What was really going on at those Nevada divorce ranches? Writers to unravel
Reno’s notorious mid-century divorce ranches are back in the spotlight. The Nevada Historical Society will present What Was Really Going On At Those Nevada Divorce Ranches? Fact and Fiction next month as part of its popular Writer’s Wednesday series.
Author Sandra McGee, co-author of a richly illustrated divorce ranch memoir with her late husband, Bill McGee, will explore the enduring mystique of this era with Carson City novelist P.W. Borgman.
McGee has just released a commemorative edition of The Divorce Seekers, hailed as the “bible of the Nevada Divorce Ranch Era.”
Borgman’s newly released second novel, The Better Half, is a historical thriller set on a Washoe Valley divorce ranch.
Borgman was inspired by Bill McGee’s colorful memoir of his adventures as a young dude wrangler on the exclusive Flying M E Ranch in the Washoe Valley during the late 1940’s. His book brings to life the heady atmosphere of the ranch, where blueblooded women from the East spent their six weeks to establish Nevada residency. It includes McGee’s brushes with the legendary Lucius Beebe and a jaunt to the Genoa Bar with Clark Gable and Ava Gardner.
The Better Half also draws on the tragic history of Carson City’s Stewart Indian School, placing its heroine there during the turbulent decades of the 1920’s and 1930’s. Profits from the book are being donated to The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition.
The event is set for Wednesday, May 8, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the Nevada Historical Society, 1650 N. Virginia St., in Reno. Admission is free. For more information visit NVhistoricalsociety.org or call 775.688.1191.