A Guide to the Records of
Mary Bean
Collection No. 95-10

MARY BEAN

Mary Bean was born in November, 1939, in Reno, Nevada. Her parents were Mary Bernice Hood Cutlip (known as Bernice or Bernie) and Wayne Gordon Cutlip.

Bernice Cutlip was born and raised in central and southern California; her parents were Frances Patterson Hood and Allen Roy Hood. After high school she attended business college and then typed scrips for a movie studio. She continued to do secretarial work throughout most of her life and died in 1981.

Wayne Cutlip, born in 1906, was a rodeo cowboy and did stuntwork and stock wrangling for the movie industry in Hollywood, California. The Cutlips were married in 1935 in Minden, Nevada. Wayne worked in the Reno area for various riding stables, then in 1936 the Cutlips moved to the Pyramid Lake Guest Ranch where he was employed as a wrangler and Bernice worked as a secretary and postmistress at Sutcliffe Post Office. After the birth of Mary, their only child, they moved first to Reno and then to other ranches in northern Nevada. Wayne continued to work with the movie industry until 1972. He died in 1988.

The Pyramid Lake Guest Ranch was a privately owned resort in the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe reservation and was located on the west side of Pyramid Lake at Sutcliffe. It was owned by members of the Kitselman family from 1936 to the 1950s. It was purchased by Alva LaSalle (Beau) Kitselman in 1936 who transferred ownership to his sister, Marjorie Kitselman Dunn Hanson O'Shea Rautzahn, and his mother, Leslie Kitselman Figeroa in 1940. They incorporated the ranch as The Sage. Beau sued to recover the ranch in 1947 but lost the suit in 1948. Marjorie died in 1953 and Leslie died in 1962.

Additional biographical information about the Cutlip and Kitselman families and about the Pyramid Lake Guest Ranch, may be found in Series II/1.
 

SCOPE AND CONTENT

The Mary Bean papers were donated to the Special Collections Department by Mrs. Bean in 1994 and 1995. The papers, .5 cubic feet in volume, date from 1934-1967 with no restrictions on their access.

The collection has been arranged into three series: the Pyramid Lake Guest Ranch, Bernice Cutlip and family, and Wayne Cutlip.

The bulk of these materials relate to Pyramid Lake and the Pyramid Lake Guest Ranch (also known as The Sage). There are few business records of the Ranch but there is a wealth of information about the guest ranch contained in the lists of guests and other guest ranches in 1936; clippings about the lake, Ranch, and Kitselman family; and articles about the Kitselman law suit in 1947-1948.

One of the most informative folders contains notes compiled by Mary Bean which include biographical sketches of her parents, reminiscences of incidents in her life, information about the Kitselman family, and a chronology of the Pyramid Lake Guest Ranch, 1936-1957. See folder 95-10/II/1 for more details about any of the above subjects.

The ranch is referred to variously throughout this collection as the Pyramid Lake Guest Ranch, the Pyramid Lake Dude Ranch, and The Sage. The name has been standardized to the Pyramid Lake Guest Ranch in this guide and in the University Library's online catalog.

Arranged by: Susan Searcy
Date: June 7, 1995

 

The Mary Bean papers have been arranged into the following series:

I. Pyramid Lake Guest Ranch

II. Bernice Hood Cutlip

III. Wayne Cutlip

 

Series I. Pyramid Lake Guest Ranch. 1936-1955. 9 folders.

I/1 List of ranch guests, 1936 and brochure. List of northern Nevada guest ranches, 1936.

I/2 Ranch and Pyramid Lake flyers and brochures.

I/3 Pyramid Lake Guest Ranch accounts by Bernice Cutlip. 1939.

I/4 Clippings: obituaries.

I/5 Clippings: legal questions over ownership of Pyramid Lake Guest Ranch.

I/6 Clippings: articles about Pyramid Lake.

I/7 Clippings: Basel Woon articles about Pyramid Lake, 1955.

I/8 Salvador Covarrubias De Regil, painter.

I/9 Prose and poetry by Pyramid Lake Guest Ranch visitors.

 

Series II. Bernice Hood Cutlip. 1936-1967. 9 folders.

II/1 Historical notes by Mary Bean about her parents, Bernice and Wayne Cutlip, and the Pyramid Lake Guest Ranch.

II/2 Correspondence to and from Bernice Cutlip [mostly related to the Pyramid Lake Guest Ranch]. 1936-1958.

II/3 Bernice Hood Cutlip misc.

II/4 Income tax returns of the Cutlip family, 1942-1944.

II/5-6 Account ledgers kept by Bernice Cutlip (of family?), 1936-1944.

II/7 Frances W. Hood.

II/8 Scrapbook of Mary Lea Cutlip Bean, 1944.

II/9 Newspaper clippings found under the carpet of Bowers Mansion during its 1967 remodeling (when Bernice worked for architect Ed Parsons).

 

Series III. Wayne Cutlip. 1934-1967. 3 folders.

III/1 Wayne Cutlip misc., 1934-1967.

III/2 Horse related materials, 1944-1963.

III/3 Nevada Brand Book, 1941.