Irvine Ranch: How a Southern California Sheep and Cattle Ranch Became a City

What is the Irvine Ranch?

The Irvine Ranch is a large block of Orange County land that began as a working sheep and cattle ranch and ended up as the core holding of the Irvine Company. In 1864 James Irvine, Benjamin and Thomas Flint and Llewellyn Bixby combined three adjoining Mexican land grants into a ranch of 185 square miles, according to the Wikipedia article on the Irvine Company.

Its livestock history is shorter than its real estate history, but it is real. The ranch ran sheep and, from the late 1800s into the 1970s, cattle operations centered on the Bommer Canyon Cattle Camp.

How was the ranch assembled?

A drought in 1864 killed the livestock of Jose Antonio Sepulveda, who sold his coastal Rancho San Joaquin to Irvine and his partners. In 1866 the partners bought Rancho Lomas de Santiago from William Wolfskill. Its steep ground made farming difficult, so it was used mainly as a sheep ranch. In 1868 Irvine and his partners were among the claimants in a title lawsuit that divided Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana.

The original tract was about 120,000 acres. The Wikiwand copy of the Irvine Ranch article adds that the owners aimed to find the most profitable uses for the land rather than subdivide and sell it, a decision that shaped everything after.

Sheep, cattle and the Bommer Canyon camp

The Bommer Canyon cattle camp anchored the ranch's beef operation for roughly a century. The sources opened for this profile do not give herd sizes, so no counts are offered here. They do show that cattle stayed part of the business until the late 1970s, when the company stopped its cattle business.

The land around the canyon changed hands in 1981 and 1982, when Bommer Canyon was sold to the City of Irvine with funding from grants from the 1974 California Bond Act.

Who was James Irvine II?

James Irvine I died in 1886, and trustees ran the ranch until his son, James II, born in 1867, turned 25. The trustees tried to sell the ranch at auction, but the auction was declared illegal. James II then took control, expanded agricultural production and in 1894 incorporated the landholdings as the Irvine Company.

After James Irvine's death, majority control eventually passed to the James Irvine Foundation. Under the Tax Reform Act of 1969 the foundation had to sell the company.

From ranch to city: UC Irvine and the master plan

In 1961 the company sold 990 acres to the University of California for $1 for a new campus, now UC Irvine, and in 1964 it sold another 510 acres at a discount. In the early 1960s the company, the university and architect William Pereira created the Irvine Ranch Master Plan. The City of Irvine was incorporated in 1971.

The Wikiwand text also records that the National Scout Jamboree was held on ranch land near today's Fashion Island in 1953.

Who owns the Irvine Ranch now?

In 1977 a group led by A. Alfred Taubman, which included Donald Bren, bought the company from the Irvine Foundation. Bren became majority owner in 1983 and sole owner in 1996. According to the Irvine Company article, the Irvine Ranch is now about 93,000 acres, with about 44,000 acres kept for development and the rest, mostly canyons, wetlands and water districts, preserved as the Irvine Ranch Natural Landmarks.

In August 2014 the company announced plans to donate and preserve 2,500 more acres that had been approved for housing.

Learn more about California ranch country

California's big ranches share a Mexican-grant ancestry that is easy to trace in places like this one. The ranching section on farm.FM is a good place to read on, and a story about California ranch history pairs well with this profile.