Archives West Finding Aid

Boxes 1-8 contain personal materials of Preston Nutter and his wife, Katherine Fenton Nutter, and their immediate families. Also included in this section are materials from both the Nutter and Fenton families. Included are diaries, notebooks, and daybooks from Preston Nutter, Katherine Nutter, and Howard Price, Jr., writings and essays by Katherine Nutter and Virginia Price, documents relating to the estates of various deceased family members, clippings, obituaries and memorials, awards and certificates of appreciation, and miscellaneous personal items. Boxes 3-5 contain some correspondence, but only that between Preston and Katherine Nutter and their respective families. All correspondence between Preston and Katherine Nutter and their daughters is filed in Section II, Boxes 9-15, Personal Correspondence.

Boxes 9-15 contain personal correspondence divided into two categories: family and non family. The first category is found in Boxes 9-12 and includes correspondence between Preston Nutter, Katherine Nutter, Catharine Story, Virginia Price and Howard Price, Jr., and other family members. The second, Boxes 12-15, contain correspondence between members of the Nutter family and family friends. The criterion used to distinguish non-family personal correspondence from miscellaneous personal or business correspondence was the salutation and the content of the letter. For example, "Dear Virginia" or "Dear Friends" would be considered personal, whereas "Dear Mrs. Nutter" would be considered miscellaneous. If the content of the letter revealed that it dealt with business matters it was filed in Box 16, General Business Correspondence. However, letters dealing with a subject for which a specific category has been established, such as cattle, water, or grazing, are filed within that category. Box 17 contains miscellaneous legal correspondence, consisting of bills for legal services, a few letters, and unidentifiable legal documents.

The papers in Boxes 18 and 19 document the period of the 1870s to the late 1880s, when Preston Nutter was active in business affairs in Colorado. Box 18 contains materials dealing with Alfred Packer, known as the notorious Colorado Cannibal. In this box are articles, pamphlets, and a copy of the transcript of the testimony given at his 1883 trial. Box 19 contains papers and records from Nutter's later activities in Colorado, including hauling freight to the mines around Lake City, Colorado, and his ownership of the Chipmunk Mine. Over half of the folders in this box deal with that mine, either tax notices and correpondence from Hinsdale County, where the mine is located, or legal documents relating to the claim. Other materials in Box 19 include correspondence with friends and associates of Preston Nutter, and papers from lawsuits that he was involved in.

Boxes 20 and 21 contain correspondence, bills, and records from the Strawberry Valley Cattle Company, a partnership between Preston Nutter and Hermann and Alfred Schiffer. Box 20 contains letters between Hermann Schiffer and Preston Nutter, and the majority of this voluminous correspondence is from Hermann to Preston Nutter. Most of the letters concern the lease of grazing rights in the Strawberry River valley, the company's finances, and often questions about Nutter's expenses. At the end of this box are a few letters from Alfred Schiffer to Preston Nutter. All letters are filed chronologically. Box 21 contains the working papers of the Strawberry Valley Cattle Company. These include the agreements which led to the creation of the company, the articles of incorporation, by-laws, documents, correspondence, and agreements pertaining to the lease of the Strawberry Valley. Since the lease was obtained from the Ute Indian tribe, there is also a file of correspondence with the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. Grazing trespass was a constant problem, as is evident from the number of folders of legal correspondence, lawsuits, and other miscellaneous legal documents. Finally, there are files of miscellaneous bills, receipts, and expense statements. It should be noted that the many receipts and other records from cattle purchases, sales, brand registrations, and so on are filed in their respective boxes in Section VII, Cattle and Livestock. Likewise, papers dating from this period pertaining to employees of Preston Nutter are filed chronologically in Section VI, Ranch Hands. There are also a few items dating from this same time in Section V, Arizona.

Boxes 22 and 23 contain the remaining records of Preston Nutter's cattle operations in Arizona. These include the Parashaunt Ranch, 1893-1936, in Box 22, and the Nutter Livestock Company, 1930-1936, in Box 23. The materials in Box 22 include correspondence, most notably with Anthony Ivins and the commissioner of the General Land Office, affidavits, notices of location, quitclaim deeds and other documents dealing with property matters, some miscellaneous water filings, and expense sheets and books for the Parashaunt Ranch. The extensive files on Nutter's scrip filings in the Arizona Strip, and Virginia and Howard Price's efforts to cash in the remaining scrip certificates are found in Section VIII, Lands. Items relating to Arizona can also be found in Section VI, Ranch Hands, and Section VII, Cattle and Livestock. Box 23 contains all materials from the short lived Nutter Livestock Company. Included is a small amount of correspondence, the articles of incorporation, chattel and real estate mortgages, and other miscellaneous corporate papers. Most of the materials in Box 23 relate to the sale of the Parashaunt Ranch and the consequent dissolution of the Nutter Livestock Company in 1936-1937.

