Cottonwood Guest Ranch – Serving Veterans

By Aimee Green, NDVS Suicide Prevention Specialist 

Cottonwood Guest Ranch is in the heart of Nevada’s Great Basin; Cottonwood is a fifth generation working horse and cattle ranch. For the last two decades the Smith family has opened their doors to guests from around the world.   

The current ranch manager is Agee Smith who served in the Vietnam War. He wanted to share the experience of the ranch, which has been around for more than six generations to veterans in surrounding areas. The mission of the ranch is to provide a customized, personal, needs-based ranch retreat for postwar service members.  The goal is to calm the mind, body, and spirit, while facilitating a program with depth, to assist postwar service members in the advancement of their personal life, family relationships, career, and future. A place to unwind, reboot, build trust, and reconnect with nature.   

The Elko Mayor’s Challenge team, alongside Kairos Recovery, and Zero Suicides Elko County worked with Agee to provide six veterans to attend a Veterans Retreat for free on July 19th through the 21st.  Elko Mayor’s Challenge team lead George Roloson is an Army Veteran and resides in Elko. He stated, “It was a great chance for the six veterans to relax outside of cell service and to connect with other like-minded individuals.”  

For more information on the Cottonwood Guest Ranch visit: https://www.cottonwoodguestranch.com/