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Tejon Ranch: The 270,000-Acre California Ranch Still Running Cattle

Four Mexican land grants, a military fort and a 2008 conservation pact explain how one ranch kept 270,000 acres in working use.

What is Tejon Ranch?

Tejon Ranch is the largest contiguous piece of private property in California, covering more than 270,000 acres across the southern San Joaquin Valley, the Tehachapi Mountains and the Antelope Valley. The Wikipedia article on Tejon Ranch says the Tejon Ranch Company, based in Lebec, was incorporated in 1936 to organize ownership of land consolidated from four Mexican land grants.

The ranch is more than a cattle outfit. It grows almonds, pistachios and wine grapes, leases land for cattle grazing, and earns money from minerals, water, development, hunting and film location work.

How did Edward Beale build the ranch?

The Mexican government made grants in 1843 for the Rancho Los Alamos y Agua Caliente (26,626 acres), the Rancho El Tejon (97,617 acres) and the Rancho Castac (22,178 acres). A fourth tract, the 48,800-acre Rancho La Liebre, was granted in 1846. Edward Beale, a former naval officer and Superintendent of Indian Affairs in California, pushed for the Sebastian Indian Reservation in 1853 and Fort Tejon in 1854.

Beale bought La Liebre in 1855, El Tejon and Los Alamos in 1865 and Castac in 1866. The National Ranching Heritage Center's history of the ranch notes that sheep were the first industry of the combined ranch, followed by decades of cattle raising, crops, oil leases and wildlife management.

What is the Cross and Crescent brand?

The ranch's Cross and Crescent brand is described in the ranch history as dating to about the year 997 in Spain and as the oldest livestock brand still in use in the United States. The account says conquistadors carried it to Mexico and from there it reached Rancho El Tejon. It is a claim worth repeating as reported, since the history gives no documents.

Cowboys today meet before dawn at the Old Headquarters and care for their own horses and stock dogs. Centennial Livestock leases most of the open range, and thousands of cattle graze the ranch.

The Key to Tejon Ranch's Longevity

Tejon has lasted because its owners kept the land whole and kept finding new ways to earn from it while cattle stayed in the mix. The ranch is a case study in diversification, and it also shows what that diversification can cost.

The record includes both the ranch's strengths and its disputes.

  • Buy the grants and hold them: Beale bought all four ranchos between 1855 and 1866 and kept them as one unit.
  • Sheep, then cattle, then crops: the ranch moved between uses as markets changed.
  • Go public and keep control: the company went public in 1936 with the Chandler-Sherman group keeping a controlling interest.
  • Negotiate conservation: a 2008 agreement protected 240,000 acres while allowing historic uses, including cattle grazing, to continue.
  • Costs and disputes: Native people on the land faced eviction, with a 1916 suit seeking to evict the El Tejon Indians, and a state investigation after a 2011 whistleblower lawsuit led to $136,500 in fines and restitution over mountain lion killings.

How did the Chandler-Sherman syndicate change Tejon?

Beale's son Truxtun sold the ranch in 1912 to a syndicate led by Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler and land developer Moses Sherman. The ranch company went public in 1936 and has been publicly listed since 1973. The Chandlers' Times Mirror Company sold its stake in 1997.

Over the twentieth century the ranch's income mixed agriculture, oil leases and, later, real estate planning.

The 2008 conservation agreement

In June 2008 the Tejon Ranch Company and a coalition of environmental groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club and Audubon California, signed an agreement to permanently protect 240,000 acres. The Tejon Ranch Conservancy history page says the deal created an independent nonprofit conservancy and a joint management plan.

In return the company kept the right to pursue three development projects, which still need county, state and federal approvals. Not every group agreed, and the Center for Biological Diversity continued to oppose the pact.

Who lived on the land first?

Several groups lived on parts of the ranch, including the Chumash, Yokut, Kawaisu and Kitanemuk, and mortar rocks and drawn images still mark their presence. Wikipedia notes that some surviving Kitanemuk lived on the ranch in 1917.

The record of Native land rights here is hard reading. A 1916 suit filed by a land company sought to evict the El Tejon Indians, who held the land under Spanish and Mexican law.

Tejon Ranch cattle today

Wikipedia puts cattle leases at about 250,000 acres, with up to 12,000 head grazing depending on the season. The ranch history says thousands of cattle graze there under modern vaqueros.

For more stories on California cattle country, see the ranching section of farm.FM, or read a story on California ranch history.

Timeline

  1. 1843Mexican government grants the lands that become three of the four ranchos
  2. 1854Fort Tejon is established on Rancho Castac
  3. 1855Edward Beale buys Rancho La Liebre
  4. 1866Beale completes the four-grant ranch with Castac
  5. 1912Truxtun Beale sells to the Chandler and Sherman syndicate
  6. 1936Tejon Ranch Company becomes a public company
  7. 1973The company is publicly listed
  8. 2008Conservation agreement protects 240,000 acres
  9. 2018Ranch marks its 175th anniversary

Frequently asked questions

How big is Tejon Ranch?

About 270,000 acres, or 422 square miles, in the southern San Joaquin Valley, Tehachapi Mountains and Antelope Valley. It is the largest contiguous private property in California.

Who founded Tejon Ranch?

Edward Fitzgerald Beale bought four Mexican land grants between 1855 and 1866 and combined them into the ranch. His son Truxtun sold it in 1912 to a syndicate led by Harry Chandler.

Does Tejon Ranch still run cattle?

Yes. Cattle leases cover about 250,000 acres, with up to 12,000 head grazing depending on the season, and a livestock company leases most of the open range.

What is the Tejon Ranch Conservancy?

An independent nonprofit created under the 2008 agreement that protects 240,000 acres of the ranch. It works with the company on a joint ranch-wide management plan.

Sources and further reading

Profiles are compiled from public sources and reviewed against them. See our editorial policy to suggest a correction.

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