Ranch History

Main House

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 The residence of Sergio and his family is located in the center of the ranch, surrounded on 2 1/2 sides by San Lucas Creek. It was once a stagecoach stop between Santa Barbara and Los Olivos. We had always heard that it was a very old house, the only one on the ranch when Grandmother bought it in 1924. It is constructed of redwood boards 1"x12"s on end, and when we reroofed the house a few years ago and had to replace a few boards due to dry rot, we found that what held it together were hand-forged iron nails. This dates the building to the late 1800's. The fireplaces were constructed of river rock from the property and are magnificent.

There has always been the story of how a team of horses drowned in the San Lucas Creek crossing by the ranch-house but until 1997, no one really believed it. During El Nino, San Lucase Creek had so much water in it, it split into three parts.

One part was the original route that ittakes in a "normal" year, one part broke to the right, went straight through the corrals, across HWY 154, through the hay barn, through the driveway (it had become a swiftly moving body of water), and then straight on to the river. The third surrounded Sergio's house on three sides. We were afraid we were going to lose it and some oether buildings close to the creek, but some swift work by some helpful people diverted the majority of the water until it subsided. It was a scary time for all! Several horses were foudn in the barn in the morning in water up to their knees - they were promptly moved to higher ground.

Normally, during the winter when a big storm is approaching, Sergio and his family will move their cars to the yard area away from teh house in case the creek makes it impossible for them to cross. Their access is then across the foot bridge, the third we've had in the eighty years we've been here. There used to be two bunkhouses next to the main house where the cowboy crew lived, but in the 60's a fire destroyed one of them. They are presumably the same age as the main house. New machinery, new methods of animal husbandry, and lack of competent personnel made the use of a large cowboy crew no longer feasible.

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