A signed agreement between Homestake Mining Company and the University of California established the reserve as a research and teaching facility in January 1993.

[2] The Ray Krauss Field Station was established on the reserve in 1998 and hosts university courses and research such as geology, plant evolution and genetics, among others.

Although the reserve is not open to the general public, there are workshops, lectures, and guided field hikes available.

In 1992, Homestake purchased the nearby Gamble Ranch, and with a boundary adjustment, historic Knoxville as well.

At the McLaughlin Natural Reserve, the town of Knoxville is a few stone walls, all that is left from a mining community of 300 people and fifty buildings during its heyday of the 1880s.