McCrea Ranch Nominated as Historic Site

State officials on Friday approved a nomination recommending the Joel McCrea Ranch in Thousand Oaks become part of the National Register of Historic Places, a federal list of sites and buildings deemed worthy of preservation.

The Conejo Recreation and Park District is seeking to make 220 acres once owned by the cowboy actor part of the federal list.

McCrea, who starred in Hollywood westerns including “Union Pacific,” bought 1,000 acres of Ventura County land more than 60 years ago and eventually expanded the site, turning it into a ranch that produced about 200,000 pounds of beef a year. He died in 1990.

The principal reason for adding the property to the National Register is to make it available for state and federal grants, according to Tom Swenson, administrator for parks and planning for the park district.

“Once you get federal designation, the state will look at the property differently with respect to surrounding property development and what impact that will have on the property,” Swenson said.

In 1995, the district bought the parcel at the foot of the Norwegian Grade from the McCrea family for $1.95 million. The family agreed to donate $1.8 million back to the district during the next 20 years and kept an 80-acre portion of the property near Moorpark Road.

“We plan to remain stewards of the land. We’re going to leave it in its natural state. We intend to leave it in its ranch-like ambience,” Swenson said.

In the nomination to the state Historical Resources Commission, Santa Paula historical consultant Judith P. Triem described the cattle- and grain-raising ranch as an important part of Ventura County’s history that belonged to an actor who “believed in living the life he portrayed on screen, that of a cowboy-rancher.”

Gene Itogawa, a historian with the state Office of Historic Preservation, said federal approval could come in the next few weeks.