The history of the Preston Nutter Corporation must of necessity begin with its founder and namesake, Preston Nutter. From childhood, Nutter wanted to be a cattleman, and by the time he died in his eighty fifth year, he had succeeded in that ambition beyond his dreams. At one time he owned more land and ran more cattle than any other rancher in the Intermountain West. Preston Nutter's name should not be remembered only in connection with cattle ranching, however. He was also involved in prospecting in Idaho, Montana, and Colorado, and freighting in Colorado. He was a friend of many well known Indian leaders, including Ouray and Chipeta of the Ute Tribe.
Preston Nutter was born in what is now West Virginia in 1850. His father, a breeder of fine horses, died suddenly when Preston was quite young. When his mother died shortly thereafter, he was sent to live with an aunt and uncle who were strict Methodists. Chafing under their harsh discipline, he ran away after a few months and lived with a storekeeper. After a brief stint as a cabin boy on a steamboat plying the Mississippi, he set out for the West with a government supply train in 1863. On his way West, Nutter resolved to become a cattleman. To commemorate that resolve, his first brand was a "63," which he used on his horses until his death.
During 1883 and 1884, Nutter began to buy cattle and hold them on land near Montrose, Colorado. In 1885, he moved his herd onto a new range near Thompsons, just east of Green River, Utah. From there, he ranged his cattle north into the Hill Creek area of the East Tavaputs Plateau, which he recognized as good cattle country. By the unprecedented expedient of keeping his cattle near the railroad and feeding them through the winter rather than allowing them to wander, Nutter survived the disastrous winter of 1886 1887, which ruined so many other ranchers throughout the West. In 1888, he formed a partnership with two local ranchers, calling it the Grand Cattle Company, but he bought out his partners the following year.
At Nine Mile Ranch in Arizona Preston Nutter met his future wife, Katherine Fenton. Katherine Fenton, born in Ohio in 1871, was the manager of the Postal Telegraph Company office in Colorado Springs, Colorado by 1900. When the Ute Reservation was opened for settlement in 1905, as a lark she entered a lottery for a homestead. Her name was drawn, and, against the advice of her friends, she determined to visit her homestead. The stage route ran through Nine Mile Canyon past the Brock Ranch. The stage driver, new to the route, mistook the Brock Ranch for the Rock House, the regular stage stop. Katherine Fenton was forced to stay overnight at Nutter's ranch, and a romance soon blossomed. Preston Nutter proposed to her the next year, but she wanted to "prove up" on her homestead first. The couple waited until 1908 to get married. The first of their two daughters, Catharine, was born in 1909. Virginia was born in 1912.
The first decades of the twentieth century were prosperous and busy ones for Preston Nutter. He spent much of his time traveling between his far flung ranches, and through his good management they did well. During World War I, he took advantage of the booming market for beef and made huge profits. Unlike most ranchers of the time, however, he did not overextend himself in anticipation of a long war. Instead, he invested in Liberty Bonds, and so was able to weather the drop in beef prices brought about by the Armistice. Katherine Nutter, plagued by a goiter that developed after she had spent a few years living at Nine Mile Canyon, was forced to go to Chicago to seek treatment. She stayed there almost a year. After her return in the spring of 1920, she moved to Salt Lake City instead of the Nine Mile Ranch. There both Catharine and Virginia attended St. Mary's of the Wasatch, a Catholic school for girls.
The year 1921 marked a change in the fortunes of Preston Nutter. The beef market had continued to decline, and also in that year his friend and banker, William McCornick, died. The bank was taken over by Walker Brothers Bank, and Nutter was never able to develop the close working relationship with the larger Walker Bank that he had enjoyed with McCornick. His health, taxed by decades of hard work and travel in all weather conditions, began to fail. In 1930, he was forced to incorporate his interests into two separate businesses. The Arizona holdings became the Nutter Livestock Company, while the headquarters ranch became the Preston Nutter Corporation.
Preston Nutter died from a horse injury in 1936. Katherine Nutter died in 1965.
