MARK WAITE / PVT Ron Metheny cooks up big steaks for a crowd gathered at his Diamondfield Gulch outside Goldfield Saturday night. Advertisement

GOLDFIELD -- The site commonly referred to as the "Cow Camp," Ron Metheny's 40-acre private spread in Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, was long a popular getaway for Pahrump residents for the monthly chuck wagon barbecues on the weekend nearest the full moon.

Metheny sold the property to Ministerio Roca Salida, or Solid Rock Ministry, in November 2007, which renamed the place "A Patch of Heaven" and started offering church events.

Anyone who wants to experience one of Metheny's chuck wagon barbecues now has to travel two hours north of Pahrump, about 120 miles, to the outskirts of Goldfield.

Metheny traded in his desert oasis with bubbling springs in Ash Meadows for a 60-acre tract in the high desert, about 6,000 feet elevation, six miles east of Goldfield.

Metheny is slowly compiling a mock western village at his new location. He bought the property a few years ago, but didn't really have a crowd for a chuck wagon barbecue until last Saturday night.

"I don't like too many neighbors. I like to do what I want," Metheny said. "I just renamed it Diamondfield Gulch."

Instead of Pahrump residents making a short trip to the refuge, the crowd visiting Diamondfield Gulch was mostly off road enthusiasts. There were 28 camping rigs set up on the property.

"We had 96 tickets and I sold them all," Metheny said. "I'd say 90 percent of the people are from Pahrump, 95 percent."

The word spreads mostly through "a friend of a friend of a friend," Metheny said.

Metheny built his home, a makeshift miner's cabin, out of rough-sawn lumber from Utah. A general store sits on a hill. Across the way, he set up a mock telegraph office next to a saloon, which consists of a single wide trailer with a mock western facade.

A crowd packed into the bar Saturday night, entertained by a couple members of the Diamondback Band from Pahrump.

Metheny said he uses solar powered lights. A wind turbine also decorates the scene. Just in case, he has a 15-kilowatt generator out back for big parties.

"We're going to build a bank and a jail and a hanging tree," Metheny, a man of few words, said.

A large campfire ring was already set up in the middle of the camp, just like the campfires after dinner at Ash Meadows. The cage for playing chicken bingo however was nowhere in sight -- a popular game where people bet on what square the chicken will poop.

There also weren't the usual gunfighter shoot-outs -- they were at the annual Memorial Day chili cook off in Gold Point which provided some competition for Metheny's cook out, as did Jim Butler Days in Tonopah and the Memorial Day races at the Tonopah Speedway.

Instead of offering tours by horseback around Peterson Reservoir in Ash Meadows, Metheny plans to offer four-wheel drive tours of the numerous, abandoned mine sites in the vicinity.

In a garage on the property, off-road drivers can get their rigs serviced.

While the view of the sun setting over the yucca trees in the high desert hills was romantic, it was still hard to imagine Metheny leaving a peaceful, desert oasis like Ash Meadows.

"It was a lot of work there maintaining the grass and the trees and I had a chance to sell it," Metheny said.

"I already bought property up there in Goldfield. I bought that four, five years ago and another property in town. I just like the area, just wanted to relocate I guess."

Metheny said he took all his antiques up to Goldfield, just leaving the buildings to the church.

A few Goldfield residents made the drive up to the barbecue.

Metheny continues to commute to work at the Ponderosa Dairy in Amargosa Valley and bought a city block in downtown Goldfield including the Glory Hole Gift Shop from Virginia Ridgway.

"I think it will attract a lot of tourists, we're very low on businesses right now and we need people coming in," said Ridgway in reference to Diamondfield Gultch. Ridgeway is a Goldfield resident and a former representative of Pioneer Territory for the Nevada Commission on Tourism since that region was created in the late 1980s. "It should attract both tourists and business potential."

John Eckmann, a member of the Goldfield Historical Society said, "I hope this will attract more tourists to the Goldfield area."

A bartender in Goldfield was nice enough to give directions to Metheny's spread, which could be reached by following the signs with yellow arrows.

The location is named after Diamondfield Jack, aka Jackson Lee Davis, who worked for the Sparks Harrell Cattle Company in southern Idaho and northern Nevada, keeping sheepherders off of what was considered cattle country, according to a hand out Metheny showed visitors. He was a prime suspect in the killing of sheepherders John Wilson and Daniel Cummings in southern Idaho in 1896.

Diamondfield Jack was captured in the Arizona territory as a suspect and sentenced to hang in Albion, Idaho on June 4, 1897.

In the meantime, two other men, James Bower and Jeff Gray, confessed to the murders. Diamondfield Jack was pardoned on Dec. 17, 1902. He moved to the Tonopah Mining District where he made a fortune, but later lost it and was killed in 1949 by a taxi cab driver in Las Vegas.

Metheny wants to market the camp to off-road drivers planning private parties.

The one problem could be the weather. It got chilly Saturday night, enough to send people scrambling for jackets.

Over Memorial Day 2007, when the weather turned unusually cold, there were 12 campers.

"Last Memorial Day we drove up here in a mixture of rain and sleet," Metheny said.