Home Ranch: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Point Reyes National Seashore
Regions 8, 9, 10, & 12 Park Cultural Landscapes Program. 2004. Home Ranch: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Point Reyes National Seashore. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 725006. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. NPS Pacific West Regional Office, San Francisco, California / CRIS-CL Database
Inventory Unit Description: Home Ranch is an approximately 3,012-acre vernacular ranching landscape located near the center of the Point Reyes Peninsula on the Point Reyes Peninsula in Point Reyes National Seashore. The last three generations of Murphy family have continued ranching at Home Ranch after more than sixty-seven years of use by the family. The area east of the ranch is designated as wilderness, formerly the Turney property (Glenbrook and New Albion Ranches). The ranch complex is nestled in a small valley, which drains into nearby Home Bay, an arm of Drakes Estero. The ranch is bisected by Home Ranch Road, a slightly realigned version of the original Point Reyes Road going to the ranches and lighthouse. The road passes through the ranch complex, with dwellings and barns on both sides of the road. Home Ranch is the oldest existing ranch complex on Point Reyes peninsula, containing the oldest known building and, served as the headquarters for the Shafter dairy interests beginning in the 1850s. 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. With Home Ranch at the central location on the Point Reyes peninsula, other “satellite” or secondary ranches were located around it. Throughout the 1860s, Home Ranch served as the headquarters for the Shafter/Howard dairies including the alphabetized ranches and Drakes Head Ranch, New Albion Ranch, Glenbrook Ranch, Muddy Hollow Ranch, Laguna Ranch, Sunnyside Ranch, Vision Ranch, Oporto Ranch, Glen Ranch, and Wildcat Ranch. Home ranch provided the surrounding ranches a butcher shop, blacksmith shop, and a storehouse/grocery store. Following the land partition of 1869, Home Ranch no longer served as the headquarters; and by 1919, many of the ranches that were formerly a part of the satellite system were gone, with exception of the alphabetized ranches and Laguna Ranch. Home Ranch appears today much as it did during the period of significance of 1857 to 1956. This period encompasses the construction of the major developments at the ranch including the roads, structures, fencelines, and landscape vegetation.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Regions 8, 9, 10, & 12 Park Cultural Landscapes Program
- Date of Issue
- 2004-09-15
- Publisher
- U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
- Units
- PORE , PWR
- Keywords
- agriculture, architecture, blacksmith shop, butcher shop, commerce, dairy ranch, Drakes Bay Hereford Ranch, exploration - settlement, grocery store, historic vernacular landscape, Leeland Murphy Ranch, livestock, Marin Ranch Company, ranch, ranch headquarters, ranching community, ranching landscape, rural historic district, storehouse, vernacular architecture