This week, the Santa Clara Board of Supervisors made official the purchase of a majestic 490-acre private property just west of Gilroy in order to expand Mt. Madonna County Park.
The property on Redwood Retreat Road, known as Triple Buck Ranch, was purchased in November 2012 for $2 million by the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST), a Palo Alto-based nonprofit dedicated to protecting and caring for open space, farms and parkland in Silicon Valley.
The property, a blend of steep, chaparral-covered cliffs, grassland, oak woodland and redwood forest on the northern border of Mt. Madonna, contains more than one half mile of Little Arthur Creek which flows through the property and provides habitat for wildlife, including steelhead.
“The acquisition of the property is a logical expansion of Mt. Madonna County Park, and provides our residents with additional recreational opportunities,” said District 1 Supervisor Mike Wasserman.
The purchase also enables the County to expand their network of trail systems in the area.
POST bought Triple Buck from Frank Della Maggiora. The Italian native emigrated to the U.S. as a teenager and eventually settled in Gilroy. He graduated from Gilroy High School in 1954 and has lived in the area ever since.
Della Maggiora, a retired developer who now works part-time at the Eagle Ridge Golf Club in Gilroy, bought Triple Buck Ranch in 1973 with a group of business partners and eventually assumed sole ownership in 2002.
An avid outdoorsman who owns a private duck hunting club in Los Banos, Della Maggiora, 78, describes the ranch with fondness and familiarity.
“It’s a unique piece of land…it’s real majestic,” he said, in a heavy Italian accent. “You have redwood trees that are huge. Two people cannot put their arms around it. I used to walk through there and just look. I called it my cathedral…it is gorgeous. I’m hoping that 20, 30, 40, 50 years down the line, somebody will say, ‘I’m glad somebody didn’t develop this.’”