This section consists of seven boxes of material dealing with the many ranch hands employed by Preston Nutter and later the Preston Nutter Corporation during almost a century in the cattle business. Employees from both the Utah and Arizona ranches are represented in this section. Boxes 24 and 25 contain materials from the various foremen who managed the Nutter ranches. It should be noted that many persons who worked for Preston Nutter also had ranches of their own and so will appear in Preston Nutter's correspondence and records as both neighbors and employees. Box 24 pertains to the foremen of the Utah ranches in Nine Mile Canyon and Range Valley, while Box 25 documents the foremen of the Parashaunt Ranch in Arizona. Materials in both boxes vary from correspondence, receipts, and printed contracts to scribbled notes. In a few cases there are personal materials left when the foreman died suddenly. Box 24 also contains a file of job inquiries and answers from 1970, when Howard and Virginia Price advertised for a ranch foreman. Box 26 contains correspondence to and from ranch hands other than foremen. This includes letters about employment, wages, and other matters. There are a few that are letters from former employees and a few letters of resignation. Folders in this box are arranged alphabetically by surname; letters within the folders are arranged chronologically. Materials in Box 27 include miscellaneous files dealing with ranch hands such as reports of on the job injuries, including notification of injury forms and surgical reports, miscellaneous papers on employment, such as W-2 forms and Social Security forms, and charges, advances, and wages, which consist of receipts and hastily written notes on scraps of paper. There are also files on three men who died while employed by the Preston Nutter Corporation. Box 28 contains time slips, which were made out by the foremen of the Parashaunt Ranch and then presented to the Bank of St. George, Utah, for payment. Time books, in which the Nutters kept records of hours worked and wages owed to employees, are filed chronologically in Boxes 29-30.

The nine boxes which comprise Section VII contain materials pertaining to Preston Nutter's main business, cattle and livestock. The papers are grouped by subject, with all papers of a similar type filed together. Box 31 contains correspondence to and from Preston Nutter and the Preston Nutter Corporation relating to cattle. Folders 1-20 are arranged alphabetically, with correspondence from a specific company or person in each folder. Folders 21-39 contain miscellaneous cattle correspondence and are arranged chronologically. Most other materials in this section are arranged chronologically as well. Box 32 contains receipts and bills of sale from Preston Nutter's purchases of cattle. Likewise, Boxes 33-34 contain receipts from his and the Corporation's sales of cattle, including those sold during the time that Preston Nutter was the manager of the Strawberry Valley Cattle Company. Box 35 contains contracts: for the sale of cattle, for purchases, livestock chattel mortgages, and Indian beef contracts with the Ute Indian Agency at Fort Duchesne, Utah. Box 36 contains cattle inventories, tallys, and lists of cattle losses from 1900 1980. Railroad and freight bills from the shipment of cattle to markets are filed in Box 37. Box 38 contains materials that related to cattle but did not fit into one of the established categories. These include records of brands, vaccinations, pedigrees, hay and feed, cattlemen's associations, and other miscellaneous materials. Box 39 is for livestock other than cattle. For the most part, this means horses, bills of sale, correspondence about horses, and papers pertaining to wild, or feral, horses. There is also one folder on mules, which Preston Nutter used for riding and work animals, and one of records of dogs purchased by Preston Nutter and Virginia Price.

The section on lands comprises fourteen boxes divided into two parts. The two parts are: A. the Nine Mile Ranch, and B. Scrip. The Nine Mile Ranch section, in Boxes 40-48, contains materials relating to the corporation's main ranch, also known as the Headquarters Ranch, located northeast of Price, Utah. Box 40 contains papers dating from the original acquisition of the Nine Mile Canyon Ranch in 1902, as well as correspondence, agreements, notes on right of ways and easements on the Nine Mile Canyon road, and papers dealing with the Blair Farm near Myton, Utah, also known as the "hay ranch." Box 41 documents a lawsuit over the ownership of Range Valley, Nutter vs. Niles. Offers to purchase the Nine Mile Ranch, made to Preston Nutter over the years, are filed in Box 42. Box 43 contains materials from various governmental agencies, such as the Utah State Land Board, the U.S. General Land Office, and the Federal Land Bank. This box contains land patents, leases, deeds, and other land ownership papers.

The papers in Box 44 concern range improvement programs sponsored by the Soil Conservation Service and the Bureau of Land Management in which the Nutter Corporation participated over the years. Box 45 contains miscellaneous papers detailing their relationship with the B.L.M., including Virginia and Howard Price's comments on the Green River Wilderness Proposal, and B.L.M. requests for right of ways. Box 46 documents several fires which occured on Nutter Corporation land, including one in 1964 which spread to nearby public land and burned several thousand acres. The resulting lawsuit, United States vs. Preston Nutter Corporation, is fully covered by the records in 0his box. Box 47 deals with the on going problems caused by hunters on Nutter Corporation lands. Correspondence, leases, and the papers from the sale of the Range Valley lands to the Wilcox family are filed in Box 48.

