China Ranch Date Farm

Tecopah, CA is a tiny place in the middle of nothing. It’s claim to fame is the China Ranch Date Farm.

According to available sources, a Chinese man named either Quon Sing or Ah Foo came to this canyon after many years of work in the Death Valley borax mines. He developed the water, planted fruits and vegetables, and raised meat for the local mining camps. It became known as Chinaman’s Ranch. Sometime in 1900, a man named Morrison appeared, and, as the story goes, he ran the Chinese farmer off at gun point and claimed the Ranch for his own. Morrison eventually sold out, but the name had stuck. Since then the canyon has had many owners and worn many different faces, including a fig farm, cattle ranch, hog farm, alfalfa farm, and others. In 1970, the property was purchased by Charles Brown Jr. and Bernice Sorrells, the son and daughter of area pioneer and long time State Senator Charles Brown of Shoshone. It remains in these families today.

We chose a hike that circled out around the giant surrounding area. This area is pretty diverse. We were able to hike up a slot canyon which was nice on a hot day. Also, we continued on down the trail to see a waterfall on the Armargosa River. Waterfalls in the desert are indeed rare. In fact, Amargosa River starts north of Las Vegas, is 185 miles long and mostly flows underground…except here in Tecopah, and in Beatty, Nevada. It eventually winds it’s way to the floor of Death Valley where it disappears into the sand never to resurface again. Pretty interesting.

The  original date grove was planted from seed in the early 1920’s. Approximately half of the trees are male and produce only pollen while the females bear in the fall, yielding from 100 to 300 pounds of dates in a season. We enjoyed a cold date shake after our hike. You can also buy date granola, date bread, date brownies, date cookies and dates.

Enjoy!