California Ranches and Ranchos Museums

California Ranch Museums and Historic Ranchos

ANZA
Hamilton Museum
39991 Contreras Rd
Anza, CA 92539
951-763-1350
hamiltonmuseum.org
Wednesdays & Saturdays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.:
Admission to the museum is free. Cash donations or historical items are greatly appreciated.

BANNING
Gilman Historic Ranch
1901 West Wilson St.
Banning, CA 92220
951-205-0494
rivcoparks.org
The Gilman Historic Ranch and Wagon Museum preserves, celebrates, and interprets the late 1800's history of California, from the Cahuilla Indians to the exploration and settlement of southern California and the San Gorgonio Pass, including the homestead ranch of James Marshall Gilman.

CALABASAS Leonis Adobe Museum
23537 Calabasas Road, Calabasas
(818) 222-6511
back in 1844, six years before Los Angeles was incorporated and California was given statehood, this modest little adobe structure was built. One theory is that it served as a stagecoach stop on the El Camino Real, the King's Highway connecting California's missions. Around 1880, Miguel Leonis and his wife, Espiritu Chijulla, the daughter of a Chumash chief, moved into their adobe brick house, enlarging and extensively remodeling the building into the gracious Monterey-Style mansion you see today. Leonis was Basque, born in the French Pyrenees. Once in the U.S., amassing huge wealth from real estate, litigation, and dowry, he came to be known as "El Basquo Grande" and "King of Calabasas" and pretty much ruled a huge chunk of the San Fernando Valley. He died in 1889 from injuries suffered in a wagon accident. In order to inherit the estate, Espiritu had to go to court to prove she was Leonis's legal wife. She ultimately did, but only a year before her death in 1906.

CAMARILLO
Camarillo Ranch and the Adolfo Camarillo House Museum Ranch House - City of Camarillo, CA
601 Carmen Drive
Camarillo, California
(805) 388 5300
ci.camarillo.ca.us

CARLSBAD
Leo Carrillo Ranch Historic Park
6200 Flying Leo Carrillo Lane
Carlsbad, CA 92009
carrilloranch@carlsbadca.gov
760-476-1042
Leo Carrillo Ranch is a 27-acre historical park

DURHAM
Patrick Ranch Museum
10381 Midway, Durham, CA 95938
patrickranchmuseum.org

GARDEN GROVE
Stanley Ranch Museum
11222 Acacia Parkway
Garden Grove, CA 92840
714-741-5000
ci.garden-grove.ca.us/HistoricalSociety
The two acre property is now known as the Stanley Ranch Museum and some of Garden

GLEN ELLEN jacklondons.net
Jack London Museum
Located a few miles off Highway 12, near the small town of Glen Ellen, CA. take Highway 12 from Santa Rosa east. Turn right on Arnold drive; in the center of Glen Ellen turn right on London Ranch Road. Or from Highway 101, take 37 to 121. Turn left at 121 and go to 116 (Arnold drive). Stay on Arnold Drive until you get to Glen Ellen. From Glen Ellen, turn left onto London Ranch Road.

JENNER The Call House Museum
Fort Ross Conservancy
19005 Coast Highway One
Jenner, CA 95450
707-847-3437
fortross.org
Original ranch era house museum and garden of George and Mercedes Call located at Fort Ross Historic State Park. The cooperation and encouragement of the Call family descendants helped to recreate the life of George Washington Call (1829-1907) and his young Chilean wife, Mercedes Leiva (1850-1933), who bought 2500 acres of the Fort Ross (as part of Muniz Rancho) in 1873. Open for docent tours on weekends. an excellent representation of the coastal Ranch era. The Calls built this residence in 1878, as a headquarters for the ranch and shipping operations, and a home for their family, which eventually included nine children.

NEWHALL William S. Hart Ranch & Museum
William S. Hart Park
24151 Newhall Avenue
Newhall, California 91321
Museum Information : (661) 254-4584
hartmuseum.org
William S. Hart Park and Museum is the former retirement home of the famed silent film actor and director who produced a series of hit Western movies in the early 1900's. His beautiful Spanish Colonial Revival Style Mansion – now the Museum – exhibits an impressive collection of Western artwork by noted artists Charles M. Russell, Frederic Remington, and Joe de Yong, as well as mementos from early Hollywood, personal furnishings and effects, and artifacts representing multiple Native American cultures. The Museum also includes an historic 1910 Ranch House that exhibits Hart's tack and saddle collection, personal furnishings, and additional Hollywood mementos.

