A PERFECT SITE? : Scenic Expanse of Taylor Ranch Emerges as a Favorite for Cal State Academic Center

The chain-link fence begins where Main Street ends. Behind it, an expanse of Taylor Ranch stretches for 30,000 acres into the brown, oil-rich mountains above Ventura.

Visitors must report to Max Schnitter, a retired California Highway Patrol sergeant who cruises the property in a four-wheel-drive Chevy Silverado looking for trespassers.

And lately, Schnitter says, the only thing visitors want to see is the verdant oat field, perched high on a panoramic bluff, that has captured the imagination of many Ventura residents as a site for the proposed California State University academic center in Ventura County.

From that spot, a majestic view of the Pacific coastline stretches to the horizon. Ventura, Oxnard and Port Hueneme appear like little villages nestled in the lush greenery below. The Channel Islands seem to float just offshore.

On the surrounding acres, ground squirrels rustle through the sage and cacti. A hawk swoops close to the ground. Lima beans grow in neat rows. A “Private Property” sign lies toppled in the wake of several dozen cattle.

“If you can imagine this all built up, it would put Pepperdine to shame,” said Schnitter, referring to the picturesque Malibu campus 40 miles away. “It couldn’t hold a candle to this.”

Such sentiments have taken on new momentum in recent weeks as the failure of yearlong negotiations to place the classroom facility near the Ventura Harbor forced Cal State on Oct. 20 to begin looking for another location.

Although the ranch was not offered for sale two years ago when Cal State first proposed building the academic center, owner Cynthia Wood has since said through her attorney that she will consider parting with a 550-acre parcel for the project.

“She’s not pursuing it, she’s not pushing for it,” said her attorney, Robert Andrews of Santa Barbara. “But if there is a need or a desire on the part of the community, she would consider it. She is very interested in being civic-minded.”

The ranch will likely be the focus of even more attention by the end of the month, with the completion of an engineering study, commissioned by the city, to determine the ranch’s suitability as a university site.

Preliminary findings of the study indicate the ranch has “no fatal flaws” that would impede development, said Julie Bulla, project manager for McClelland Engineers of Ventura.

All of which leaves Taylor Ranch advocates hopeful that the oat field on the bluff across the Ventura River will emerge as a strong contender to replace the current Cal State facility, which offers classes to third- and fourth-year students in a cramped office building on Maple Street.

“It has the most magnificent view in the world,” said Virginia Howell, a retired Ventura real estate agent, who has worked to generate public support for the ranch site. “I’ve loved it for so long. It’s too logical to ignore.”

The ranch, now home to four families, about 300 head of cattle and 400 oil wells, has played a long and colorful role in the region’s history.

Records and old newspaper clips on file at the Ventura County Historical Museum tell the ranch’s story.

Originally known as Rancho Canada de San Miguelito, it was founded by Don Ramon Rodriguez, a native of Sonora, Mexico, who was given the original 8,000-acre grant by the Mexican government in 1840.

Rodriguez, a community leader, was killed in 1848 while heading a posse looking for bandits who had been terrorizing ranches in the region.

As the story goes, Rodriguez caught one of them from behind. Rather than shoot the bandit in the back, Rodriguez clubbed him with a rifle. The blow only succeeded in breaking the weapon in half, leaving the bandit a clear shot at Rodriguez, who died instantly.

Widow Sold Ranch

His widow, Juana Tico, sold the property later for about a dollar an acre.

“We’re very sentimental about the ranch,” said Rodriguez’ great-granddaughter, Juanita Callender, 77, of Ojai. “We call it ‘The Ranch,’ as if it were still ours.”

The new owner was Green B. Taylor, the ranch’s namesake, who had brought his family by covered wagon from Tennessee. Taylor ran sheep on the land until his death near the turn of the century.

On the death of Taylor’s widow, Nancy, the property at her request was placed in a trust with the order that any income from the land should be used to teach Greek drama, the arts and cultural courses.

Her daughter, Alice Grubb, however, objected to the strict conditions and successfully challenged the will in court. It proved to be a profitable victory for Grubb. In 1931, oil was discovered on the ranch and the property became one of the most prolific oil fields in the region. More of the oil-rich property was annexed to the ranch, eventually expanding it to 30,000 acres, of which about 7,500 acres are still leased to the Shell and Conoco companies.

