Ryan Ranch was a homestead established in 1896 by Jepp and Tom Ryan to secure the natural spring once located there. The water was essential to the Lost Horse Mine, which they owned with their brother Matt and local prospector Johnny Lang. The ranch supported the mining operation by pumping water 3.5 miles to the mine, processing ore, and serving as a mining office and home. Cattle raised there helped feed the family and workers, and about 60 people lived at the ranch and mine during the gold boom. By 1908, full-time operation of the mine ceased and the Ryans turned their attention to cattle ranching until the establishment of Joshua Tree National Monument halted grazing. The adobe walls at the site were made from desert clay combined with sand, water, and Lost Horse Mine tailings. In the 1930s, Jepp Ryan discovered that the old mine tailings contained gold, which meant the bricks did too, leading to the name "the gold brick house." Time, fire, and vandals reduced the site to its present condition, leaving decaying adobe walls, a collapsed windmill, a stone-covered well, several graves, and machinery.