Rancho Sisquoc: Enduring Legacy of an Historic Land Grant Ranch celebrates the spectacular landscape, fascinating history, colorful characters, and timeless traditions of one of California’s last intact Mexican land grant ranches.
The ranch’s approximately 37,000 acres extend from the edge of the Los Padres National Forest to the lush vineyards on the mesas to fertile farmland in the bottomland, and range almost the entire length of the Sisquoc River valley in northern Santa Barbara County. Engaging text, maps, and archival documents are paired with vintage and contemporary photographs to bring the landscape and its history to life, from prehistory to the days of the vaqueros, from turn-of-the-century homesteading to the realities of a contemporary cattle ranch, farming operation, vineyard and winery with a passionate wine club membership of 1,500.
Forewords by former Governor Edmund Gerald Brown, Jr., a California history enthusiast; Stephen T. Hearst, whose interest in preservation extends to his oversight of the vast ranch lands surrounding Hearst Castle; and Eric Hvolboll, a rancher and longtime friend of the Flood family whose ancestors came from Mexico to Santa Barbara County in the 1700s, add depth and perspective to the narrative. An introduction by co-owner Judith Flood Wilbur and preface by author Elizabeth Clair Flood speak to the role the ranch has played in the lives of one family for seven decades, and their hopes for preserving it for future generations. Rancho Sisquoc: Enduring Legacy of an Historic Land Grant Ranch will give readers a sense of this special place and its unique role in California history.
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