Empire Ranch
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Empire Ranch
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The Empire Ranch headquarters.
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| Location | Las Cienegas, Arizona, United States |
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| Coordinates | 31°47′07″N 110°38′32″W / 31.78528°N 110.64222°WCoordinates: 31°47′07″N 110°38′32″W / 31.78528°N 110.64222°W |
| Built | c.1871 |
| NRHP Reference # | 75000354 |
| Added to NRHP | 1976 |
Empire Ranch is a working cattle ranch in southeastern Pima County, Arizona, that was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. In its heyday, Empire Ranch was one of the largest in Arizona, with a range spanning over 180 miles, and its owner, Walter L. Vail, was an important figure in the establishment of southern Arizona's cattle industry.
Empire Ranch is located on the eastern slope of the Santa Rita Mountains in Cienega Valley, fifty-two miles southeast of Tucson and about ten miles north of Sonoita. The property overlooks a shallow depression called Empire Gulch, through which a spring-fed rivlet bordered by cottonwoods courses eastward to Cienega Creek. The surrounding meadows are "thickly covered" with sacaton and salt grass. Tucson businessman Edward Nye Fish first occupied the site of the ranch in 1871, but it is uncertain whether or not he built the original four-room adobe house and corral, which may have already been there when he arrived.
On August 22, 1876, an Easterner named Walter L. Vail and his English business partner, Herbert R. Hislop, purchased Empire Ranch and its 612 head of cattle from Fish and his partner, Simon Silverberg, who had acquired the 160 acre tract only two months earlier from Fish's brother-in-law, William Wakefield, at a price of $500. Fish and Silverberg wanted $3,800 for the ranch and cattle; but to expedite the sale, they settled on a considerably lower price of $1,174. Vail and Hislop immediately began expanding their holdings in the area by acquiring new lands and improving the ranch's infrastructure. In its heyday, Empire controlled 180 square miles of rangeland between the Santa Rita, Rincon, Whetstone, and Huachuca Mountains.
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