Bonnie Springs Ranch was an attraction near Blue Diamond, Nevada that included an 1880s Western town replica and a zoo.

It is located on 63.86 acres (25.84 ha) in the Mojave Desert, below the Spring Mountains in the Red Rock Canyon area, 20 miles west of Las Vegas.

In January 2019, plans were announced to demolish the ranch and replace it with approximately 20 custom homes, a new restaurant and motel, and a barn to be used for events.

[5] In 1846, General John C. Frémont, on his way to Alta California, stopped at the springs to prepare for the trip through Death Valley to the Pueblo de Los Angeles.

[8] In 1952, Bonnie McGaugh delivered turkeys to a friend who owned a diner in Las Vegas and a ranch in the nearby Red Rock Canyon.

[8] The 115-acre ranch – located 20 miles west of Las Vegas near Blue Diamond, Nevada – included a broken-down bar and a three-room house.

[27] During the 1960s, Al Levinson planned to develop a housing community on 34 acres of vacant land located a half mile east of the ranch.

[34] During the mid-1980s, Al Levinson had a three-year disagreement with Clark County officials over who would pay for 1.3 miles of flood-damaged road leading to the ranch.

[17] In mid-2005, Alan Levinson had plans to develop a 17-house neighborhood as part of Bonnie Springs, with each house located on two acres of land, in accordance with local zoning laws.

The project was to be built on 34 acres of vacant property located a half mile east of the ranch, where Al Levinson previously planned a housing community in the 1960s.

The ranch-style housing project received little opposition, and was approved by the Red Rock Citizens Advisory Council and the Clark County Planning Commission.

The Nature Conservancy and the Sierra Club, environmental organizations, did not believe the project would have a large impact on the Red Rock Canyon area.

[48] Upon learning that the site was for sale,[49] Joel Laub, a housing developer,[47] contacted his friend, attorney J. Randall Jones;[48][49] they partnered to purchase the 63-acre property,[48][14][50] under the name BSR6276 LLC.

[48][14][50][47] Under the agreement, construction of the project would not begin until the ranch's animals were relocated,[14] a task that would be handled by the Levinsons,[47] who were supportive of the redevelopment plans.

For the new project, Laub consulted with wildlife experts and arborists for a design that would include native plants and encourage movement of desert animals.

[56] Jones stated that while additional homes and a larger motel could have been added to the redevelopment plans, they chose not to do so, to keep the area as similar to Bonnie Springs as possible.

[47] Visitation increased by hundreds of people in the days following the announcement of the redevelopment plans,[58][59] which received backlash from the public,[56] as expected by Laub and Jones.

"[47] Later in January 2019, it was announced that a third party buyer was interested in fully relocating the ranch's western town to a new site to continue its operations as an attraction.

Opponents included Nevada's Center for Biological Diversity, which believed that the homes – referring to them as "McMansions" – would "fundamentally alter the character of Red Rock."

Planning commissioner Nelson Stone said the new project would allow for a restoration of the natural environment, and believed that noise in the area would "all but disappear".

[67][68] Kathy Espin, an opinion writer for Las Vegas Review-Journal, believed that Bonnie Springs' closure was not a significant loss for the community.

[79] The two-story Bonnie Springs motel included a swimming pool and themed rooms such as Chinese, Spanish, and American Indian.

[54][82] On weekends, a miniature train provided optional transportation from a large parking lot to the ranch's motel and the Old Nevada western town.

[83] Prior to the opening of a restaurant on the property, Bonnie Levinson had served biscuits and coffee as a snack to friends who came to visit the ranch.

[22] In 1972, construction began on Old Nevada,[6] the name given to a series of buildings replicating an 1880s mining town,[25] with an opening planned for early summer 1973.

[31] At the time, Old Nevada included the Miner's Restaurant,[31] a casino, and a miniature steam train, as well as a shootout show between a law official and a gunman, followed by a hanging.

[93][33] Old Nevada also had shops which sold artifacts and antiques that had been collected by Al Levinson,[5] while a western-style saloon included a 900-person capacity for group events such as parties.

[17][96] To increase visitor attendance to the ranch,[97] the saloon began featuring a vaudeville dinner show titled Bonnie's Old West Musical Revue,[98][99] which ran on weekends from May to August 2012.

[5] By 1997, the zoo included bobcats, burros, coatimundi and lynx, coyotes, ferrets, hedgehogs, llamas, porcupines, prairie dogs, squirrels, turtles, and a woodchuck.

[132] Bonnie Springs Ranch was featured as one of the haunted locations in the Paranormal TV series, Most Terrifying Places in America in an episode titled "Devil's Playground" which aired on the Travel Channel in 2018.