RanchHistory

Gabilan Ranch History

History of Rancho Cienaga del Gabilan

Rancho Cienaga Del Gabilan is a working cattle ranch nestled in the Gabilan Mountain Range directly below Fremont Peak in Monterey and San Benito counties. It was purchased by Rollin Reeves in 1929 and is currently owned and operated by three generations of the Reeves Family.
The first occupants of the land were native tribes, the Costanoans, who camped along its creeks and left evidence of their presence we can still find today. The padres of nearby Mission San Juan Bautista, who ran cattle in the hills, were the first to claim the land. When the missions were secularized in 1834, this land became part of an original Mexican Land Grant. The Mexicans named the land for its abundant springs and swamps and for its numerous hawks. The Ranch is still called by that name today, Rancho Cienaga del Gabilan, Spring of the Hawk Ranch.

By the mid-1840s trouble was brewing throughout the land in California. Pio Pico, the last Mexican governor of Alto California, was plagued by the threat of revolt from the inhabitants of these vast lands so far from Mexico City, and by the fear of invasion from the United States, as a steady stream of immigrants continued to pour into the Sacramento Valley. Fifty wagons of settlers had arrived in 1845 and reports told that many more were ready to start the next spring. It was also said that there were 10,000 American Mormons on the road who claimed California to be the land promised to them in the scriptures. Governor Pico received further confirmation of this American threat when in early 1846 U.S. troops under the command of Colonel John C. Fremont rode into the territory.

On his third expedition to the West, Colonel Fremont, with his troop of 60 armed men, ventured into California from the East and eventually camped on Hawk’s Peak, now known as Fremont Peak, on an allegedly scientific mission. When Monterey-based Commandante-General Jose Castro learned of the American force, he sent word to Fremont ordering him to leave immediately. There is much suspicion to this day among historians regarding the orders Fremont was given and his motives, and the fact that his group pulled a cannon added to the speculation that their real intent was more political than scientific.

Fremont openly defied the Mexican government and threw up a battlement, and the Peak became the site where the first American flag was raised in California. After learning of this action by Fremont, Commandante General Castro marshaled his forces in San Juan Bautista and prepared to engage the Americans. Using field glasses from his lofty camp, Fremont was able to see the Mexicans preparing for an assault. On the evening of March 10, 1846 he reconsidered his defiance, and in the dark of the night broke camp and rode east down Bird Creek Canyon leaving the Ranch. The Mexican force arrived the next morning to find still smoldering fires, discarded clothing and various munitions, but no Americans. A cannonball was found on that site over 75 years later.

After leaving the Gabilans Fremont continued to shape history, as he and his men became active participants in the Bear Flag Revolt and the making of the State of California.

After the Mexican American War, the land was purchased by Jesse D. Carr who obtained the first U.S. Land Patent from President Andrew Johnson in 1865. The western portion of the 48,000-acre grant was eventually sold by Carr to the James Bardin family, and the Artherton Ayre family purchased the eastern section. The heart of Cienaga del Gabilan, 11,000 acres, was sold by Carr’s daughter, Jessie Carr Bryan, to Dr. Rollin Reeves in 1929.

Rollin Reeves, a prominent physician practicing in Salinas, along with his wife, Arline, enjoyed the Ranch throughout their lives. They instilled in their two children, Marilyn and William, a love of the land and the cattle business. Marilyn and William raised their families to have a passion and commitment to preserving the land as a working cattle ranch and to protecting and improving its natural habitat. This dedication to the land has been passed along to the latest generation.

Arline was the granddaughter of Carlisle Stuart Abbott, whose adventurous life story of pioneering across the plains and early settlement in California is detailed in his published memoirs, “Recollections of a California Pioneer.” He came to California from Wisconsin in 1850 to mine gold, and was successful enough to return to the Midwest via Panama and New York to marry his sweetheart. He then led a group of pioneers back across the plains and mountains to California, where he established thriving dairy farms in Marin County before settling in Salinas. Abbott’s Lagoon, a bird sanctuary on the coast of Point Reyes named after him, marks the spot where he single-handedly rescued the crew and passengers of a grounded ship by lasoing them to shore with his mule. Carlisle’s son, and Arline’s father, Harvey Eldon Abbott was a distinguished citizen of Salinas and one of the founders of the Salinas Rodeo.

