CALIFORNIA ALBUM : Wrangling on the Ranch : A bid to make a historical park out of one of the last ranch houses in the Owens Valley, in an area bought up by Los Angeles for its water, opens a dispute between cattlemen and preservationists.

At the turn of the century, the Owens Valley, tucked beneath the Sierra’s eastern slope, was dotted with dairy and cattle ranches and enough farms and orchards to be called one of the state’s most promising growing areas.

After the city of Los Angeles bought up most of the valley’s land to export Owens River water to Southern California, most of the valley’s agriculture was eliminated and many ranch and farmhouses were demolished.

Now, a group of Owens Valley residents is trying to save one of the few remaining ranch houses from the scrapheap. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which owns most land in the area, began planning early this year to destroy or move the house on the old Reinhackle Ranch.

The group wants to preserve the house and its outbuildings, trees and other landscape features on a 10-acre site that would be turned into an Inyo County historical park and interpretive center.

But the 10 acres on which the house stands is part of a 6,000-acre cattle ranch leased by the DWP to a Bakersfield rancher who vehemently opposes the historical park plan. His ranch manager said that removing the acreage would seriously damage the cattle operation.

Other Owens Valley ranchers also strongly oppose the historical park idea. They are apprehensive about setting a precedent by cutting acreage out of land traditionally leased for cattle grazing, one of the few industries the DWP has allowed to continue on its land.

*

Emilie Martin, a member of the Inyo County Board of Education and leader of the group trying to preserve the house, calls it an irreplaceable piece of Owens Valley history.

“The house is still in very good shape, and along with the outbuildings it is indicative of the early agricultural history of the northern Owens Valley. This is just a way to preserve some of the Owens Valley’s heritage.”

The white-painted wooden house, believed to have been the main residence for a dairy ranch, lies just off U.S. 395 north of Bishop and is surrounded by corrals, wooden sheds and a grain silo. A storage house nearby was built partly out of blocks of solidified volcanic ash known as Bishop tuff. A fork of Bishop Creek flows near the house, which is encircled by irrigated meadows and clusters of cottonwood and locust trees.

Martin said that the Victorian house, which the group estimates was built between 1888 and 1906, is one of only five or six ranch houses of that vintage remaining in the valley, and the only one suitable for a historic site in a location easily accessible to the public.

Dick MacMillen, a retired UC Irvine biology professor who is a member of the preservation group, said, “Since the 1930s, there has been a continuous and purposeful destruction of all the old farm buildings on DWP land, to the point where there are very few remnants. This is one of the last.”

Glenn Singley, northern district engineer for the DWP, said that the agency demolished the houses over the years mainly to avoid paying taxes, maintenance and insurance costs. But some county officials and residents said that the DWP routinely destroyed old farm and ranch houses to eradicate visible signs of the valley’s agricultural history.

The DWP originally offered to help move the house to a historic museum near Bishop, but a museum board member said the plan proved too costly despite an offer by the DWP to contribute part of the funds. MacMillen added that the group says it is important not only to preserve the house but also to keep it on its historic site.

“The house represents one thing, but the entire sequence of buildings and corrals is representative of the early farming history of the valley,” he said. “We want to have something left of that history for members of the community, especially children, as well as for tourists from out of the area.”

*

The holder of the lease on Reinhackle property, rancher Ken Miller of Bakersfield, said: “There isn’t any part where I want to give 10 acres up. Those people that want to do this are self-centered, misguided people trying to do something they have no business trying to do.”’

Ken Partridge, a neighboring rancher temporarily overseeing Miller’s cattle operation, said that the 10-acre site holds some of the ranch’s prime irrigated land and that the corrals, outbuildings and other facilities are essential to ranch operations.

“That 10 acres is the ranch’s headquarters, and some of the best grazing ground,” he said. “When they get 10 acres, then they’ll want 20 acres. Every rancher here is watching this. They feel if someone can go in and take a piece of a lease away like they’re wanting to do here, then eventually they can lose their own leases. That’s what’s got these ranchers up in arms.”

Partridge added that a county historical park on the site would be incompatible with a cattle operation and it would not be possible to have both occupying the same property, as Martin has proposed.

The DWP has backed Miller and opposed creating a park on the site. “Our first commitment is to our ongoing operations there,” Singley said. “We’re really not in a position to make the site available for other purposes. It would be pretty unfair to [ranchers] to pull that out from under them. It’s really not in the cards.”

However, the preservation group is attempting to have the historical park added as a measure of the Inyo-Los Angeles Long-Term Water Agreement, a compact aimed at ending decades of rancor and litigation between this area and Los Angeles over the DWP’s water-exporting activities.

The DWP has already agreed to carry out a number of other environmental, cultural and recreational projects in Inyo County under an interim agreement to make up for its past impact on the area. Among measures already completed are tree-plantings in residential and roadside areas and the construction of a sports complex in Lone Pine.

The preservation group is also looking into having the house designated as a historic landmark, which would help ensure its protection.

Martin said that there is a great deal of support among Owens Valley residents for turning the house into a historical site.

“People at first say, ‘Oh, it’s not possible.’ Then as you begin to paint the picture, their eyes light up and they say, ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we really could save just a bit of Owens Valley history?’

“But the DWP has always been against this kind of thing, and they still are today. They still determine our destiny.”