The Preston Nutter Corporation records (1876-1981) document over one hundred years of ranching in Colorado, Arizona, and Utah. The records cover virtually every aspect of cattle ranching, from the buying, selling and shipping of cattle; to the acquisition of land, water, and grazing rights; to the wages and injuries of ranch hands. Also covered are many aspects of the private lives of the Nutter family. The records of the Preston Nutter Corporation have been arranged into fourteen separate subject sections: Personal Materials, Correspondence, Colorado, Strawberry Valley Cattle Company, Arizona Strip, Ranch Hands, Cattle and Livestock, Lands, Water, Grazing, Oil and Gas, Finances, Historical Research and Writing, and Maps. Diaries, daybooks, correspondence, legal documents, notes, receipts, bills, agreements, deeds, and many other papers are included in the collection.
Organized in fourteen sections: I. Personal; II. Correspondence; III. Colorado; IV. Strawberry Valley Cattle Company; V. Arizona; VI. Ranch Hands; VII. Cattle and Livestock; VIII. Lands; IX. Water; X. Grazing; XI. Oil and Gas Leases; XII. Finances; XIII. Historical Research and Writing; XIV. Maps.
Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.
The library does not claim to control copyright for all materials in the collection. An individual depicted in a reproduction has privacy rights as outlined in Title 45 CFR, part 46 (Protection of Human Subjects). For further information, please review the J. Willard Marriott Library’s
Collection Name, Collection Number, Box Number, Folder Number. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah.
Photographs and audio-visual materials were transferred to the Multimedia Division of Special Collections (P0289 and A0289).
Processed by Roy Webb and Robin Burt in 1985.
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.
The entries in the remaining diaries of Preston Nutter are for the most part terse descriptions of business dealings, days spent with his family, or descriptions of travel. Similarly, the notebooks contain addresses, notations of cattle prices, names of businesses and other cattlemen, and little else. One exception is Book 18, labeled "Water Rights." This notebook contains a detailed account in his own hand of the opposition Preston Nutter encountered from other ranchers in the Nine Mile Canyon area while trying to ensure an adequate supply of water from the creek for his own ranch. Folder 3 contains a typed transcription of this notebook by Virginia Price in 1961. Typed excerpts from Preston Nutter's diaries are found in Folders 1-2.
Notebook no. 18 is labeled "Water Rights."
The diary in folder 3 is labeled "Water Rights."
Box 2 contains the daybooks and notebooks kept by Katherine Nutter from before her marriage in 1908 to shortly before her death in 1965. Unlike those of her husband, Katherine's daybooks often contain lengthy entries dealing with family matters, business dealings, and other information about weather, cattle prices, and beef market quotations.
Box 3 contains correspondence and other materials from members of the Nutter family, including two brothers, Cree and Jasper, sister Burlinda (Burr) Bailey, sister in law Sallie Nutter, nephews T. C. Nutter, Paul Nutter, and John Clawson, and nieces Grace Bailey Purdy, Myna Nutter, and Mary Clawson. Many of the letters are requests for money or help in starting a business. Other items besides correspondence include notebooks, check registers and cancelled checks, receipts, and obituaries. Folder 16 contains a genealogy chart of the Nutter family. Unless otherwise noted, all letters are addressed to Preston Nutter.
Correspondence, notebook, receipts, and financial records.
Boxes 4-5 contain materials from Katherine Nutter's family, the Fentons. Family members were father Morris, sisters Joanna (also known as Jane), Anne, and Mary, brothers John and Thomas, uncle J. B., and nephews Robert and Perry Fenton and Edmund Swan. Box 4 contains correspondence with these relatives, documents relating to the estates of deceased family members, and miscellaneous personal items. Of special interest in Box 4 is Folder 21, which contains notes on the family by Katherine Nutter (she was the last surviving sibling), and a brief genealogy of the Fenton family. Box 5 contains papers dealing with the Fenton family property in Huron, Ohio. Since Katherine Nutter lived in Utah during this period, the property was managed by a family friend, Addison Hoffman. An extensive correspondence between Hoffman and Katherine Nutter is filed in Box 13. Materials in both boxes are arranged chronologically.
Correspondence, estate materials, and personal items. Many of the letters in this file were not addressed to Katherine Nutter, but were apparently found among Joanna's effects after her death.
The notebooks of Howard C. Price, Jr., general manager of the ranch from 1953 to 1977, and president of the corporation from 1977 to his death in 1982 are filed in Box 6. They contain only brief notes about cattle tallys, descriptions of cattle or horses, and reminders of things to do "in town."
