Point Reyes Ranches Historic District: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Point Reyes National Seashore
Regions 8, 9, 10, & 12 Park Cultural Landscapes Program. 2004. Point Reyes Ranches Historic District: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Point Reyes National Seashore. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 725005. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. NPS Pacific West Regional Office, San Francisco, California / CRIS-CL Database
Inventory Unit Description: The Point Reyes Ranches Historic District is a vernacular landscape consisting of seventeen ranch properties whose delineations date to the period of significance of 1857 to 1956. Located on flat plains characterized by coastal prairie and coastal shrub areas which span from the base of Inverness Ridge to the Great Beach extending south to the Point Reyes headlands, and east along Drakes Bay to Glenbrook in Point Reyes National Seashore in western Marin County, California, the landscape consists of approximately 20,000 acres on the northern end of the Point Reyes Peninsula, approximately one hour north of San Francisco. Mexican land grantees brought cattle to Point Reyes in the 1830s. A regionally significant dairy industry developed starting in 1857 and thrived for over 100 years; a number of the original dairy ranches continue to operate within the boundaries of Point Reyes National Seashore. As a region, Point Reyes ranches played an instrumental part in the development of the dairy industry in California, and were among the first large-scale and high-quality dairies in the state. At one time the Shafters' butter district was considered to be the largest in the world. The period begins in 1857 with the acquisition of land by the law firm, Shafter, Shafter, Park and Heydenfledt and the subsequent development of a series of tenant ranches that totaled thirty-two dairy ranches. The period ends with conversion of the last dairy ranch to a Grade A dairy operation in 1956. This period of time provides an understanding of the dairy and beef cattle industry on the peninsula and within a larger regional context. The system of ranches is significant for its contribution to the state's dairy industry and the commerce of San Francisco. The Point Reyes dairy ranches contain more than one hundred historic buildings and other landscape features, but it is the overall spatial distribution of the ranches that allows for the understanding of the evolution of the dairy industry over a hundred year period. With seventeen ranch complexes remaining in use, the ranch district as a whole has state and local significance and retains integrity.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Regions 8, 9, 10, & 12 Park Cultural Landscapes Program
- Date of Issue
- 2004-08-12
- Publisher
- U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
- Units
- GOGA , PORE , PWR
- Keywords
- agriculture, architecture, commerce, dairy ranching, exploration - settlement, grazing, historic vernacular landscape, industry, livestock, ranching, ranching community, tenant ranch, vernacular architecture
- Subjects
- CRIS-CL: 725005: Point Reyes Ranches Historic District
Series
See also
- Ranching on the Point Reyes Peninsula: A History of the Dairy and Beef Ranches Within Point Reyes National Seashore, 1834-1992
- A Ranch: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Point Reyes National Seashore, National Park Service
- B Ranch: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Point Reyes National Seashore
- C Ranch: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Point Reyes National Seashore
- D Ranch: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Point Reyes National Seashore
- Home Ranch: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Point Reyes National Seashore
- I Ranch: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Point Reyes National Seashore
- L Ranch: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Point Reyes National Seashore
- M Ranch: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Point Reyes National Seashore
- Pierce Ranch: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Point Reyes National Seashore
- Rogers Ranch: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Point Reyes National Seashore