Counting Sheep: One Families Story in the Use of Natural Resources in Nevada.

The story of conservation and agriculture in the State of Nevada is woven together from the perspective of one of the oldest Nevada ranching families over a period of 133 years in honor of 75 Years of Soil Erosion and Conservation: A Celebration of NRCS’s 75th Anniversary. The livestock industry is important to the history of Nevada and the west.  Sheep were found to be ideally suited with advantages over cattle because they could be moved over the rough, dry landscapes of the Great Basin without much effort.  Chauncey W. Griswold arrived in the Elko area in 1877 when he was ten.  Chauncey established what was to become one of Nevada’s significant ranching empires.  Morley Griswold, Chauncey’s son, was the 16^th Governor of Nevada. Gordon Griswold, another son, was the Director of the National Advisory Board Council to the U.S. Grazing Service, and carried on the family tradition in the sheep industry.  Gordon’s grandson (Douglas J Merkler) spent his adult life mapping and describing the mountains and rangelands as part of the NRCS soil survey program of Nevada that his family used as a resource for over 80 years.