The materials in Boxes 7-8 are those items that belonged to members of the immediate Nutter family but do not fit into any of the other categories. The items range from obituaries, funeral arrangements, and wills to essays and short stories written by Katherine Nutter and Virginia Price. Also included are everyday items such as driver's licenses, business cards, and wedding invitations.
Obituaries, Masonic Order items, and personal materials.
Writings, obituaries, personal items, and miscellaneous.
News clippings, writings, certificates, obituaries, funeral materials, and miscellaneous.
News clippings, stock papers, will, and miscellaneous.
Military papers, ID cards, drawings, will, obituaries, and personal materials.
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 personal correspondence contained in Box 9 between Preston and Katherine Nutter covers the period from just after their marriage in 1908 until 1926. Preston Nutter's letters to Katherine contain a wealth of information about his cat his cattle businesses in Arizona and Utah, including range conditions, weather, cattle prices, and market conditions. A recurring theme is the difficulty of travel between northern Arizona and northeastern Utah. Various ranch hands and friends are frequently mentioned, especially neighbors and associates in Nine Mile Canyon, Price, and St. George, Utah. Despite his frequent journeys, Preston Nutter tried to remain informed on world and national affairs through newspapers, and occasionally commented on the war in Europe, state and local elections, and the Volstead Act, or Prohibition. Katherine's letters to Preston also contain a great deal of interesting information. She spent the winter of 1919-1920 in Chicago for medical treatments and her many letters from this period paint a vivid picture of life in that city just after World War I. She tells her husband about shopping, drives around the city, visits to her doctor, swimming in Lake Michigan, as well as more unpleasant aspects of big city life such as crime, strikes, race riots, high prices, and shortages. After her move Salt Lake City in 1920, her letters deal with the cattle business, their friends and acquaintances, and many other aspects of her life in Utah. As may be expected, in virtually every letter she mentions their two daughters, Catharine and Virginia. Other family members appear frequently in both Preston's and Katherine's letters. Specific names, places, and events will appear in the index at the back of the register. Folders 1-21 contain letters from Preston to Katherine Nutter. Folders 22-36 contain letters from Katherine to Preston Nutter. All letters are arranged chronologically.
Box 10 contains correspondence among the immediate family of Preston and Katherine Nutter and their daughters Catharine and Virginia. Letters written before 1940 deal mostly with day to day events. From 1940 until 1963, letters written by both Catharine and Virginia become much more detailed. Those written by Virginia to her mother and sister after 1953 (Virginia often made carbon copies of the same letter) are especially informative about the day to day operations of the ranch. Unfortunately, Virginia seldom dated her letters, and so no accurate chronology can be established. Insofar as possible, all letters are arranged chronologically.
The personal correspondence in Box 12 is between Howard and Virginia Price and three men: John Mock, John Darby, and J. Milton Cowan. The correspondence of these individuals was separated from the rest of the personal correspondence because of its quantity and the close friendship between them and the Prices which is obvious from the letters. It should be noted that on occasion Virginia made carbons of her letters and sent the same letter to each of these three individuals. In such cases the carbon copies have been filed with the other letters in chronological order.
Box 13 contains miscellaneous non-family correspondence. This category includes cards and letters from friends and associates of the Nutter, Price, and Story families. In some cases these were persons with whom the Nutter family had business dealings. All letters which by the content were judged to be business or legal correspondence were filed in Boxes 16-17. Letters and cards of a personal nature but which were sent by persons not closely associated with the Nutter family are filed in Box 14. All folders are filed alphabetically by the surname of the sender. Within the folders the letters are filed chronologically.
This box contains the remaining miscellaneous personal correspondence of the Nutter family. There are some single letters from close friends, but most are letters and cards from casual acquaintances or strangers. The correspondence is classified personal by the content of the letters; they deal with neither business nor legal matters. This includes greeting and birthday cards, letters of congratulation and sympathy, and letters requesting information about the Nutter Ranch. Letters requesting money, or "junk mail," have been removed from the collection and discarded, except for those directly addressed to a specific member of the Nutter family. All letters are arranged alphabetically.
