Pierce Point Ranch

Constructed in the 1860s by Solomon Pierce, it became the most successful "butter rancho" in Point Reyes Township, and as such it was repeatedly recognized in the contemporary literature. The operation grew so large that a second ranch was established though it is no longer extant. Beginning in the 1880s the ranch was leased to a series of tenants. In the mid-1930s it was sold to the McClure family which operated it as a Grade B dairy until about 1945, when dairy ranching ceased after 90 years. The complex includes the 1869 and earlier sections of the two-story main house, the tank house, school, woodshed, carpenter shop, blacksmith shop, dairy, horse barn, slaughter house, hay barn, hog sheds and pens and woodshed. It represents the most extensive surviving historic complex at the Point Reyes National Seashore.

The Pierce Point Ranch on Tomales Point ceased operations in 1973. Three years later, Congress authorized creation of the wilderness area incorporating that ranch as habitat for the reintroduction of tule elk. Beginning in 1980, NPS invested in the rehabilitation of the ranch core, citing it as the best example of a nineteenth century west Marin dairy ranch. Pierce Point Ranch was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985, and was subsequently opened to the public as an interpretive site.

nccsah.org/pdf_newsletters/Oct2006RanchTour.pdf
www.nps.gov/pore/historyculture/people_ranching.htm
www.tomalesbay.net/about_ranch.html