The Frances C. and William P. Smallwood Foundation has awarded a $13,000 grant to the non-profit Friends of Dangberg Home Ranch to assist the organization in its work operating the Dangberg Home Ranch Historic Park.
The park, located just outside Minden’s western border, is operated by Friends of Dangberg Home Ranch, Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, in cooperation with the park’s owner, Douglas County. Information about membership and programming is at dangberghomeranch.org.
“We’ve been supporting the Friends of Dangberg and the historic park since 2012, when a little group of citizens decided it was worth preserving. The Smallwood Foundation trustees have always been pleased with its progress,” said Suzy Stockdale, a Minden resident and Smallwood Foundation chairman and trustee. “From that small start, they’ve accomplished some great things and we’re proud to support the work and the place.”
This is the seventh consecutive year the Friends of Dangberg has received a Smallwood Foundation grant. The gift will pay a significant part of the park’s core operating expenses, including telecommunications and staffing that supports visitor services, events, volunteer management and care of the park’s large artifact collection. A portion has also been added to a restoration fund that will pay for future projects.
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 annually awards grants to several non-profits and other organizations in Carson Valley.
“The Smallwood Foundation has always been one of our best cheerleaders, and we’re pleased that the organization’s accomplishments are worthy of such support,” said Mark Jensen, director of the Friends of Dangberg and the park’s curator.
Recent projects at the park have included a major landscaping project, with new sod and sprinklers installed in spring 2018, and shade trees planted in summer 2017. In addition to continuing the Dangberg Summer Festival of Music, History and Arts, the group is focused on funding several building restoration and repair projects, including work on the Dangberg ranch house.
The Dangberg Home Ranch Historic Park, located at 1450 Highway 88, just north of the Carson Valley Animal Hospital, is the 2012 and 2013 Reno-Tahoe Territory winner of the Nevada Commission on Tourism’s “Discover Your Nevada” contest. The site preserves the home of Heinrich F. Dangberg and his descendants, a prominent ranching family in Carson Valley history that founded Minden in 1905. The site includes eight historic structures built between 1857 and 1917, along with a collection of 39,000 artifacts, documents and photographs acquired and used by the Dangberg family. Programs include tours, exhibits, wedding rentals, and other public events. More information is at dangberghomeranch.org.