Hollister
– More than 50 people gathered under a bright sky at Pinnacles
National Monument Tuesday to see the nearly 1,700-acre Pinnacles
Ranch and campground become part of the park.
Hollister – More than 50 people gathered under a bright sky at Pinnacles National Monument Tuesday to see the nearly 1,700-acre Pinnacles Ranch and campground become part of the park.
Flanked on either side by students from Jefferson Elementary School – the one-room school in south county – Congressman Sam Farr (D-Carmel) tightened the bolts of the arrow-shaped National Parks Service crest that will now hang at the entrance of the Pinnacles Campground. In the distance a bobcat scurried across the small road that meanders through the park.
“Welcome to Pinnacles National Monument,” park Superintendent Eric Brunnemann said to those gathered once the sign was firmly attached.
Tuesday marked culmination of more than a decade of work by landowners, environmentalists and members of Congress. The National Park Service purchased the 1,967-acre Pinnacles Ranch for $5.3 million recently from the Nature Conservancy. The acquisition brings large tracts of native grasslands, riparian areas and about 700 acres of oak woodlands – of which Pinnacles had about 40 acres – under the protection of the Parks Service and eliminates the possibility that the land will be developed.
The grassy slopes and oak woodlands of the ranch will add needed foraging grounds for the California condor, according to the Nature Conservancy. Several young condors have been released since 2003 from the 24,000-acre Pinnacles National Monument in an effort to make the species thrive again. The ranch and park are also home to bobcats, golden eagles, deer and more than 100 bird species.
Development of the ranch would have held “terrible implications” for the condors and other wildlife on the ranch, according to Nature Conservancy spokesperson Misty Herrin.
Nature lovers will also benefit from the ranch acquisition, according to Brunnemann. The 120 sites at the Pinnacles Campground will remain open, just as they have for the past year under the management of the Nature Conservancy, he said.
“What a beautiful day for America,” Farr said to the crowd Tuesday.
Long time coming
When landowners Peggy and Stu Kingman put the Pinnacles Ranch on the market about 12 years ago, they knew that they wanted the ranch to become part of the Pinnacles National Monument. The Park Service, however, lacked the funds to purchase it. Dedicated to their vision for the ranch’s future, the Kingmans held onto the land.
Just more than a year ago, the Nature Conservancy purchased the Pinnacles Ranch for $5.3 million and waited as Farr and U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein worked in Congress to get funding for the Parks Service to purchase the land.
“We were able to buy time for the Park Service,” Herrin said.
In July, the U.S. Senate passed a bill that included $3 million for the acquisition of the Pinnacles Ranch. The remainder of the purchase price was already budgeted for by the U.S. Interior Department.
It was a frustrating process, Herrin said, because the Senate kept taking the $3 million out of the $162 million Interior Department budget appropriation and Feinstein would have to fight to get it put back in.
“It’s been a long haul, I have to say,” Stu Kingman said during the ceremony Tuesday. “It’s been a long 12 years to get this done, but it was worth it”
Developing a love for the land
The Kingmans, who have lived on the Pinnacles Ranch property for nearly 30 years, weren’t immediately enamored with the area when they made their first trip to the Pinnacles National Monument in the 1960s. During the ceremony Tuesday, Stu Kingman recalled their family trip to the park one August.
“It was hot, miserably hot, yellow jackets all over the place” he said. ” We had a miserable night and said to ourselves, ‘we never want to live in a place like this.'”
In 1978, however, the Kingmans moved to the centuries old Pinnacles Ranch. During the intervening years, the Kingmans developed a deep bond with the land.
“I get very emotional about the property,” Peggy Kingman said. “It just grows on you, it sustains you.”
Peggy Kingman said whenever her home on the ranch got too crowded or she needed solitude she would hike or ride horseback into the wilderness and find comfort in nature. She said that her parents’ graves are on the property.
“It’s just a very special place, we’re glad you all enjoy it,” Peggy Kingman said.
