Homesteaders began populating the Rain Valley area, east of Sonoita and north of Elgin, in the early 1900s. The first news report of the Rain Valley Ranch is in 1932, when visitors arrived at Robert Ferris’ Rain Valley ranch. Robert, his wife, Edith, and Robert’s brother “Buzz” began ranching in Rain Valley after 1920. Edith died in 1935 and a year later Robert and Buzz sold their ranch to Chicago publisher Addison B. Scott for $40,000. Scott and his wife, Adelaide, built a new home and in 1937 greatly enlarged the size of the Rain Valley Ranch by purchasing neighboring homesteads from Frank Edwin Dalton (320 acres), Dan Mathes (320 acres), Frank Skutt (400 acres) and John C. White (640 acres).
In early 1938, Addison died of a heart attack. His widow, Adelaide, continued to operate the ranch until 1943, when she sold Rain Valley Ranch to William Stuart Symington and his brother Charles. W. S. Symington was president of Emerson Electric Co. of St. Louis and became a member of the Truman administration in 1945. Charles was a radio manufacturer in Detroit. World War II prevented their active participation in the ranch and, in 1949, the 14,000-acre Rain Valley Ranch was sold to Robert and Elizabeth Townsend for $175,000.
Robert Carter Nicholas “Bob” Townsend (1914-1995) grew up in Garden City, New York. His father, Edward, was a member of the New York Stock Exchange. Elizabeth Bertha Benziger (1905-1989) also grew up in New York, but by 1930 her father, Alderick Benziger (1876-1956), was raising cattle on the Diamond Tail Ranch on the Wyoming border of north central Colorado. During summer months, the Benziger family hosted young visitors from New York City and Bob and Betty met when he visited the ranch. “New York Tenderfoot Wins Ranch Princess” read the New York Daily News headline when their engagement was announced Jan. 4, 1937. The couple married in March and moved to Marfa, Texas, to operate a ranch purchased by Bob’s brother, Edward (1913-1979). Their daughters, Grace, Pamela and Sally, were all born in Texas.
In the late 1940s, Bob and Betty returned to Colorado to help Betty’s father run the Diamond Tail Ranch. It was a difficult, isolated life as they were completely snowed in during winter months, so in 1949 the Townsend family moved to Arizona. Bob was hospitalized for six weeks shortly after purchasing the Rain Valley Ranch. Thankfully, Betty was an expert cattlewoman and took over management until his recovery.
They focused on Hereford beef production, selling yearlings to buyers in California and the Midwest. Grace, Pamela and Sally all participated in ranching operations. A July 2, 1961, Arizona Republic article noted, “the girls ride 40 to 50 miles of fence, nose white-faces at roundup time and carefully doctor the critters when they take to ailing.”
Bob and Betty were active members of the community, participating in the Santa Cruz County Fair and Rodeo Association and the Elgin Community Club. In 1977, their eldest daughter, Grace, returned with her family to help run the ranch. Grace had become a teacher in California, where she met her husband, Michael Wystrach. Four of their six children, Audrey, Andrea, Alex and Amie, were born in California. Twin sons Mark and Michael arrived after their return to Sonoita. Grace and Michael became sole owners of a portion of the Rain Valley Ranch, which they named the Mountain View Hereford Ranch.
In 1987, Bob Townsend sold the Rain Valley Ranch to rancher Don Martin for $4 million.
As reported in the June 22, 2008, Arizona Daily Star, Martin sold most of the ranch for $35 million to a group of Texas and California investors who planned to construct a 1,600-home, 5,000-acre development. The development never materialized and in 2026 the Arizona Land and Water Trust announced the completion of the purchase of the 5,500-acre Rain Valley Ranch conservation easement “to avoid development encroachment upon the Fort (Huachuca) and sustain military operations.”
Special thanks to Grace and Amie Wystrach, who provided information for this article.