The second part of Section VIII deals with scrip certificates. Since most of them were used on the Arizona Strip, many of the documents in Boxes 49-53 pertain to lands in that state. Box 49 contains correspondence about scrip, with scrip dealers, lawyers, and government agencies from 1900 1970. Box 50 concerns mostly one particular certificate, Sioux Half Breed 567 E, which Virginia and Howard Price tried unsuccessfully to redeem for cash in the 1960s and 1970s. Boxes 51-53 contain records of another type of scrip often used by Preston Nutter, Forest Reserve Lieu Scrip. Box 51 documents Preston Nutter's use of the scrip, and an attempt by the Prices in the 1960s to use his remaining certificates to file on forest land in Oregon. Boxes 52-53 contain photocopies of two case files of the U.S. General Land Office, labeled Phoenix 013384 and Salt Lake City 05354, which were obtained by corporation attorney H. Byron Mock for Preston Nutter Corporation vs. the Secretary of the Interior.

Preston Nutter's efforts to control water sources on the Arizona Strip are documented in Boxes 22-23 and Boxes 49-53. Materials concerning water sources on the Utah range, including the Nine Mile Ranch and Range Valley, are filed in Boxes 54-57. The records consist for the most part of applications to appropriate water submitted to the Utah State Engineer's Office, deeds, some correspondence, and papers from various irrigation companies. The boxes are arranged by region. Box 54 contains papers on Nine Mile Creek, the Green River, and irrigation companies in the Uinta Basin. Box 55 pertains to springs and other groundwater sources on the Tavaputs Plateau, the Nutter Corporation's summer range. Records dealing with Argyle Creek and Range Creek are in Box 56, while Box 57 contains Statement of Water User's Claim forms. Applications to appropriate water in Boxes 54-56 are filed by application number.

Boxes 58-62 contain the Preston Nutter Corporation records pertaining to grazing. Box 58 contains correspondence about grazing; Box 59 deals with agreements, advisory board decisions and minutes of meetings, and other miscellaneous matters. Grazing leases and licenses are filed in Box 60. A number of grazing trespass cases are documented in Box 61, and Box 62 contains notes on grazing matters kept by H. Byron Mock, and Howard and Virginia Price. Preston Nutter's notes about grazing matters while he was manager of the Strawberry Valley Cattle Company can be found in Boxes 20-21.

Boxes 63-66 contain papers from the Nutter Corporation's dealings with mineral companies from the late 1940s until the late 1970s. Boxes 63-64 are organized alphabetically by the name of the oil or mineral company. These files contain correspondence, leases, and rental payment receipts. Box 65 contains leases of specific locations to persons or organizations other than oil companies. Box 66 contains papers from state and federal agencies in charge of regulating oil, oil shale, natural gas, and tar sands development.

The section on finances is the largest single portion of the records of the Preston Nutter Corporation. It comprises slightly more than one-half of the collection, seventy-seven boxes organized into eight separate groups of records. Other papers dealing with financial matters can be found within virtually every section of the Nutter Corporation records. The materials in Section XII, therefore, are those that deal directly with the financial affairs of the corporation, such as taxes loans, banks, and family finances. The papers in Section XII are divided into the following groups: A. Family finances; B. Corporate papers; C. Insurance; D. Taxes; E. Receipts; F. Banks-correspondence; G. Banks-cancelled checks, statements, check stubs; and H. Ledgers. Boxes 67-70 contains records of the personal finances of members of the Nutter family. Box 71 contains corporate records, while records from insurance companies and funds are filed in Box 72. Tax records, including completed returns, assessments and property valuations, Social Security records, and worksheets used in the preparation of taxes for both individual members of the Nutter family and the corporation are filed in Boxes 73-84. Receipts covering over one hundred years of cattle ranching by Preston Nutter and his successors are in Boxes 85-92. Large numbers of receipts from one business are filed together chronologically. Single receipts are filed together alphabetically in Box 91, while railroad tickets and receipts for shipment of freight by rail are in Box 92. This section contains only receipts for goods and services. Correspondence, loan papers, balances sheets and notices from banks are filed in Boxes 93-96. Boxes 97-138 contain cancelled checks, check stubs, and bank statements from individual members of the Nutter, Price, and Story families, and from the corporation accounts. Checks, stubs, and statements are filed in chronological order. Ledgers are stored in Boxes 139-144.

This section of the Preston Nutter Corporation records consists of two parts: A. "The White Reservation," a manuscript biography of Preston Nutter produced by John Mock and John Darby in 1960-1964; and, B. Robin Burt Register. Materials relating to the manuscript are filed in Boxes 145- 148. Box 145 contains the complete rough draft of the manuscript in two loose leaf binders, while miscellaneous chapters and pages are filed in Box 146. Box 147 contains research materials collected by John Darby and Howard and Virginia Price in Utah and Colorado. It should be noted that the primary research source was the Preston Nutter Corporation records themselves; the materials in Box 147 are from outside sources. Contracts, agreements, and other records documenting the financial arrangements with the author are filed in Box 148. Boxes 149-150 contain the Robin Burt Register, including notes, outlines, index cards and a partial rough draft register of the Preston Nutter Corporation records, which was prepared in 1982-1983.