PACIFIC PALISADES
Will Rogers State Historic Park
1501 Will Rogers Park Road
Pacific Palisades, CA 90272
310-454-8212
parks.ca.gov
Parking $12

PIRU
Rancho Camulos Museum
5164 East Telegraph Road
(Highway 126)
Piru CA 93040
805-521-1501
ranchocamulos.org
where the history, myth and romance of Old California
still linger. Although Rancho Camulos became well known among Californians for the accomplishments of three generations of Del Valles in both the political and agricultural history of the state, it is best recognized as the "Home of Ramona." When Helen Hunt Jackson published her best-selling novel Ramona in 1884

RANCHO DOMINGUEZ
Dominguez Rancho Adobe Museum
18127 S. Alameda St.
Rancho Dominguez, CA 90220 USA
(310) 603-0088
dominguezrancho.org
Dominguez Rancho Adobe Museum is California State Historic Landmark No.152. Also on National Register of Historic Places.

RIVERSIDE
Jensen-Alvarado Historic Ranch and Museum
4307 Briggs St., Riverside, CA, 92519
(951) 369-6055
rivcoparks.org
A living historical agricultural museum

SANTA CRUZ
Wilder Ranch State Park
west of Highway One, approximately 1.8 miles past the Western Drive stoplight.
831-423-9703
parks.ca.gov
The park has 34 miles of hiking, biking and equestrian trails winding through coastal terraces and valleys. Several restored buildings once belonging to the Wilder family are preserved. The park has tours and living history demonstrations to help visitors explore the history of early ranchers and farmers along the Central Coast. The site was originally the main rancho supplying Santa Cruz Mission. It later became a successful and innovative dairy ranch. Surrounding grounds include Victorian homes, gardens, and historic adobe.
The park is north of Santa Cruz, immediately

SANTA FE SPRINGS
Hathaway Ranch Museum
11901 Florence Avenue
Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670
(562) 777-3444
hathaworld.com
preserving five generations of memories and artifacts. collection of historic books, maps photographs and artifacts. The museum's five-acre site holds some one-hundred and forty years of Hathaway family and community history. Come visit us and take a tour of our five acres of rusty, dusty history, and hear stories about the ranch and early Santa Fe Springs. Our landmark focal point is the large two-story 1933 Spanish-Mediterranean style ranch house, along with a flat-belt line-shaft driven machine shop, and myriad historic farm and ranching structures, oil drilling equipment, and much more.

SIMI VALLEY
Strathearn Historical Park & Museum
137 Strathearn Place
Simi Valley, California 93065
simihistory.com

SPRING VALLEY
Bancroft Ranch House
9050 Memory Lane
Spring Valley, CA
sandiegohistory.org
as a free museum dedicated to preserving the history of the Spring Valley area. Guided group tours may be arranged by calling the caretaker at (619) 469-1480

WALNUT CREEK
Shadelands Ranch Historical Museum walnut-creek.org
Address: 2660 Ygnacio Valley Road (near Shadelands Business Park)
Map to Shadelands
Phone: (925) 935-7871
E-mail: wcshadelands@sbcglobal.net
Hours: Wednesday and Sunday (tours offered) - 1 to 4 p.m. Closed late November through early February.

YORBA LINDA
Susanna Bixby Bryant Ranch House and Museum
5700 Susanna Bryant Dr.
Yorba Linda, CA
(714) 694-0235
ylpl.lib.ca.us
Visit the historic Susanna Bixby Bryant Ranch now open to the public. It serves as the site for the Yorba Linda Heritage Museum where visitors can glimpse some of Yorba Linda's unique heritage. Each room depicts a different period or aspect of the area's history, from Indian times to the first settlement by the Yorba family, and into the modern age. The grounds are planted in California native plants, and a small replica of the original botanic garden is located on the east side.
1875: John Bixby purchases a parcel of land from Bernardo Yorba's Rancho Cañon deSanta Ana.