Robert Marshall, a veteran water attorney, put the better part of 30 years nailing down the water rights on a 1,200-acre ranch he owns in Warm Springs Valley.
Now he's looking to find how the market values the innumerable hours he spent interviewing old-timers, putting together affidavits and meeting with the state engineer.
Marshall is looking to sell the ranch off Pyramid Highway in Warm Springs Valley.A major selling point, he expects, will be the approximately 1,200 acre-feet of surface water rights that accompany the land.
Those rights are permitted for municipal use, although they're currently used on a working cattle ranch.
They also are permitted for transport to Lemmon Valley where a lack of available water has stymied development but that transfer might face environmental hurdles.
More likely,Marshall says, the buyer of the ranch will choose to use the water rights for residential development ranchettes, perhaps of the property itself.
The land approximately 25 miles north of Reno is located between the Dogskin and Virginia mountain ranges and is nearly surrounded by Bureau of Land Management holdings.
Derrick Parish, a senior advisor with Sperry Van Ness Commercial Real Estate Advisors, is handling the listing.
