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Ranching on Santa Cruz Island
As Alta California was changing hands between the Mexican government and a regional effort to become an independent Mexican state, and then as that effort was overtaken by the United States claim of California as a new U.S. state, Santa Cruz Island was under going changes of hand. On May 22, 1839, the Mexican Government granted Santa Cruz Island to Andres Castillero, who then became the first private owner of the island. He had been interested at first in Catalina, but was advised by his attorney that Santa Cruz was more favorable for ranching and farming operations. Castillero then became a Mexican Congressman, served as the official paymaster between California and Mexico businessmen, and became an owner of mining interests in Northern California. He remained the owner of Santa Cruz from 1839-1857, but made little effort to develop the island.
In 1850, as California was becoming a member of the United States of America, Castillero entered into an agreement with two of his mining partners, William Forbes and Isidoro de la Torre who were ceded one half ownership of Santa Cruz Island. The first ranch buildings were probably constructed in 1852-53. In 1852 Castillero filed a petition to request that the United Sates honor his claim to title of Santa Cruz Island under a Mexican Land Grant. In spite of several land hungry and suspect characters who also tried to lay claim to the island, the Land Commission overseeing ownership rights of California lands did award title to Castillero. And then the U.S. Government challenged the Land Commission in an effort to take ownership of the island as a United States holding. It took a Federal District Court Judge to make the final ruling, and upheld the Land Commission’s award of title to Castillero.
Castillero then sold the island to William E. Barron, who had been serving as his advisor and attorney, in 1857. Barron’s family was of Irish lineage, while he himself had been born in Spain. The Barron family had moved to Mexico where they operated mining and farming operations in Tepic, where Castillero, the original land grant owner, also lived. Once purchased from Castillero, the Barrons attempted to sell the island, and when there were no buyers, they decided to enlarge the sheep ranch on the island to make it more attractive to buyers. Barron owned the island for twelve years, 1857-1869.
The Santa Cruz Island Company was formed in 1869 by ten influential Italian and French businessmen from San Francisco who purchased the island for $150,000, at $1.86 and acre, from William E. Barron. In spite of these new Santa Cruz Island’s owner’s hopes for a discovery of gold, it was not gold that brought prosperity to the island owners - it was sheep ranching. Their first development on the island was to expand the existing sheep operation and establish a small processing station on the mainland at the Santa Barbara wharf.
The island ranch had started with 200 sheep purchased from the herd on Santa Rosa Island. In 1854, 1,000 sheep were herded over land from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara ( imagine trying that today ! ) and shipped out to Santa Cruz. By 1860, and now in the hands of the Barrons, assessors records show the island had 12,375 sheep, 116 rodeo cattle, 3 bulls, 92 cows, 42 mares, 11 lame horses, 53 colts, and 2 stallions. The next year, sheep from the Balearic Islands and England were imported and by 1864, 24,371 sheep were living on the island.
One reason for the profitability of this increase in sheep holdings was that during the Civil War in the 1860s, there was a strong demand for wool for uniforms and blankets in the Eastern states. At that time, the finest sheep could be sold for up to $30 a head, making the nearly 25,000 head a sizeable holding in 1869 when it sold to the Santa Cruz Island Company partnership. Valued between $500,000 - $750,000 in livestock alone, the sale at $150,000 was a good value at the time - especially considering it included the land and improvements on the island.
During the 1850s and early 1860s in California, with the Gold Rush in full swing, many of those who became wealthy were not actually miners, they were businessmen who provided supplies and services to the miners. Such is the case with the buyers of Santa Cruz Island in 1869. While in Europe the French and Italian nationals might not have found motivation to join together in business relations, but across the sea, and around the tip of South America, they found a camaraderie that encouraged cooperative business undertakings. The formation of the Santa Cruz Island Company is an example of this international cooperation, as were new wineries in northern California, and banking and business ventures opened in San Francisco.
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