I Ranch: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Point Reyes National Seashore
Regions 8, 9, 10, & 12 Park Cultural Landscapes Program. 2004. I Ranch: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Point Reyes National Seashore. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 725167. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. NPS Pacific West Regional Office, San Francisco, California / CRIS-CL Database
Inventory Unit Description: I Ranch is an approximately 1,692-acre vernacular ranching landscape located in the northern portion of the Point Reyes Peninsula in Point Reyes National Seashore. I Ranch is currently a Grade A dairy operated by the McClure family. I Ranch is bordered by J and K Ranches to the north, L Ranch to the east, H Ranch and Abbott's Lagoon to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. The ranch is located in a wide valley composed of brush and grassland that drains into Abbott's Lagoon. A low ridge protects the valley from the harsh weather of the Pacific Ocean. The ranch complex sits on the eastern slope of this protective ridge and commands a wide view of Point Reyes. I 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 core of I Ranch included approximately eight buildings. The buildings within the ranch complex were organized into two separate areas: a residential area in the north half of the complex, and a working area in the south half. The residential area included the original main residence, a 1940 main residence and garage, a bunkhouse, and a potato shed. The buildings in the working area included a horse barn, a milking barn, a feed barn, a calf barn, a hog shed, dairy house, a Grade A dairy and milking parlor, and a heavy equipment shed. Spaces between the buildings were delineated with fences and vegetation. Fences created corrals and separated the ranch core from the outlying pastures. Vegetation defined the yard in front of the old main residence. 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
- Abbot Place Ranch, agriculture, architecture, barn, bunkhouse, commerce, corrals, dairy ranching, exploration - settlement, fenceline, Grade A dairy, Henrik Claussen, historic vernacular landscape, livestock, McClure Ranch, Oscar Shafter’s Ranch, potato shed, ranching communities, ranching landscape, vernacular architecture