Sunnyside is the story of the Whipple Ranch in the White River Valley. It started with a ranch owned by a man named Horton. He built the ranch in the 1880s and soon a small settlement grew up around it. John Whipple bought the Horton Ranch in the fall of 1904. He moved his family to Sunnyside after Christmas of that year. He had 200 head of beef cattle on the ranch in 1904 and 1905. Whipple also had the mail route from Pioche to Sunnyside, a trip that took two days by buggy. He worked the route for two years then hired a man to do the job. The hired man lost a horse on one of his trips in 1906 and Whipple went to look for the horse. While searching, he found an outcropping of rock that turned out to be high-grade silver ore. This was later developed into the Silver Horn mine. His son, Clair, leased the ranch from his father and later purchased it in 1940. Sunnyside had a population of around twenty-seven, most of whom worked on the ranch. In 1962, they sold the property to the Johnson family, the present owners. The ranch is in a beautiful setting and is well worth seeing.

Submitted by: HBC