Spring Mountain Ranch State Park in Cottonwood Valley preserves the historic Sandstone Ranch within Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. Its oasis setting along a spring-fed wash made it an important stopping place on an alternate route of the Spanish Trail from the mid-1830s until railroad travel replaced wagon traffic in 1905. The route also became associated with outlaw activity, and local tradition linked the site to mountain man Bill Williams after an 1840 raid in California. Established as Sand Stone Ranch in 1876 by Sergeant James B. Wilson and George Anderson, the ranch survives with a cluster of historic buildings and reflects both Nevada ranching history and the area's distinctive desert-to-mountain landscape.