In 1932 Dr. Reeves gave 70 acres, including historic Fremont Peak, to the State of California to be maintained for the people as Fremont Peak State Park. The Park has commanding views of Monterey Bay, as well as San Benito, Monterey, Santa Cruz and Santa Clara Counties. It is used by thousands of campers, hikers, naturalists, historians, and stargazers each year. Sheltering the ranch on the north, Fremont Peak is the dominant view from anywhere on the Ranch and from much of the Salinas and Hollister valleys.

The landscape of the Ranch is characteristic of those sections of Central California often referred to as “Steinbeck country”. In fact, John Steinbeck opens his novel “East of Eden” with a description of the Gabilan Mountains as “light gay mountains full of sun and loveliness and a kind of invitation, so that you wanted to climb into their warm foothills almost as you want to climb into the lap of a beloved mother.” He ends his book “Travels With Charlie” on top of Fremont Peak with his dog, to take a final look at his homeland before moving east.

Successive eras of volcanic action, erosion, submersion under the sea, upheaval, and plate movement left the land the way we see it today. Rising at its highest point at Fremont Peak the land forms a basin that captures winter rains. The rains charge the abundant springs and they in turn feed the many streams that start on the ranch, supplying the Salinas, San Benito and Pescadero Rivers and enriching the lands below us. Most of the land is referred to as oak and grass savanna. The fields explode with wildflowers every spring and in the summer their golden glow is dotted with mature native oaks. The ridges are covered with huge-coned Coulter pines and red-barked madrones. The steep side hills contain the typical California dense covering of chaparral that provides such good habitat for wildlife. The ranch is home to numerous animals including blacktail deer, mountain lion, wild pigs, coyotes, elk, bobcat, grey fox, raccoon, badger, cottontail and jackrabbit, and a host of other critters. Among the many bird species, Redtail hawk and Golden eagles soar above us. Spring fed ponds house healthy schools of black bass, blue gill, and catfish.

The Ranch has always been open to the California Oak Society, the California Native Plant Society, and numerous nature study groups. Working in cooperation with the California Department of Fish & Game a herd of tule elk was introduced in 1983, and a few years later wild turkeys were planted. Both have thrived. The elk have expanded to neighboring ranches and grown to two herds of over 100 animals, and three groups of turkeys have been taken from the ranch to populate neighboring lands.

Working with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish & Game, a program was initiated to improve native steelhead runs in Gabilan Creek. Gabilan Creek, which starts on the ranch, is the primary drainage from Fremont Peak, and it flows into the Salinas River before entering Monterey Bay. These efforts were focused at improving riparian habitats to encourage survival of this important species. Another effort with the same groups is designed to protect suspected Coho salmon in Pescadero Creek. This creek starts on the ranch and flows east into the San Benito River, which then joins the Pajaro River before entering Monterey Bay. Other efforts include the federal Forest Stewardship Program that conducts research on forest conservation.

The ranch has always been a working cattle operation managed at present, by the Reeves family as the Gabilan Cattle Company, a California Limited Partnership. The owners are in the process of placing the ranch into a conservation easement to guarantee the preservation in perpetuity of its natural resources and scenic beauty.

The owners of the Gabilan Cattle Company have long held beliefs about their responsibilities to protect the land that they are entrusted, as reflected in the Mission Statement adopted many years ago.

It is the mission of the Gabilan Cattle Company to preserve and enhance our family heritage by jointly owning and operating the ranch as a family business. We shall manage the ranch in such a manner as to protect and improve natural resources, wildlife habitat, and scenic beauty, as well as provide a setting for rest, recreation and continued learning for all. To support these desires, the Gabilan Cattle Company will run an efficient cattle operation with emphasis on creativity, sound management and family involvement.