El Sur Ranch
The El Sur Ranch, located on the Big Sur coast of California, has been continuously operated as a cattle ranch since 1834. The approximately ranch straddles Highway 1 for from the mouth of the Little Sur River to the mouth of the Big Sur River and Andrew Molera State Park. Both the ranch and the park originally comprised the Rancho El Sur land grant given in 1834 by Governor José Figueroa to Juan Bautista Alvarado. It has been owned by the Hill family since 1955, who operate a commercial cow-calf operation.
Upon inheriting the ranch while still in college and pressed by increasingly high property taxes, the ranch's current owner James Hill began plans to develop two percent of the property. His plans were protested by Big Sur residents whose efforts persuaded the California Coastal Commission to deny his permit. In 1997, after being denied a permit to build a 200-room hotel at the mouth of Little Sur River, he agreed to a conservation easement covering the western-most parcel of land, at a cost of $11 million to California taxpayers. Most of this parcel is visible from Highway 1. The land to the west of the highway has historically used water from wells drilled in 1949 and 1984 near the Big Sur River. Hill has sought to increase water drawn from the wells to levels that according to one conservation group might harm endangered steelhead trout.
Location
The original Spanish land Rancho El Sur land grant was partitioned on March 21, 1891. John B.H. Cooper's sister Francisca Guadalupe Amelia Cooper inherited the southern portion of Rancho El Sur. When she died, her two children Andrew J. and Francisca Molera inherited the land, although they lived their adult lives in San Francisco. The ranch became known as the Molera Ranch.The approximately El Sur Ranch comprises 13 of the original parcels. The ranch includes 12% of the private land in Big Sur. It straddles of Highway 1 stretching south from Hurricane Point, north of the mouth of the Little Sur River, to near the Big Sur River in Andrew Molera State Park, and it reaches inland over the coastal mountains into the south fork of the Little Sur valley to the border of the Los Padres National Forest.
Etymology
The Spanish referred to the vast, relatively unexplored, coastal region to the south of their capital Monterey as el país grande del sur, meaning "the big country of the south". This was often shortened to el sur grande. The two major rivers were named El Rio Grande del Sur and El Rio Chiquito del Sur.The first recorded use of the name "el Sur" was on a map of Rancho El Sur land grant given by Governor José Figueroa to Juan Bautista Alvarado on July 30, 1834. The first American use of the name "Sur" was by the United States Coast Survey in 1851, which renamed a point of land that looked like an island and was shaped like a trumpet, formerly known as "Morro de la Trompa" and "Punta que Parece Isla" during Spanish times, to Point Sur. The island was later graded to provide flat land for the Point Sur Light Station.
History
Before the arrival of Europeans, the land was occupied by the Esselen people, who resided along the upper Carmel and Arroyo Seco Rivers, and along the Big Sur coast from near present-day Hurricane Point to the vicinity of Vicente Creek in the south. The native people were heavily affected by contact with Europeans, who established three Spanish Missions near them from 1770 to 1791. The Spanish forcibly assimilated the Indians, requiring them to labor in the mission fields, while feeding them an inadequate and foreign diet.The native population was further decimated by diseases for which they had no immunity, including influenza, measles, tuberculosis, gonorrhea, and dysentery, which wiped out 90 percent of their people. Most of the Esselen people's villages within the current Los Padres National Forest were uninhabited by around 1820.
Spanish Governor José Figueroa granted two square leagues of land named Rancho El Sur in 1834 to Juan Bautista Alvarado, who later traded it to his uncle Juan Bautista Rogerio Cooper in exchange for Rancho Bolsa del Potrero. As required by the Land Act of 1851, Cooper filed a claim for Rancho El Sur with the Public Land Commission in 1852, and after year of litigation he received the legal land patent in 1866.
John B.R. Cooper married Geronima de la Encarnacion Vallejo. They had six daughters and one son. Their son John Baptist Henry Cooper helped his father with the cattle business on Rancho El Sur. He also successfully managed other lands owned by the family in the Salinas Valley. His sister Frances Molera inherited the southern half of Rancho El Sur.
After John B. R. Cooper's death in 1872, the ranch was divided into four parts: their son John Bautista Henry Cooper received the first section. On March 12, 1871, 40 year old John B. H. Cooper had married 18 year old Martha Brawley in 1871, a cousin of Abraham Lincoln, at the San Carlos Cathedral. John B. R. Cooper's widow Maria Encarnación Vallejo also received one-quarter of the land, and their two surviving daughters, Anna Maria de Guadalupe Cooper and Francisca Guadalupe Amelia Cooper, received the remaining portions.
