Jack London Experimental Ranch (Jack London Ranch Album)

Jack London's Ranch Album: A Pictorial Biography

1910. Jack London on Sonoma Mountain, overlooking the Valley of the Moon. He took great pride in his Beauty Ranch

Jack London's Beauty Ranch

"I ride over my beautiful ranch. Between my legs is a beautiful horse. The air is wine. The grapes on a score of rolling hills are red with autumn flame. Across Sonoma Mountain, wisps of sea fog are stealing. The afternoon sun smolders in the drowsy sky. I have everything to make me glad I am alive."

London, Jack John Barleycorn (Century Co, 1913)

"Most of the ranchers were poor and hopeless; no one could make money there, they told me. They had worked the land out and their only hope was to move on somewhere else and start to work new land out and destroy its value. . . . . My neighbors were typified by the man who said: 'You can't teach me anything about farming; I've worked three farms out!' "

circa 1916

London's Interest in Farming Grew

"When he had first bought the Hill Ranch he had written to his friend Cloudesley Johns, 'I am not going ranching; the only cleared ground on the place will be used for growing hay'. But he found that his interest in farming and ranching was growing apace, that every development led him into new operations. He subscribed to agriculture newspapers and magazines, wrote to the agricultural departments of the University of California and the state government for information and advice. With the passage of months he realized that agriculture and ranching were exciting subjects, and that he was becoming fascinated. Tired of adventuring abroad, he now began to adventure at home; farming became his hobby. Giving himself to the new activity with his accustomed zeal, before long he found he had acquired sufficient knowledge to constitute himself somewhat of an authority.

Envisioned a Model Farm

The more he studied agriculture in the State of California the more he found wrong with it, the more he decided the entire agricultural system was a counterpart of the economic system, haphazard, wasteful, needing a sharp reconstruction with scientific methods. He had the land, he had the money, he had the knowledge and determination; he decided to put them together to rescue California farming. Slowly, as he continued with his studies and delved more deeply into his subject, there formed in his mind a vision of the type of model farm his foster father, John London, had wanted to build in Alameda and then in Livermore. This model farm he would build through the years would point the way to a higher type of agriculture throughout the country, would enable the farmers to get a higher quality produce out of their land and stock.

He learned that the Kholer and Lamotte Ranches were worn out, useless because the former owners had tilled the land for forty years without feeding it fertilizer, without allowing it to lie fallow. He found the stock of the countryside had degenerated; scrub bulls without pedigree were being used for the mount; the horses, pigs and goats were all of inferior breed. The fertile hills of California were being wasted; 'we must develop scientific methods to turn the slopes into productive areas'. He reasoned that if he rehabilitated the land and reinvigorated the stock, if he threw overboard the wasteful, destructive methods of the farmers who were failing all about him, if he farmed for only the highest-grade produce he could save that section of the state for agriculture. To achieve this end he and Eliza threw all their resources, energy, and capability into the task. Jack planned everything with Eliza, who then gave orders and supervised the work.

Challenged Himself to Succeed

'At the present moment I am the owner of six bankrupt ranches, united in my possession. The six bankrupt ranches represent at least eighteen bankruptcies; that is to say, at least eighteen farmers of the old school have lost their money, broken their hearts, lost their land. The challenge to me is this: by using my head, my judgement, and all the latest knowledge in the matter of farming, can I make a success where these eighteen men failed? I have pledged myself, my manhood, my fortune, my books, and all I possess to this undertaking.' "

Stone, Irving Sailor on Horseback: The Biography of Jack London. (Doubleday,1938)

The Dam


Click on one of the thumbnails for a better view.

"My first big dam on the place is just finished so that on these poor, old, worked-out, eroded hillsides I shall be able to harvest two crops a year and turn one crop under; in place of the old meagre crop that could be taken off only once in several years."

The lake was formed by the building of a stone dam in the hills above the ranch fields. It was kept full by a pipe line bringing water from Graham Creek.

Jack London Trivia Question

Who was John Barleycorn? Answer

A Jack London Quote

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club, and if you don't get it you will nonetheless get something that looks remarkably like it."