Ben Bacon Ranch Historic District: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Pinnacles National Monument
Regions 8, 9, 10, & 12 Park Cultural Landscapes Program.. 2022. Ben Bacon Ranch Historic District: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Pinnacles National Monument. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 725493. National Park Service. Pacific West Regional Office/CRIS Database
The 350.1-acre Ben Bacon Ranch Historic District (Historic District) is a vernacular landscape that represents the preirrigation homestead/agricultural landscape of central California. This inventory focuses on the homestead period because the buildings, structures, and associated landscape characteristics date from the state’s early agricultural period. This is not to diminish the significance of prior historic periods, but rather the focus is on inventorying those resources that still stand today. The Historic District is the core area of the larger 1,967-acre Pinnacles Ranch, which was acquired and added to Pinnacles National Park in 2006. The Pinnacles Ranch boundary roughly corresponds to the lands acquired by homesteader, Ben Bacon, during the proposed period of significance. The Historic District is locally significant under Criterion A for its association with early semi-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. After the period of significance, the local agricultural economy (including the Ben Bacon Ranch) stagnated, isolating Bear Valley from the larger patterns of development which characterized agricultural communities throughout most of the rest of California. 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 original CLI was certified 4/10/2009. The CLI was updated with existing conditions information by Sang Bae (Regional Cultural Resource Specialist) and Erika Schroeder (Regional Historical Landscape Architect) in March of 2020.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Regions 8, 9, 10, & 12 Park Cultural Landscapes Program.
- Date of Issue
- 2022-01-15
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- PINN , PWR
- Keywords
- Agriculture, animal husbandry, Bacon Homesteader Cluster, Barn, Bear Valley, Butterfield Cluster, domestic, Education, Elizabeth Bacon, George Butterfield, Gustav Lange, Historic Vernacular Landscape, homestead, Interpretative Landscape, Livestock, Pinnacles Ranch, ranches, residential, Shorthorn Ranch, Single Family Dwelling, Transportation
- Subjects
- CRIS-CL: 725493: Ben Bacon Ranch Historic District
- License
- Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International