Rancher May Give Land to Museum : Fillmore: James Sandoval hopes to woo Southwest with an offer of 20 acres. He’d also like to create a historical theme park.

Bidding with gusto for the Southwest Museum, a Fillmore rancher on Thursday announced plans to donate 20 acres, including sacred Chumash Indian ceremonial grounds, to establish a tourist mecca in his tiny town.

James Sandoval, who owns a concrete business in Moorpark and an 85-acre citrus grove just outside Fillmore, will meet today with the executive director of the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles to describe his dream of creating a historical theme park on his ranch.

Along with wooing the Southwest Museum to Fillmore, Sandoval would like to recreate a Civil War battleground and exhibit turn-of-the-century agricultural implements on his property, located in an unincorporated greenbelt. To complement the museum’s acclaimed collection of American Indian artifacts, Sandoval plans to offer live demonstrations of Chumash ceremonial rites.

And to turn a profit, Sandoval hopes to build an RV park in the greenbelt, a move that would require Ventura County approval and an amendment to the county’s General Plan.

In his vision, travelers from across the country will flock to camp out in Fillmore--a town of 13,000 people that encompasses barely 1.5 square miles. In addition to exploring his historical park, they could hop aboard Fillmore’s old-fashioned railroad, which has starred in several Hollywood Westerns.

Sandoval’s proposal is just the latest bid for the Southwest Museum.

Ever since Southwest’s directors announced this summer that they were seeking to move the 79-year-old museum from its cramped headquarters in Los Angeles’ Highland Park district, cities throughout Southern California have been vying for their attention.

In Ventura County, the cities of Thousand Oaks, Oxnard and Camarillo have all expressed considerable interest, touting their easy access off the Ventura Freeway as a major plus. Thousand Oaks officials, in particular, have actively promoted their city, pointing to vacant land next to the new $64-million Civic Arts Plaza as a prime site.

“We’ve had more sustained interest from Ventura County than any other county,” said the museum’s executive director, Thomas H. Wilson. While the response has been a bit overwhelming, he said, “It’s much better than throwing a party and having no one come.”

Fillmore’s proposal raises the stakes in the aggressive courtship of Southwest, since it includes a donation of land worth an estimated $25,000 an acre. It also raised the fighting spirit of at least one neighboring city official.

“I wouldn’t rule Oxnard out yet,” said Councilman Tom Holden.

But the financial incentive of Sandoval’s donated land, which is located near the junction of Sespe Creek and the Santa Clara River, may be hard to beat.

Camarillo’s planning director, Tony Boden, said he believed a private donor might be willing to contribute some land to the museum. But so far, no concrete proposal has emerged, and preliminary invitations to Southwest are due on Monday.

For their part, Thousand Oaks officials are reluctant to lavish freebies on Southwest, much as they would love the prestige--and tourist traffic--of landing the museum.

“I don’t think too much of (giving away incentives),” Councilman Frank Schillo said. “That would be totally foreign to the city of Thousand Oaks. We’ve never done it before.”

Still, Southwest Director Wilson said financial considerations would not be his only criteria for evaluating proposals. He will also look at proximity to other tourist attractions and location near a major freeway. Fillmore is on California 126, a rural highway that sometimes becomes a winding, two-lane road.

The museum has solicited proposals from 140 cities in Southern California, and formal responses are not due until Nov. 2. “We’re not going to snap at the first thing that looks good,” Wilson said. “We want to make sure we make the right decision.”

Doing his best to make his theme-park idea look right, rancher Sandoval has invited Redstar, an American Indian from the Mishkanaka tribe, to appear in full ceremonial regalia during his meeting with Wilson this afternoon.

Redstar, a Thousand Oaks resident who uses only one name, has conducted sacred ceremonies on the proposed museum site, and said he would be thrilled to demonstrate various non-secret rituals to tourists.

“Very few people know anything about the California Indians,” Redstar said. “When you say Indian, people think of war bonnets, bows and arrows and tomahawks--the Plains Indians. This museum could be a means of showing people what we are all about.”

Because Fillmore is located in an isolated pocket far from traditional tourist attractions, city officials are promoting the ranch site for its natural beauty rather than its convenience.

“People in Los Angeles are looking for places to go on the weekend, to get out of the congested urban areas,” said City Manager Roy Payne. “Within an hour’s drive, they can be in a place with blue skies, open land, and hopefully, the Southwest Museum.”

Times correspondent Matthew Mosk contributed to this story.