China Ranch Date Farm a versatile destination

A verdant oasis hidden away in a secluded canyon, China Ranch Date Farm provides an excellent cool-season destination reached in about an hour and a half from Las Vegas. Open to the public, the privately owned ranch offers many kinds of experiences. People come to sample the dates and date products, hike in the scenic canyon nearby, bird watch and stargaze when they stay overnight at an on-site bed and breakfast inn.

China Ranch lies south of Shoshone, Calif., a portal community for Death Valley National Park. The farm's groves of dates fill a side canyon near the Amargosa River not far from Tecopa, Calif., known for its hot springs and mineral baths. Overall distance from Las Vegas is about 90 miles following a route that approximates the historic route of the Old Spanish Trail.

Follow Interstate 15 south to Highway 160, the Pahrump Highway, over Mountain Springs Summit and down into Pahrump Valley. Watch for the turnoff onto the Old Spanish Trail Highway toward Tecopa. Used by overland travelers before the arrival of railroads, this trail depended upon widely spaced water sources for livestock and pack animals. Just before you reach Tecopa, turn left on Furnace Creek Road. Drive less than two miles to the graded China Ranch Road. Follow this road's twisting approach to the ranch about two miles through a steep-walled canyon and past an old gypsum mine. Watch carefully along the approach for wildflowers putting on a better than average show in some places this season.

Despite the occasional show of desert flowers and greenery, the lushness of China Ranch comes as a surprise. The water at the ranch supports extensive stands of cottonwoods, willows and other desert trees and shrubs, as well as the cultivated groves of hundreds of date palms.

Developed first as a truck garden and later as a date farm, China Ranch has been cultivated for about 120 years. Native people long ago frequented this oasis on nomadic hunting and food gathering treks. Later, a parade of frontier characters passed through, including Spanish explorers, mountain men, traders, rustlers, military map makers and hopefuls headed for the California gold fields.

China Ranch takes its name from a Chinese man who left his labors in the borax mines and mills of Death Valley to raise vegetables and small livestock in the canyon for sale to area mining camps. Later driven out, he disappeared, but the name stuck. In the 1920s, the owners first planted date palms on the site, eventually developing several varieties specific to China Ranch.

In the 1970s, the current owners aimed at commercial development of the date crop, adding hundreds of trees over time. Each bearing female tree produces 100 to 300 pounds of dates. Today, China Ranch dates appear throughout the West.

The gift shop at China Ranch features crafts and collectibles, as well as dates, baked goods, other food items and cookbooks with recipes tested at the ranch. The ranch also raises cactus for sale in a nursery at the ranch. Find out more about China Ranch at the farm's Web site at www.chinaranch.com.

Most visitors stop at China Ranch on their way to other nearby points of interest. A growing number discover the pleasure of staying longer at the site at the Ranch House Inn, a bed and breakfast established in the small ranch house built in the 1920s. The inn accommodates five or six guests in charmingly furnished rooms with rates from $98 to $158 per night, including a light breakfast.

The inn recently acquired a former hostel near Tecopa, developing it as the Ranch House Inn at Tecopa, a facility with a meeting room and catering. This inn houses guests in six rooms, three tipis, and vintage travel trailers for $98. Follow a link from the ranch's Web site to learn more. Call (760) 852-4360 for reservations.

Margo Bartlett Pesek's column appears on Sundays.