Still at Home on the Range : History: Rancho Mission Viejo, passed down through the generations, offers a modern-day glimpse at South County’s cattle-herding past.

In a crowded county where living space is usually measured out in small lots and densely packed apartments and condominiums, the vast Rancho Mission Viejo might seem as mythical as a tale in a dime Western.

The ranch sprawls over 40,000 acres of amber hills and grasslands that is pure cattle country. Since 1882, cowboys have ridden the brand of the Rancho Mission Viejo, repairing fences and rounding up cattle for market.

But while progress and development wipes out much of Orange County’s pioneer heritage, the last roundup will probably never be seen, at least while the O’Neill family owns this ranch.

It has been in the family since patriarch Richard O’Neill Sr. bought the ranch more than a century ago. In recent decades, real estate interests have come to the O’Neills with proposals to build everything from an amusement park centered on a Mexican village theme to a garbage dump on ranch property.

Although family members are major land developers in Orange County, when it comes to building on the family ranch, their answer has been a flat “No.”

“All these people have designs on the land,” said Gilbert Aguirre, senior vice president of ranch operations. “Our world is getting smaller, but the family is dedicated to being in the cattle business for the next 110 years.”

One of the most influential families in South County, the O’Neills own the Santa Margarita Co., builder of Rancho Santa Margarita, a planned community.

They have strong links to the historic mission town of San Juan Capistrano. Dick O’Neill, 70, the millionaire grandson of the ranch’s founder, owns the El Adobe restaurant in town and is seeking to buy a block of downtown commercial property. He also has been heavily involved with the county Democratic Party over the years.

The family’s wealth was estimated at $500 million by Forbes magazine in 1992.

Both the ranch and the city share a rough and tumble legacy that lived through the 1950s when old-timers will attest that it wasn’t uncommon to see cowboys riding their horses through the local saloons.

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“Those were golden times,” said Tony Moiso, the great-grandson of Richard O’Neill Sr. “San Juan Capistrano was so isolated in those days before the interstate was built in the early ‘60s. We feel very much tied to the town.”

Once, 15,000 head of cattle were raised at the Rancho Mission Viejo. Today, about 6,000 head graze there, still making it the largest cattle operation remaining in Southern California, local historian Jim Sleeper said.

However, development has shrunk the prime grasslands available for cattle and the Rancho Mission Viejo has been forced to buy acreage in northern Nevada, where the herd is sent for feeding every winter.

Beef prices have been good in recent years, but “historically, it’s not been very profitable to raise cattle for most people,” Aguirre said. “You can’t control the prices set on your product.”

To generate the income to run a ranch about three times the size of San Francisco, the family, headed by Moiso, began planning the community of Rancho Santa Margarita at the feet of the Saddleback Mountains in 1983.

Angered over development of the pristine canyon area, the plans drew heavy criticism from local residents and environmentalists. But it was approved, and today, 20,000 residents live in the half-completed development that will be built out by 2000.

Yet, seeking to do more than develop land, company officials established a 1,600-acre nature conservancy on the ranch that’s open to public tours.

“We could throw a fence around the place and keep everyone out, but that would be terribly irresponsible,” said Moiso, who oversees ranch operations. “I feel blessed to be able to develop a portion of the land and remain a rancher on the rest.”

However, local environmentalist Sherry Meddick is torn about the Santa Margarita Co.’s environmental record.

“I’ve always felt so funny that someone could donate incredible resources and also be responsible for the development coming behind it that impacts these preserves,” said Meddick, a Silverado Canyon resident who works for Greenpeace in Los Angeles. “They donate the park land, but unfortunately the flood plain from the (housing) developments flow into the park area.”

It was a 57-year-old Irishman named Richard O’Neill Sr. who made cattle a big business in South County.

O’Neill was a former butcher who had successfully operated a ranch in Merced County. When the estate of John Forster, who had accumulated more than 200,000 acres in Orange and San Diego counties in the mid-1850s, was put up for sale, O’Neill saw an opportunity.

Stretching from Oceanside to Aliso Creek in what is now Lake Forest, O’Neill was looking at 359 square miles of prime grazing territory.

He found a financier in silver magnate James Flood, who was willing to put up $457,000. In 1882, the men purchased the vast plot of land. O’Neill lived another 24 years, surviving to see the Santa Fe Railroad lay tracks through the ranch, greatly increasing its profitability.

The large property was divided in the late 1930s when the Flood heirs decided to leave the cattle business. The O’Neills kept the Orange County portion of the ranch, a decision that soon proved prescient when the federal government in 1942 enacted the War Powers Act and through its eminent domain powers took over what is now Camp Pendleton.

The family started the planned community of Mission Viejo in the mid-1960s, but eventually sold the 10,000-acre development in 1972 to the Phillip Morris Co.

Throughout their dealings, the family has been determined to remain cattle ranchers. Three generations of O’Neills have run the ranch, and many ranch hands were born there and are raising their children on the land.

The annual spring roundup, when calves are born and branded, remains a deeply ingrained ranch tradition. The El Viaje de Portola, where several hundred riders re-create the trail of Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portola in South County, is another way the family celebrates the area’s heritage.

“We like to have fun,” Moiso said. “All the old ranching families are gone, but we’re still here because we feel a responsibility to take care of this place.

“We will always be good to this ranch because it sure has been good to us.”