A Ranch: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Point Reyes National Seashore, National Park Service
National Park Service. 2004. A Ranch: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Point Reyes National Seashore, National Park Service. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 725012. NPS Pacific West Regional Office. Pacific West Regional Office/CLI Database
A Ranch is an approximately 1,100‑acre vernacular ranching landscape on the western tip of Point Reyes Peninsula in Point Reyes National Seashore. A Ranch is currently a Grade A dairy operated by George and Betty Nunes and their family. A Ranch is surrounded to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, on the east side by Drakes Bay, and bounded on the north by B Ranch. The ranch is located on rolling hills comprised almost entirely of grassland with brushy gulches and sandy or rocky beaches, while the dairy ranch core is located in a swale. The ranch, and the ranch core itself, is bisected by Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, with the dairy complex on the east side of the road and the housing and two storage barns on the west side. The boulevard forks a few hundred feet south of the dairy buildings, the west fork leading to the Point Reyes Lighthouse, the other to the fish docks and the old Coast Guard complex. The collection of corrals, fences, residences, outbuildings, Chimney Rock Road, and windbreaks form an isolated vernacular ranching landscape. A Ranch appears today much as it did during the period of significance of 1857 to 1956 when the ranch was initially developed by Captain Henrik Claussen for Oscar and James Shafter and Charles Webb Howard as part of the tenant‑operated dairy ranch system on the peninsula. This period encompasses the construction of the major developments at the ranch including; the roads, structures, fencelines, and landscape vegetation. Spatial organization, land use, vegetation, circulation, buildings and structures, and cluster arrangement are contributing landscape characteristics of the vernacular ranching landscape. A Ranch is locally significant under Criteria A, B, and C and retains integrity according to the National Register of Historic Places’ standards, which define integrity through the aspects of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and association. Overall, the landscape is in fair condition.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- National Park Service
- Date of Issue
- 2004-09-15
- Publisher
- NPS Pacific West Regional Office
- Units
- PORE , PWR
- Keywords
- Agriculture, Barn, Captain Henrik Claussen, Charles Webb Howard, Coast Miwok, Commerce, Dairy Farm, domestic, dormitory, Exploration, George Nunes Ranch, Historic Vernacular Landscape, Livestock, Ocean View Farm, Oscar Shafter, outbuilding, ranches, Ranching Communities, Recreation, residential, Scandinavian, Settlement, Single Family Dwelling, The Cattle Frontier, Vernacular architecture, Westward Expansion