattle Company 1906
    • Cattle Roundup Photos
    • Cowboy Historic Photos
    • Sheepcamp
    • Comstock Lode
    • Pony Express
    • Horn Iron
    • Historic Sites
  • Cowboy Profiles
    • Victoria Jackson
    • Flying M Ranch Women's Team
    • In the Big Nevada Desert
    • Mike Laughlin, Cowboy
    • Bob Tanner
    • Bill Kane
    • Wally Blossom
    • Ian Tyson The Legend
    • Allie Bear
    • Marge Prunty
    • Bryan Neubert Cowboy Clinician
    • Rex Blackwell
    • Wiley Carroll - Legendary Hunter
  • Glossary
    • Horse Terms
    • Cattle Terms
    • The People & The Land
    • Saddles and Gear
    • Personal Gear
  • Cowboys of the World
    • Cowboys of the Dark Continent
    • Scrubber Running
    • The Day it Nearly All Ended
    • The Goring
    • Horse Breaking
    • Honduras
    • Mexico