El Sur Ranch
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Industry | Cow-calf operation |
|---|---|
| Predecessor | Rancho El Sur |
| Founded | 1955 |
| Founder | Courtlandt Hill |
| Headquarters | Big Sur, California, U.S. |
Area served | United States |
| Products | Beef |
| Revenue | $243,000 to $760,000 |
| Owner | James Jerome Hill III |
Number of employees | 2-5 |
| Website | www |
The El Sur Ranch, located on the Big Sur coast of California, has been continuously operated as a cattle ranch since 1834. The approximately 7,100 acres (2,873 ha) ranch straddles Highway 1 for 6 miles (9.7 km) from the mouth of the Little Sur River to the mouth of the Big Sur River and Andrew Molera State Park. Both the ranch and the park originally comprised the Rancho El Sur land grant given in 1834 by Governor José Figueroa to Juan Bautista Alvarado. It has been owned by the Hill family since 1955, who operate a commercial cow-calf operation.
Upon inheriting the ranch while still in college and pressed by increasingly high property taxes, the ranch's current owner James Hill began plans to develop two percent of the property. His plans were protested by Big Sur residents whose efforts persuaded the California Coastal Commission to deny his permit. In 1997, after being denied a permit to build a 200-room hotel at the mouth of Little Sur River, he agreed to a conservation easement covering the western-most parcel of land, at a cost of $11 million to California taxpayers. Most of this parcel is visible from Highway 1. The land to the west of the highway has historically used water from wells drilled in 1949 and 1984 near the Big Sur River. Hill has sought to increase water drawn from the wells to levels that according to one conservation group might harm endangered steelhead trout.
The original Spanish land Rancho El Sur land grant was partitioned on March 21, 1891. John B.H. Cooper's sister Francisca Guadalupe Amelia Cooper inherited the southern portion of Rancho El Sur. When she died, her two children Andrew J. and Francisca (known as Frances) Molera inherited the land, although they lived their adult lives in San Francisco.[1][2][3][4] The ranch became known as the Molera Ranch.
The approximately 7,100 acres (2,873 ha) El Sur Ranch comprises 13 of the original parcels.[5] The ranch includes 12% of the private land in Big Sur. It straddles 6 miles (9.7 km) of Highway 1 stretching south from Hurricane Point, north of the mouth of the Little Sur River, to near the Big Sur River in Andrew Molera State Park, and it reaches 2.5 miles (4.0 km) inland over the coastal mountains into the south fork of the Little Sur valley to the border of the Los Padres National Forest.[6][7][8]
Etymology
The Spanish referred to the vast, relatively unexplored, coastal region to the south of their capital Monterey as el país grande del sur, meaning "the big country of the south". This was often shortened to el sur grande.[9][10] The two major rivers were named El Rio Grande del Sur and El Rio Chiquito del Sur.[10]: 7
The first recorded use of the name "el Sur" (meaning "the South") was on a map of Rancho El Sur land grant given by Governor José Figueroa to Juan Bautista Alvarado on July 30, 1834.[11] The first American use of the name "Sur" was by the United States Coast Survey in 1851, which renamed a point of land that looked like an island and was shaped like a trumpet, formerly known as "Morro de la Trompa" and "Punta que Parece Isla" during Spanish times, to Point Sur.[12] The island was later graded to provide flat land for the Point Sur Light Station.
History
Before the arrival of Europeans, the land was occupied by the Esselen people, who resided along the upper Carmel and Arroyo Seco Rivers, and along the Big Sur coast from near present-day Hurricane Point to the vicinity of Vicente Creek in the south.[13] The native people were heavily affected by contact with Europeans, who established three Spanish Missions near them from 1770 to 1791. The Spanish forcibly assimilated the Indians, requiring them to labor in the mission fields, while feeding them an inadequate and foreign diet.[13]
The native population was further decimated by diseases for which they had no immunity, including influenza, measles, tuberculosis, gonorrhea, and dysentery, which wiped out 90 percent of their people.[14] Most of the Esselen people's villages within the current Los Padres National Forest were uninhabited by around 1820.[15]
Spanish Governor José Figueroa granted two square leagues (totaling 8,949 acres (36.22 km2)) of land named Rancho El Sur in 1834 to Juan Bautista Alvarado, who later traded it to his uncle Juan Bautista Rogerio Cooper in exchange for Rancho Bolsa del Potrero. As required by the Land Act of 1851, Cooper filed a claim for Rancho El Sur with the Public Land Commission in 1852,[16] and after year of litigation he received the legal land patent in 1866.[17]
John B.R. Cooper married Geronima de la Encarnacion Vallejo. They had six daughters and one son.[18] Their son John Baptist Henry Cooper helped his father with the cattle business on Rancho El Sur. He also successfully managed other lands owned by the family in the Salinas Valley. His sister Frances Molera inherited the southern half of Rancho El Sur.
After John B. R. Cooper's death in 1872, the ranch was divided into four parts: their son John Bautista Henry Cooper received the first section. On March 12, 1871, 40 year old John B. H. Cooper had married 18 year old Martha Brawley in 1871, a cousin of Abraham Lincoln, at the San Carlos Cathedral. John B. R. Cooper's widow Maria Encarnación Vallejo also received one-quarter of the land, and their two surviving daughters, Anna Maria de Guadalupe Cooper and Francisca Guadalupe Amelia Cooper, received the remaining portions.
John Baptist Henry Cooper built a new home on Rancho El Sur Ranch but died soon after its completion on June 21, 1899, before he could move in, leaving the 10,000 acres (4,000 ha) ranch to his wife and children.[19] Martha (Brawley) Cooper received 2,591 acres (1,049 ha) of her the land, and over time bought the remainder from her husband's two sisters.[20][21] She sold 5,000 acres in 1928 to businessman Harry Cole Hunt of Carmel-by-the-Sea. He had been president of the Tidewater Oil Company and a director of Dabney and Hogan Petroleum Companies. He was the founder of Del Monte Properties and with his wife Jane Selby (née Hayne) owned the El Sur Ranch.[22][23]
.jpg)