Ben Bacon Ranch Historic District: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Pinnacles National Monument, National Park Service

Cain, Cortney; Biscombe, Jason; Babalis, Timothy

The proposed 331.00‑acre Ben Bacon Ranch Historic District is a vernacular landscape that represents the pre‑irrigation homestead/agricultural landscape of central California. The Historic District is the core area of the larger 1,967 acre Pinnacles Ranch, which was acquired and added to Pinnacles National Monument in 2006. The Pinnacles Ranch boundary roughly corresponds to the lands acquired by homesteader, Ben Bacon, during the proposed period of significance. Pinnacles Ranch is located in on the east side of Pinnacles National Monument, south of Highway 25 (Airline Highway) and largely to the east of Highway 146 (Pinnacles Highway). The Ben Bacon Ranch Historic District includes the northern portion of the Sandy Creek Valley floor, where two historic homesteads and their associated agricultural features are located. The Bacon Homestead Cluster includes the home of Ben Bacon, associated outbuildings, structures, features, and vegetation. The Butterfield Cluster contains barns, archaeological features, and tree stands associated with agricultural activities of the Butterfield and Bacon families. The Ben Bacon Ranch Historic District is locally significant under Criterion A for its association with early subsistence and small‑scale commercial agriculture in California. The period of significance starts in 1865, when the first homesteaders settled along Sandy Creek, and ends in 1941, when the last of the original homesteading generation died and their way of life ended. The Historic District retains its integrity as a pre‑irrigation homestead in the San Benito County area. The Historic District retains its landscape characteristics associated with agriculture prior to the development and widespread use of irrigation systems for intensive agricultural production, including hand dug ditches and natural water sources. The Historic District is associated with local settlers Ben Bacon, George Butterfield, Elizabeth Bacon, and Gustav Lange. Ben Bacon acquired all of the land within the Historic District during the period of significance and used the valley to cultivate crops. The buildings and features retained at the Bacon and Butterfield clusters convey the historical significance of the pre‑irrigation agricultural developments in the region through the design of these core homestead clusters. Also evident is the relationship of the homesteads to the surrounding landscape, as defined by existing historic road alignments, fence lines and vegetation. Much of the historic road system is retained and conveys the historic relationships between the homesteads, croplands and pasture, other homesteads, and the larger region. Overall, the character of the vegetation, particularly the open grasslands, riparian corridors, oak stands, and planted trees around the homesteads dominate the landscape and convey the historic character established during the period of significance by a combination of cultivation and grazing. The historic buildings and structures that remain still convey a strong feeling of the historic character of this agricultural landscape. Overall, modern additions represent a relatively small area of the Ben Bacon Ranch Historic District. Modern modifications are often compatible with historic fabric, limited in area, and reversible. The principal use of the land since the historic period has been livestock grazing until the land became part of Pinnacles National Monument in 2006. This land use has not changed the character of the landscape, and is compatible with historic usage because significant portions of the Ben Bacon Ranch were used for pasture during the historic period. While the Historic District’s buildings, structures, and planted trees have been neglected since the period of significance, this has not affected the historical integrity of the district. The overall landscape is in fair condition with stabilization needed for historic structures.

Ben Bacon Ranch Historic District: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Pinnacles National Monument, National Park Service

Series

Collections