Until the 1980s, three of the five National Park Service (NPS) Channel Islands were home to large, century-old ranches managing thousands of sheep for wool, which was shipped to the mainland. These rustic, isolated ranches also produced beef, olive oil, wine, and nuts.
None of the archipelago islands in the channel system, named due to deep troughs separating them from the mainland, are easy to access. Ventura has a ferry system that services the four main consecutive islands: Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, and San Miguel. Anacapa, with its pointy 936-foot peak, is the smallest (five miles long and a quarter-mile wide) and has a historic lighthouse and museum, and next-door Santa Cruz sprawls across an area a little larger than New York’s Staten Island, at 22 miles long. Anacapa and Santa Cruz are an hour ferry ride away, while Santa Rosa takes two hours. The farthest island, San Miguel, is four hours from the harbor. The fifth and smallest island, Santa Barbara, is off on its own, almost 60 miles to the south of Ventura Harbor.
According to NPS, five of the eight Channel Islands were designated by Public Law 96-199 (signed March 5, 1980) as a National Park. President Jimmy Carter signed the legislation that read: “In order to protect the nationally significant natural, scenic, wildlife, marine, ecological, archeological, cultural, and scientific values of the Channel Islands in the State of California … there is hereby established the Channel Islands National Park.”
True Adventure
Getting to the Channel Islands is not for the faint of heart. Today, it requires a ferry ride through the choppy Santa Barbara Channel, where ocean spray shoots up and over the bow of the boat. Plenty of seasickness warnings are offered when securing tickets and as an introduction by the crew. As the ferry approaches the dock, the captain issues another warning about avoiding entrapment between the dock and the ramp or falling through the space between, due to waves hitting the island.
Once they disembark, visitors to Santa Cruz Island walk right into what was once the busy Scorpion Ranch, and it’s easy to imagine ranching life when meandering among historic buildings and farm equipment. Not only does the main ranch house still exist, thanks to preservation by NPS, but other structures and artifacts are maintained on the historic site, a beach-side valley surrounded by imposing knolls.
According to NPS, Scorpion Ranch was fully operational by 1885. Until the ranch closed, hundreds of primarily Italian, French, and Mexican ranch hands managed the livestock. The site included a main residence, bunkhouse, carpenter shop, smithy, wool sheds, bakery, granary, butcher shop, tallow furnaces, water tank, gardens, vineyards, and more.
Because of the turbulent channel that separates the island from the mainland, relying on mainland resources was unrealistic. Thus, NPS points out that island ranches had to become self-sufficient. Information currently at Scorpion Ranch informs visitors that the blacksmith was always busy because he had to shoe horses, repair wagon wheels, sharpen plows, and make tools. Ranchers mostly ate mutton, fresh vegetables from the garden, and enjoyed island-made wine and olive oils during evening meals.
Current NPS park rangers also educate that olive groves, citrus and walnut trees, rosemary bushes, and giant eucalyptus trees—planted at least a century ago—still exist on the site of Scorpion Ranch.
Tens of thousands of sheep grazed on the lush grasses covering the hills, valleys, and cliffs; few fences were required to contain the sheep due to the surrounding water. Annual spring shearing season meant the ranch buzzed with activity as wool was shorn, stuffed in sacks, and eventually shipped to the mainland.
Included in National Geographic’s Guide to National Parks of the United States: “The Channel Islands were a real-life version of a John Steinbeck novel, the domain of hearty ranchers, crusty abalone collectors … a slice of Southern California that hasn’t been paved over or subdivided.”
Besides viewing the remains of Scorpion Ranch and visualizing thousands of wooly sheep grazing amid scrub brush, a visit to Santa Cruz Island—and the other Channel Islands—provides an opportunity to experience the varied, copious wildlife, such as tiny island foxes, brilliant blue scrub jays, and mother-of-pearl laden conch shells. In fact, “Close to the mainland yet worlds apart, Santa Cruz Island, along with the other Channel Islands, is home to plants and animals that are found nowhere else on earth,” NPS said.