These include cards sent by Nutter family members to each other, and others received from family friends and acquaintances. The majority of the cards date from 1902-1909, and were sent to Katherine Nutter by friends and associates at the Postal Telegraph office in Colorado Springs, Colorado. A few of the cards dating from this period were addressed to Katherine's sister, Jane Fenton, who also worked at the postal telegraph office. The cards have been arranged chronologically where possible.
Box 16 contains non-personal, non-family, miscellaneous business correspondence. These are letters from merchants, credit memos, advertisements, and other business letters. Those letters addressed to "Dear Customer," or "Resident" have been discarded. It must be noted that this box contains only miscellaneous business correspondence. Correspondence about a particular subject, such as cattle, lands, or grazing is filed in that particular section. Letters in Box 16 are filed alphabetically.
The majority of the legal correspondence in the Preston Nutter Corporation collection has been filed in the sections to which it pertains. Most will be found in the section on lands, with small amounts to be found in the sections on water, grazing, and cattle. Any legal correspondence which would not fit into a particular subject area has been filed in Box 17. This includes bills for legal services, and a few legal documents and letters which were not readily identifiable. Folders in Box 17 are filed by name of law firm.
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.
Correspondence, bonds and covenants, taxes, Chipmunk Mine materials, and miscellaneous.
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.
For Colorado and Utah. Includes fees and receipts.
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.
Correspondence, filings, and releases.
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.
Correspondence, reports, and miscellaneous.
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.
Folders 4-13 contain receipts for cattle purchased by Preston Nutter for the Strawberry Valley Cattle Company.
Folders 5-10 contain receipts for cattle sold by Preston Nutter for the Strawberry Valley Cattle Company.
Receipts, bills of sale, charts, and miscellaneous notes.
Correspondence, bills of sale, travel permits, feed and keep, and lists.
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.
Correspondence, leases, agreements, and miscellaneous.
Land acquisition correspondence, applications, notes, and maps.
Correspondence, agreements, leases, irrigation, and miscellaneous.
The offers to purchase the Nutter properties in Box 42 apply only to the Nine Mile Ranch. Offers to purchase the Arizona Strip properties are filed in Box 22.
The patents for parcels of land filed in Folders 8-13 are organized by patent number.
Correspondence, bills, and notices.
Correspondence, leases, applications.
Correspondence, receipts, and statements.
Correspondence, applications, drawings, plans, notes, miscellaneous.
Correspondence, public comment sheets, and miscellaneous.
Correspondence, draft, and comments.
Folders 1-11 contain files documenting the Steer Ridge fire of 1964, which resulted in the lawsuit United States vs. Preston Nutter Corporation.
Complaints, subpoenas, miscellaneous.
Corrrespondence, affidavit, deeds, agreements, notes, and other papers.
Correspondence, legal documents, settlement, and miscellaneous.
Folders 1-28 deal with certificate 567 E, including Preston Nutter Corporation vs. the Secretary of the Interior. Folders 29-31 contain papers relating to another scrip certificate, 485 B.
Applications, notices, titles, deeds, affidavits, power of attorney.
Correspondence, agreement, maps.
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.
Correspondence, notices, receipts, and miscellaneous.
Folders 1-10 contain documents pertaining to water from Range Creek; Folders 11-24 contain documents about water from Argyle Creek.
Includes serial numbers 40-1093 and miscellaneous numbers.
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.
Folders 1-23 contain records of decisions made by and appeals made to the Bureau of Land Management Grazing Advisory Board of Grazing District 7, in which the Nine Mile Ranch was located.
Box 60, folders 1-31 deal with leases and folders 32-49 deal with licenses.
Correspondence, notes, and miscellaneous.
Legal documents, correspondence, and miscellaneous.
Survey maps, correspondence, miscellaneous, and notes.
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.
Maps, plats, descriptions, miscellaneous.
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.
Folders 1-13 relate to the Utah State Insurance Fund.
Folders 1-26 apply to the mortgage and folders 27-40 apply to the Regional Agricultural Credit Corp.
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.
Maps included in the Nutter Corporation records cover the main aspects of the ranch operations, such as grazing, land use and ownership, and water sources. Also included are maps showing the location of oil and gas leases and charts of various wells drilled on Nutter Corporation properties. There are a number of aerial photographs of the Nutter lands. Finally, there are miscellaneous maps and some drawings and plans for ranch structures. Some maps were retained in the collection because they were heavily marked or annotated by members of the Preston Nutter Corporation. Other maps in the collection which had no obvious relation to the Nutter Ranch or no markings were transferred to the Western Americana map collection. Maps and drawings are filed in the Manuscripts Division map cases. When more than one copy of a particular map is in the collection, numbers in brackets [] indicate the number of copies of the map.
