Today Lycra-wearing skate skiers glide across the meadows where dairy cows used to graze on Truckee’s last remaining multi-generational ranch. After 140 years as a dairy farm and ranch Euer Valley made the transition from cattle to cross-country skiing when the ranch’s remaining 482 acres sold to neighboring Tahoe Donner Association in early March.
The sale is a microcosm of the winds of change that have now almost completely whisked away the rural past in Truckee. The other dairy farms vanished long ago making Euer Valley the last holdout a place where cattle still roamed and Euer descendents still gathered each summer as they had for more than a century.
‘I got married out there. My kids got married out there’ said Heidi Euer Martin Truckee resident and cousin of property owners John and Robert Euer.
The evolution of Truckee from roundups to recreation came last and most gently to Euer Valley which was a central character in a cast of Truckee dairies that included the Joergers and McIvers. Unlike other ranch properties that have been subdivided and developed Euer Valley is expected to remain an open landscape of lush meadows and sweeping ridgelines only interrupted by passing skiers hikers and mountain bikers.
Founded in 1868 by Swiss emigrant Sam Euer the fourth-generation ranch covered Euer Valley and neighboring Carpenter Valley and produced rich cream butter and prized cattle. Property owners John and Robert Euer will retain 40 acres in the heart of the valley including the Euer family cabins and will continue to have access to the entire valley.
The sale ends a rich history of cattle drives rodeos and family ranching. The Euers and Joergers who were neighbors both in Truckee and in the Sierra foothills town that became El Dorado Hills herded cattle between their Truckee summer range and their foothill winter range each year. John Euer said his family started off driving cattle on horseback between their ranches before using railcars and then eventually turning to trucks for cattle transport. John participated in the last railroad cattle drive to the Euer Valley as a child he said.
‘It is the end of an era’ John said.
The entangled feelings that come with selling a property that has been worked by a family for generations — which author Julene Bair eloquently described as ‘the intermingling of self and soil’ in a High Country News essay entitled ‘Out in the Cold’ — was evident in John’s description of his complicated emotions about the property sale.
‘Mixed feelings is a good description’ he said. ‘Growing up and until very recently we said we’d never sell this property. There are personal feelings that go into it. It is more than just dirt.’
John said he and his brother decided to sell because they both were reaching retirement age and the property required an enormous amount of hands-on work.
In Tahoe Donner John said the family found a buyer who shared their vision of preserving the land. While Euer Valley may see new cross-country skiing warming huts or a new food and beverage facility nearly the entire valley is expected to be left in its natural state for future generations.
‘The membership of Tahoe Donner is very preservation-minded and so are we. They really want to keep it as is and so do we’ said John.
Tahoe Donner has long leased a portion of the Euer Valley for cross-country skiing and is pleased to now own the property for summer and winter recreation.
‘It has great meadows surrounded by gorgeous pristine ridgelines’ said Robb Etnyre general manager of Tahoe Donner. ‘The membership [of Tahoe Donner] really values being able to get out in the outdoors. The Euer Valley is that in spades.’
Tahoe Donner is currently completing a process to determine the future uses of the land. A new cross-country warming hut with vaulted toilets and a food and beverage ‘cookhouse’ is likely said Etnyre.
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