Rancho El Cojo

RANCHO EL COJO Santa Barbara County, California THE OFFERING For the first time in nearly a century, the Cojo Ranch is available for purchase. It represents the most highly coveted coastal property of scale to be offered for sale in the United States. Rancho El Cojo, or the Cojo Ranch, is a natural wonder on the Central California Coast. Stretching from Point Conception and the breathtaking Gaviota Coast to the foothills of the majestic Santa Ynez Mountains in western Santa Barbara County, the Cojo Ranch is a remarkably well preserved cultural landscape. Mother Nature has combined nine miles of pristine ocean coastline and sandy beaches, 8,580 acres of rolling grasslands and ancient oak forests, and sweeping panoramic views of the Santa Barbara Channel Islands to create a mural whose motif is spectacular unspoiled beauty. From the indigenous Chumash Indians to the arrival of the first Spanish explorers in the 16th century to Fred H. Bixby in 1913, all inhabitants recognized the value and potential of this rich and fertile land. Bixby Ranch Company has owned and operated the Cojo as a working cattle and horse ranch for nearly 100 years and has been committed to preserving the land’s rural identity and natural beauty to ensure that future generations may experience its wonder and awe. The Cojo Ranch is the last intact coastal ranch in Southern California of this size, a vast expanse of open land with many private scenic locations overlooking the Pacific Ocean. From Point Conception, migrating whales, breeding sea lions, and playful sea otters are commonly observed. The historic and solitary Point Conception Lighthouse, first activated in 1856, is still maintained by the Coast Guard and alerts ocean vessels of the abrupt 90 degree coastline turn at Point Conception, referred to by mariners as the “Cape Horn of California,” where ocean currents from the north meet the calm waters of the Santa Barbara Channel and create a dramatic and evolving natural environment that is unprecedented in the United States. Blessed with an exceptionally mild Mediterranean climate, the Cojo Ranch offers year round enjoyment of its wild splendor, which contains an incredible diversity of plant and animal life, with a paucity of man-made intrusions. The Cojo’s relatively warm and dry weather conditions to the south and east and cool, moist conditions to the north combine to produce morning coastal fog, afternoon ocean breezes, and heavenly star-filled nights. HISTORY OF THE COJO RANCH Rancho El Cojo (Cojo Ranch) was originally part of the 25,000-acre Rancho de la Punta Conception, awarded to Anastacio Carrillo by Governor Juan Batista Alvarado in 1837. The Cojo derived its name from soldiers traveling with Gaspar de Portola’s first overland expedition of Alta California who referred to the area around their encampment near Point Conception as Rancheria del Cojo (Ranch of the Lame) after the crippled chief of a local Chumash Indian village. The Cojo Ranch sits adjacent to Point Conception, a sacred site to the Chumash Indians that has served as an important tribal symbol for thousands of years. Originally called Humqaq (“The Raven Comes”), Point Conception represented the “western gate” to heaven, a spiritual portal into the celestial world where the souls of the dead depart for Shimilaqsha (“Realm of the Dead”). Centuries later in 1602 when Spanish navigator Sebastian Vizcaino reached this spectacular promontory around the feast day of the Immaculate Conception, he renamed it “Punta de la Limpia Concepcion” (“Point of the Immaculate Conception”), which eventually became known as Point Conception. Point Conception marks the northern entry to the Santa Barbara Channel, an abrupt 90 degree turn in the California coastline. In 1856, the Point Conception Lighthouse was built on a bluff nearly 200 feet above the Pacific Ocean. In 1881, to improve its visibility to ships, the lighthouse was built closer to sea level beneath the persistent fog. From the late 18th century to mid 19th century, the Santa Barbara area was largely isolated from major communities to the north and south due to the virtually impassable Santa Ynez Mountain Range and the lack of natural bays along the Gaviota coastline, severely limiting access to and from the region. In 1859, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors agreed to pay $15,000 to help improve the famed El Camino Real, or “King’s Highway”, a 700-mile long foot trail from San Diego to Sonoma, to accommodate intrastate stagecoach travel and to serve as the coastal route for the Overland Mail Company between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Due to the precipitous terrain along the Gaviota Coast just south of Point Conception, the roadway was directed inland through the Gaviota Pass where U.S. Highway 101 exists today. The decision to move the coastal route inland was significant in preserving the Cojo’s beautiful coastal landscape and that of other ranches along the northern Gaviota coast during the developing industrialization period. In 1876, the