John Baptist Henry Cooper built a new home on Rancho El Sur Ranch but died soon after its completion on June 21, 1899, before he could move in, leaving the ranch to his wife and children. Martha Cooper received of her the land, and over time bought the remainder from her husband's two sisters. She sold 5,000 acres in 1928 to businessman Harry Cole Hunt of Carmel-by-the-Sea. He had been president of the Tidewater Oil Company and a director of Dabney and Hogan Petroleum Companies. He was the founder of Del Monte Properties and with his wife Jane Selby owned the El Sur Ranch.
Modern ownership
The current owner, James Jerome Hill III, is descended from railroad magnate James J. Hill. His son Louis W. Hill bought considerable land in Pebble Beach, California when it was first developed by the Pacific Improvement Company with the intent to attract the wealthy. The family enjoyed the mild winters on the California Central Coast and beginning in 1910 often wintered there. Louis' son Cortlandt Taylor Hill built a vacation home in Pebble Beach. Cortlandt married Blanche Lucille Ellen in 1934. She had previously been married to George Randolph Hearst, the eldest son of publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst. The elder Hearst had nurtured an ambition to buy large areas of the Big Sur coast at one time. Blanche married Cortlandt Hill on March 31, 1934, at the Ritz Tower on Park Avenue in New York City. They divorced in 1952. Cortlandt married Marion Ballaire in 1953. They had three children, including James Jerome Hill III, named after his uncle and great-grandfather.In 1955 Cortlandt bought the El Sur Ranch from Harry C. Hunt. His son James spent many weekends and summer vacations on the ranch. In 1967, the ranch was subject to a precedent-making trespassing appellate court case prosecuted by Leon Panetta's brother, Joseph R. Panetta. Cortlandt and Marion were divorced in March 1972. Cortlandt married Blanche C. Hauserman on January 9, 1973. She had opened the first commercial building and ski shop at Vail Ski Resort, and both were enthusiastic leaders in the snow skiing community.
Conservation easement
When Cortlandt died in Monterey on March 28, 1978, his only child James inherited the approximately ranch and other family properties while he was still in college. James looked for income producing opportunities to offset taxes. He contracted with a San Francisco architectural firm to develop a plan for the property that would produce income but keep it undivided and devoted to cattle ranching. Hill initially proposed a 200-room hotel, conference center, and restaurant on land west of Highway 1 adjacent to the Little Sur River, and a cabin complex on the east side hidden from the highway. The plan used only 2% of the land.The California Coastal Conservancy worked with Hill to reduce the environmental impact. He later submitted a revised plan to Monterey County for a 100-room hotel in three or four buildings and a 200-seat restaurant, plus 98 private home sites situated so they could not be seen from Highway 1. He also sought a conservation easement on. The Monterey County Board of Supervisors approved the plan in 1984.
In August 1983, the California Coastal Conservancy announced an agreement to pay Hill $1 million for a conservation and scenic easement on on the east side of Highway 1, south of Little Sur River, and to purchase. Hill also agreed to donate the cost of a conservation easement on another. Hill retained the right to develop the remaining. There was considerable local opposition to the plan. Fifty Big Sur residents attended a meeting of the Coastal Commission in April 1985 to protest the deal with the Coastal Conservancy. The Big Sur Land Trust also voiced their opposition. The Big Sur Local Use Plan was under consideration by the California Coastal Commission, and the supervisors withdrew the plan. Hill's development deal was voted down by the commissioners in a vote of 10 to 1.
The fight over Hill's development rights played a role in tightening rules in the Big Sur Local Coastal Plan. The county conducted additional hearings and modified the land use plan to further restrict larger developments. The Coastal Commission accepted the revised land use plan and rejected Hill's application for a permit. The amended Big Sur Local Coastal plan was approved by the Coastal Commission on April 10, 1986. The Big Sur land use policies are some of the most restrictive local-use standards in California, and are widely regarded as one of the most restrictive development protections anywhere.
In 1991, Hill began negotiating with the Big Sur Land Trust for a conservation easement on of land visible to the public, including all of the lands visible from Highway 1. Monterey County eventually agreed to pay $11.5 million to Hill for the conservation easement. This was almost half of the $25 million set aside by a 1988 parks bond initiative to preserve Big Sur land. The payment was the largest in California history. In exchange, Hill and any future owner gave up the right to develop the acres included in the easement. It gave Hill a one-time tax credit of $4.5 million, the difference between the prior market value and the value after the ability to develop the land was removed. He also received the benefit of an ongoing reduction in property taxes. Hill still has the right to develop the remaining within the strict limitations imposed by the Big Sur Land Use Plan. The El Sur Ranch comprises 14 parcels, and only a single parcel astride Highway 1 is subject to the conservation easement.