Pierce Ranch

Pierce Ranch is a dairy ranch headquarters on Tomales Point in Point Reyes National Seashore, near Inverness. Its buildings form two offset squares of white-painted structures among rows of windbreak trees. They include a sixteen-room main house combining a section believed to date from 1869 with an older portion said to date from 1856, a hay barn, a horse barn, dairy houses, bunkhouses, and a school house. A road leads down to the ruins of a pier on Tomales Bay, where butter and other products were loaded on boats. The ranch was founded after Solomon Pierce bought the Tomales Point tract in 1858. It was listed as one of the notable dairy ranches supplying San Francisco, and for many years led Point Reyes Township in butter production. Its buildings and setting keep the character of a late 19th and early 20th century Pacific Coast dairy ranch, which accounts for its recognition.