B Ranch: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Point Reyes National Seashore
Regions 8, 9, 10, & 12 Park Cultural Landscapes Program. 2004. B Ranch: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Point Reyes National Seashore. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 725016. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. NPS Pacific West Regional Office, San Francisco, California / CRIS-CL Database
Inventory Unit Description: B Ranch is an approximately 1,353-acre vernacular ranching landscape located near the tip of the Point Reyes Peninsula in Point Reyes National Seashore. B Ranch is currently a Grade A dairy operated by Joe Mendoza. B Ranch is bordered by A Ranch to the south and C Ranch on the north, to the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the east side by Drakes Bay. The ranch complex is located on the relatively flat ridge at the center of the property. The surrounding pastures slope toward the Pacific Ocean or Drakes Bay and are comprised almost entirely of grassland, except for the coastal strand along Point Reyes Beach and some brushy slopes. The ranch is bisected by Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, with the ranch core on the east side of the road. The collection of corrals, fences, residences, outbuildings, and windbreaks form an isolated vernacular ranching landscape. B 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. The historic B Ranch complex, while undergoing occasional modifications and improvements and the loss of the calf barn, some sheds, and pig pens, is nearly intact. The original house, dairy, horse barn and milking barn, as well as the 1940 sanitary barn, exist side-by side with the more recent dwellings, loafing barn and dairy waste systems. The dairy activities have shifted to the southwest where modern milking and feeding occur and waste system operations are located. Spatial organization, land use, vegetation, circulation, buildings and structures, and cluster arrangement are contributing landscape characteristics of the vernacular ranching landscape.
- 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, barn, commerce, corrals, dairy ranching, Drakes Bay, exploration - settlement, fencing, Grade A dairy, Henrik Claussen, historic vernacular landscape, ranching community, ranching landscape, tenant ranch, vernacular architecture, windbreak