1986 Map of Long Valley

About this map

Merrihew Ranch and several other family-held homesteads define the high plains landscape of Grant County during the mid-1980s. This survey of the Nebraska Sandhills reveals a pattern of isolated ranching operations connected by unimproved roads and trails across a series of parallel depressions including Long Valley and Anderson Valley. The presence of the Landing Strip near Bob Merrihew Ranch underscores the reliance on small-scale aviation for navigating this expansive terrain. Further south, the Lowe Ranch sits near the head of Gross Valley, illustrating how early settlers utilized the natural drainage basins for livestock and shelter. For genealogists and land historians, these specific ranch labels provide a precise record of late-20th-century land tenure in a region where few other landmarks exist, from the Burgess Ranch to the Minor-Adams Ranch on the eastern edge of the quadrangle.