Range Creek Unit, Utah Grazing District No. 7 [3]; U.S. Grazing Service, Utah Map No. 38; U.S. Grazing Service, Utah Map No. 39; Nine Mile Unit, Utah Grazing District No. 7; Proposed Cattle Trail across Flat Canyon; Soil Conservation Service, Preston Nutter Corporation Range Use Map [2]; Soil Conservation Service, Preston Nutter Corporation Range Location Map.
Plat Showing Irrigated Areas under Johnson Decree of 1900; Blair Farm, Irrigation; Proposed Dam on Blair Farm; Sketch of Nine Mile Ranch by William MacArthur Story, 1953 [3]; Gray Mountain Canal; Minnie Maud Reservoir and Irrigation Company; Soil Conservation Service, Irrigable Land at Mouth of Nine Mile Creek.
U.S. Geological Survey, Flat Canyon, Utah [3]; U.S. Geological Survey, Sunnyside, Utah [2]; Precipitation Map of the Uinta Basin; Plan and Profile of the Green River, Green River, Wyoming, to Green River, Utah, Sheets A-C.
Utah State Engineers Office, Hydrographic Survey; Uinta Basin [39].
Preston Nutter Corporation Lands Owned and Improved in Mohave County, Arizona, Harvey D. Heist; Sec. 24 T 39N, R 124, Harvey D. Heist, 1919; Land Owned and Improved in Mohave County, Arizona, by Preston Nutter Corporation, Harvey D. Heist; Lands Owned by Preston Nutter in Wasatch, Carbon, and Emery Counties, Utah, Harvey D. Heist, 1925 [2]; U.S. Geological Survey, Lake City, Colorado, 1903; U.S. Geological Survey, Uncompahgre, Colorado, 1908; U.S. Geological Survey, San Cristobal, Colorado, 1907; U.S. Surveyor General, Salt Lake Base Meridan Maps; T[ownship] 11S, R[ange] 18E, 1911 [4]; T 12S, R 18E, 1911 [3]; T 14S, R 14E, 1900 [2]; T 14S, R 15E, 1904 [3]; T 15S, R 15E, 1904; T 13S, R 14E, 1904 [2]; T 13S, R 15E, 1909 [2]; T 14S, R 16E, 1909 [2]; T 12S, R 16E, 1911, T 11S, R 14E, 1914; T 11S, R 15E, 1904; T 11S, R 17E, 1911; T 12S, R 15E, 1911; T 13S, R 16E, 1904; T 15S, R 16E, 1946; Utah Cattle Ranges, Utah Historical Quarterly 32 (Summer 1964).
"Location of Accident"; Map to Accompany Range Improvement Application, Preston Nutter Corporation, September 6, 1966; Land Use Map, Price River Soil Conservation District; Nutter Roads, Utah Land Use and Public Ownership, Carbon L; Property Plats, 1960; U.S. Geological Survey, Duchesne, Utah, 1939; U.S. Geological Survey, Nutter's Hole, 1953; U.S. Geological Survey, Las Vegas, Nevada, 1952; U.S. Geological Survey, Sloan, Nevada; Miscellaneous Hand-drawn Maps and Overlays.
Coal Reserves Map of the Book Cliffs Desolation Canyon Areas; Utah Oil and Gas Fields and Pipelines; Nutter Mineral Lands; Oil Impregnated Rock Deposits of Utah [2]; Nine Mile Canyon Unit; Lighthouse Unit Area; Nelson Unit Area; Mitch's Canyon Unit Area; Dilly Unit Area; Carbon and Emery Coal Lands; Lands Owned by Preston Nutter in Wasatch, Carbon, and Emery Counties, Utah, Harvey D. Heist, 1925; Active Oil Shale Lease Block, Eastern Uinta Basin, Utah; Oil and Gas Map of the Book Cliffs-Desolation Canyon Areas; Sunnyside, Utah, 1915; Utah Grazing District No. 7, Preston Nutter Corporation Mineral Rights; Oil Well Downhole Logs [5].