When Grubb died in 1936, she willed the ranch to her daughter, Emma Wood, who donated the slice of oceanfront property south of the ranch known as Emma Wood Beach. Wood died in 1944 and left the land to her husband, Adrian Wood. Adrian Wood later married Aileen Barnes, who had a daughter named Cynthia from a previous marriage. Cynthia took her stepfather’s name and owns the ranch today.

Under Adrian Wood’s direction, the eastern side of the property was used as a feedlot for cattle, many of which were shipped in by boat to Port Hueneme from ranches on Santa Rosa Island. During World War II, when the harbor was committed to military uses, the cattle were barged across the channel and forced to swim ashore to the ranch.

In 1956, Wood leased the operation to Jerome Griffin, who expanded the feedlot to accommodate 16,000 head of cattle, which ate 140 tons of feed a day.

Stench Brought Complaints

It was under Griffin’s management that Ventura Avenue residents began to complain of a stench from the feed lots. Griffin contended that he was being unfairly blamed for a multitude of odors, carried by winds wafting through the canyons. But under pressure from the county Board of Supervisors, he agreed to spray his feed pens with a fragrance that he bought in 55-gallon drums from the same firm that manufactured Air Wick, the popular room deodorizer.

“We were being criticized for a lot of odors that were not ours,” Griffin said in a taped oral history kept at the Ventura County Historical Society. “We did have odor,” Griffin admitted, but maintained that the feed lots were not as not as odoriferous as critics had said.

The county, however, filed a lawsuit, and to avoid further troubles, Griffin shut the business in 1971.

“The fact still remains that you could follow your nose over there,” recalled former Supervisor Ken MacDonald. “There wasn’t any question where it was coming from.”

Besides agricultural uses, the ranch’s hills and vistas have been targeted for various industrial developments, many of which were proposed by Adrian Wood himself.

In 1959, Wood generated a bitter controversy when he sought to sell a portion of the land to Crown-Zellerbach for a paper mill. The county Planning Commission twice endorsed the plan, but the necessary zoning change was ultimately rejected by the Board of Supervisors on a 3-2 vote.

“I remember Adrian was very disappointed with the actions of the board,” said MacDonald, who led the fight to block the project. “But I was responding to the community and the community was fearful of that type of industry.”

Later, in 1962, Wood revealed plans for the Taylor Ranch Industrial Park, a 941-acre planned development to be built over 20 years. The park was to have hand-picked industries suited to Ventura County’s economy.

“ ‘People got enough places to live, so I’ll build something where they can make a living,’ ” Griffin recalled Wood as saying. “But he got sick and died before he could do anything.”

In the early 1970s, a client of Virginia Howell’s real estate firm became enamored with the ranch and sought to buy a portion for a restaurant.

“He fell hook, line and sinker,” Howell recalled of her client’s interest. “I showed him everything in town, but he wouldn’t settle for anything else.”

The Woods, however, were not interested in selling, and the restaurant, Charlie Brown’s, ended up on Seaward Avenue.

Study Predicted Growth

It was not until 1985 that Taylor Ranch returned to the public stage, sparked by discussion of a Cal State university center in Ventura County. After conducting a statewide study that predicted substantial growth for the region, Cal State started looking for a county site for a classroom complex that would serve 2,000 to 3,000 students.

The current facility serves about 1,000 students registered at California State University, Northridge, and at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Cal State selected a plot of land owned by the Lusk Co. on Harbor Boulevard, and for the last year has been mired in negotiations over the 330-acre parcel.

During that time, said Assistant City Manager Lauraine Brekke, community leaders and council members became intrigued with the idea of putting such a facility at Taylor Ranch.

“I think a lot of people see it as so physically beautiful that it would be an appropriate setting for an institution of higher education,” she said.

Cal State officials, who have sent letters to cities, realty boards and landowners throughout the county expressing the university’s interest in an alternate to the Harbor Boulevard site, will solicit proposals until Dec. 2.

Meanwhile, life on the Taylor Ranch has been relatively quiet. Cattle roam freely on the hillsides. The crisp sea breeze whips through the dry shrubbery. And for six hours a day, Max Schnitter surveys the natural splendor as he guides his Blazer over the ranch’s twisting dirt roads.

“It’s not a bad job,” he said. “It keeps me out in the open.”