Hearst Castle: A Palace Built on a California Cattle Ranch

Is Hearst Castle on a cattle ranch?

Yes. Hearst Castle overlooks the Pacific from a hill at San Simeon, and the land around it is a working cattle ranch. According to California State Parks, the land was bought in 1865 by Hearst's father and turned into a cattle ranch that still operates. The family's own site says the Hearst family has raised cattle on California's Central Coast for over 150 years.

The state parks page does not name the father. Wikipedia's article on the ranch identifies him as George Hearst and says he bought more than 30,000 acres of Rancho Piedra Blanca, an 1840 Mexican land grant, along with most of Rancho San Simeon and part of Rancho Santa Rosa, so sources differ on early acreage and dates.

How did William Randolph Hearst build the castle?

By 1919, when William Randolph Hearst inherited the property, it had grown to 250,000 acres, per California State Parks. Hearst was a newspaper publisher who had camped on the hilltop as a young man, calling it Camp Hill. He hired the San Francisco architect Julia Morgan, and the two worked on the castle for nearly thirty years, starting in 1919.

The estate was named La Cuesta Encantada, The Enchanted Hill. It has 165 rooms, eight acres of gardens, indoor and outdoor pools, tennis courts and a movie theater, plus a large art collection. The mosaic floor inside the front door is dated to the second century BC.

How big is the Hearst cattle ranch today?

Hearst Ranch's own site says the ranch covers about 150,000 acres of native grassland on two properties: 83,000 acres at San Simeon and 73,000 acres at Jack Ranch near Cholame. Wikipedia's mirror says the Hearst Corporation acquired Jack Ranch in 1966 and adds that its Circle C brand is the oldest registered brand in use in California.

That Wikipedia text also puts the original San Simeon ranch at about 80,000 acres. The ranch's own figure of 83,000 acres is the more recent number.

What cattle does Hearst Ranch raise?

The ranch's signature product is Hearst Ranch Beef, which it describes as 100 percent grass-fed and always hormone and antibiotic free, from free-ranging cattle. The company calls itself the nation's largest single-source provider of grass-fed beef and says it delivers seasonally to Whole Foods Market stores in Southern California.

The ranch site says it is certified by the Global Animal Partnership and is an American Quarter Horse Association Ranching Heritage Breeder. It gives no cattle head count, so none is stated here.

Who owns the castle and the ranch?

The castle, its art collection and about 150 acres were given to the state in 1958, according to California State Parks, which notes that the date differs from the 1957 date often cited. Public tours mark a 50th anniversary on that page.

A 2005 agreement signed by the Hearst Corporation, American Land Conservancy, California Rangeland Trust and the State of California permanently protects the ranch, per the Wikipedia mirror, and state parks says the 2005 easement added nearly 1,000 acres and 13 miles of coastline to Hearst San Simeon State Park. The ranch site says a conservation easement protects the working landscape in perpetuity. A Wikipedia mirror adds that Stephen Thompson Hearst, a great-grandson of William Randolph Hearst, manages the ranch.

Visit and learn more

Tours of Hearst Castle are run by California State Parks, and the ranch sells beef through its own brand. For more on California ranching, see the ranching section of farm.FM and a story about California cattle ranches.