La Grange - Ranch History

La Grange Saloon & GrillIn the early years, when the area was originally surveyed, it was given the name La Grange - a French name for either the farm or the barn. It was once a booming town in the Gold Rush era, until dredging for gold was replaced with cattle ranching. The first post office was established in 1854. A little known piece of trivia about our ranch is its close proximity to the monument that was erected off Fields Road, marking the "spot" where four California counties all come together - Mariposa, Stanislaus, Tuolumne, and Merced. Just below the ranch is reputed to be an old horse-drawn stagecoach stop during the early years.

Goatback Mountain Ranch

Our property is part of the original Hayward Ranch, which was subsequently sold off in the late 1990’s. Much of the original Hayward Ranch property, including ours, is protected under the Williamson Land Conservation Act, ensuring there be little, if any, future development to these lands. Starting a goat herd operation was a way of placing our agricultural ground in a use we believed would be in keeping with the original intent of the Williamson Act - agriculture use, not urban sprawl.

Our ranch still uses the spring-fed water which runs out of Dan Sullivan Gulch. The same water the early homesteaders later “piped in” downhill to water their livestock, via gravity flow to the Hayward Ranch, using a rough-hewn, above-ground pipe system. Evidence of those same pipes still lie above-ground at our site, although they now lay dormant and mostly unused. However, our goat herd still benefit from the year-round spring water, and it remains the primary source we use in supplying fresh water to them, year-round!

La Grange Cemetery We are truly fortunate to be stewards of the land, which is located in an area so rich in the rural, romantic, California history. For a deep historical perspective of this area, two books that we found most insightful were 'Quest for Deep Gold, The Story of La Grange, California' written by Thorne Gray and 'Gold Fields to Grazing Fields', authored by Franklin Beard.




© Goatback Mountain Ranch 2009