Green Gold and Mint Juleps
Sells Ranch and Moves
This December newspaper article was actually out of date; in early November, Lane had sold his ranch to William Blake, a businessman from Spadra, and the paper had carried the news of the sale:-
SOLD OUT -- Capt. Lane sold to Phillips & Blake of Spadra, his nice little ranch on the
Mojave River
for the sum of ten thousand
dollars. See what a little see-aheaditiveness will accomplish. Ten years ago the Captain landed on the banks of that fertile
stream a poor man, penniless; to-day he has a little fortune.
Following the sale of his ranch to Blake, the Captain decided to take a break and return to New England to see his family one last time. On February 14, 1874, the Guardian announced that "our old and esteemed friend, Capt. A. G. Lane, will leave in a day or two for the East on a visit to his old home...." Aaron told the editor of the paper that he had not been back East since he crossed the Isthmus of Panama in 1850.
View from the site of Lane's second place
After an absence of a few months, he returned to the same area of the desert and acquired a new ranch, about a mile south of the one he sold to Blake. This spread consisted of 240 acres, comprising the southeast quarter of section 36 (160 acres), T. 7 N., R. 5 W., plus an adjacent 80 acres in the southwest quarter. In addition, he had a possessory claim on another 400 acres abutting the Section 36 property on the west, which was fully enclosed with a fence and used as pastureland for stock. Besides this ranch, Aaron later had various property holdings on the desert. He owned a house in Oro Grande, and he had other properties that he bought and sold for speculation.
Aaron might very well have retired after his return to the Mojave, and simply enjoyed overseeing the work on his new property. He could afford it, and he definitely had earned the privilege. However, he was not one to idle away his remaining years complacently on his ranch. Instead he turned his energies to other ventures -- and with great exuberance, if the newspaper accounts are any indication.
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