Cojo Ranch was sold to General P.W. Murphy, who 11 years later announced plans to develop a town on the land and construct a wharf at Cojo Bay when the Southern Pacific Railroad came up the coast. Murphy believed that the arrival of the railroad would lead to ranch lands being subdivided into homestead tracts and the Cojo would provide a major water outlet to a large population. Unfortunately for Murphy, the rails of the Southern Pacific railroad did not reach Point Conception until 1899, delayed in large part to the significant geographic barriers along the Gaviota Coast and the Panic of 1893, a serious decline in the U.S. economy brought about by a run on the nation’s gold supply that lasted three years and bankrupted 15,000 companies and 500 banks, many of them located in California. Murphy would eventually lose the Cojo through bank foreclosure. In 1898, the Cojo was subdivided into two parcels with the eastern 4,500-acre portion sold in 1913 to Fred H. Bixby who acquired the remaining Cojo acreage later in the 20th century. Fred H. Bixby started cattle ranching at the Cojo with two carloads of registered polled Herefords, which he bred to registered Brahma bulls, accounting for the superior quality of the Cojo beef stock. Bixby also admired horses and extensively bred Appaloosas, Shires, Belgians, and Clydesdales. In its heyday, the Cojo was known as one of the largest horse breeding ranches in the United States. Cattle and horses from the Cojo were shipped out by rail at the Concepcion depot, which also delivered mail to the ranch. In addition to being a working cattle and horse ranch, the Cojo also supported agricultural production, including olives, hay, mustard, beans, peas, and walnuts. The Cojo even served as an army camp during World War II. Today, the land has retained as much of its original character as when Fred Bixby acquired it nearly 100 years ago. THE GAVIOTA COAST: GATEWAY TO A HISTORIC PAST The spectacular Gaviota Coast in western Santa Barbara County represents the last significant tract of unprotected and undeveloped coastal land in Southern California. The Gaviota coastline lies between the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary and the Los Padres National Forest, and stretches 76 miles from Coal Oil Point in Goleta to Point Sal near Lompoc. The national importance of the Gaviota Coast is embodied in its unique biodiversity and immense agricultural and heritage value. It is an irreplaceable and unspoiled remnant of Southern California’s coastal resources and a refuge for wildlife populations. The Gaviota Coast is also rich in the history of the Chumash Indians, believed to be the first known people to inhabit this land, and contains invaluable archaeological resources that have remained relatively undisturbed for centuries. WILDLIFE CONSERVATION AREA The Gaviota Coast is part of the Southern California Coastal Province (Point Conception to Mexico), which contains the highest concentration of imperiled species anywhere in the United States. While the Gaviota Coast represents only 15% of the 300-mile Southern California coastline, it contains nearly half of its remaining rural coastline and retains the highest degree of biodiversity due to three factors: 1) much of the land has never been developed or has been exclusively utilized for agriculture or ranching; 2) the area is a transition zone between two distinct eco-regions; and 3) the adjacent Santa Ynez Mountains provide a major wildlife migration corridor from large interior wetlands. The Gaviota Coast forms the northern shore of the biologically important Santa Barbara Channel, whose complex sea bottom topography of ridges, islands, and basins creates a diverse collection of marine environments. The Channel Islands support unique and important marine communities and protect the mainland coast from the direct force of incoming south swells while Point Conception provides shelter from northwest swells. The Santa Barbara Channel thus comprises a relatively protected and benign environment for marine organisms and serves as an important migration route for ocean mammals, fishers, and seabirds. These abundant marine resources support a number of important commercial fisheries, aquaculture, kelp harvesting, and university research programs. In addition to featuring four species of pinnipeds (Northern elephant seal, harbor seal, California sea lion, and Northern fur seal), Baleen whales and dolphins are commonly observed in the Santa Barbara Channel and California gray, blue, and humpback whales are regular seasonal visitors. A large sea lion rookery thrives in a protected alcove at Point Conception. Terrestrial habitats in the Gaviota Coast include a wide variety of environments, such as live oak woodland, chaparral, coastal sage scrub, grassland, and riparian woodland. Over 525 plant species, representing approximately one-half of the plant families found in California, live along the Gaviota Coast, as well as more than 40 sensitive vertebrate species.

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