Reagan Ranch Timeline
1872: The Ranch in the 1800s
Since its statehood in 1848, vast acres of California land, including
the mountain areas along the coast, had been cleared and settled by ranchers.
In 1872, Jose Jesus Pico decides to build a small adobe home for his family,
using the clay of the surrounding hills of Refugio Pass, high above the
Pacific Ocean. For years, he and his family prosper by growing vegetables,
cultivating vineyards, and raising livestock. Finally, in August of 1898,
he acquires title to the land through the Homestead Act of 1862.
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November 13, 1974: Tip Top Ranch is Purchased
Ronald and Nancy Reagan purchase “Tip Top Ranch” nestled in the Santa
Ynez Mountains north of Santa Barbara. They christen the ranch retreat “Rancho
del Cielo.” Reagan appreciates both the early history of his beloved “Ranch
in the Sky” and the efforts of the man who built it by hand more than
100 years earlier.
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January 1975: Reagan’s second term as Governor ends
Ronald Reagan steps down after two successful terms as the 33rd governor
of California. The San Francisco Chronicle commends Reagan for
having “saved the state from bankruptcy.” The Los Angeles Times hails
him as an “accomplished practitioner in the art of government.” Newsweek dubs
the governor “one of the most brilliantly gifted politicians anywhere
in the U.S. today.”
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October 18, 1975: Mike Wallace’s Ranch interview with
Reagan
Mike Wallace of CBS’ 60 Minutes interviews Ronald Reagan at
Rancho del Cielo. In this segment, titled “Mister Right,” renowned journalist
Mike Wallace notes that not only did Mrs. Reagan consider Reagan “Mister
Right,” but the American public might as well. A Gallup poll showed Reagan
leading incumbent President Gerald Ford by eight points with the 1976
presidential election not far away. Sitting with Reagan atop one of the
Ranch’s sweeping vistas, Wallace asks him why a man who has “got it made” would
want to give it up for the presidency. “Somebody once said that life begins
when you begin to serve,” answers Reagan. “Maybe there’s a feeling that
if you can be of service, that you feel you have to do it.”
Harkening back to FDR’s fireside chats, Reagan tells Wallace how he
admired Roosevelt’s ability to take his case to the people, to “enlighten” them
directly.
“The greatest leader,” concludes Reagan, “is not necessarily the one who
does the greatest things. He’s the one who gets the people to do the greatest
things. And that’s what’s lacking now.”
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August 19, 1976: Reagan loses the GOP nomination
Reagan barely loses the delegate count to incumbent President Gerald
Ford at the 1976 Republican National Convention. In an emotional speech,
Reagan awes the crowd. Biographer Edmund Morris later writes: “The power
of the speech was extraordinary. And you could just feel throughout the
auditorium the palpable sense among the delegates that [they had] nominated
the wrong guy.”
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May 27, 1977: Reagan inscribes initials in Heart Rock
One day in May 1977, as the Reagans ride their horses together along
a trail at the Ranch overlooking the Pacific, Ronald Reagan stops to engrave
his and Nancy’s initials in a rock now known as “Heart Rock.” He also
gives Mrs. Reagan a canoe named “Truluv” to use on Lake Lucky.
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January 20, 1981: Reagan is inaugurated
Ronald Reagan is inaugurated the 40th president of the United States.
The new president pledges an “era of national renewal.” He says that if
Americans believe in themselves, then they, together with God’s help,
could resolve the problems confronting them. “And after all, why shouldn’t
we believe that?”
says Reagan, “We are Americans.” Only minutes later, 52 Americans fly
to freedom after a 444-day ordeal as hostages to the Ayatollah’s theocracy
in Iran.
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March 30, 1981: The assassination attempt on Reagan’s
life
At 2:25 p.m., while exiting the Washington Hilton, Ronald Reagan is
greeted by a barrage of bullets fired from the revolver of John Hinckley.
Unbeknownst to the public, Reagan nearly bleeds to death at The George
Washington University Hospital. Upon his recovery, he informs close friends
and family that he believes God spared his life for a special purpose.
He tells New York’s Terence Cardinal Cooke: “I have decided that whatever
time I have left is for Him.”
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June 27, 1981: The Bushes visit the Ranch
Vice President George H. W. Bush and his wife Barbara visit the Ranch,
arriving at approximately 2:00 p.m. on a Saturday. The Texans have never
seen a ranch anywhere in the Lone Star state quite like Rancho del Cielo.
The president and vice president meet to discuss the latter’s recent trip
to western Europe. This is the first of several visits to the Ranch by
Vice President Bush.
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August 12, 1981: Reagan hosts a barbecue for Seabees
at the Ranch
In a day that includes a chat with Secretary of State Alexander Haig,
horseback riding, chopping wood and clearing brush, the Reagans host a
barbecue for the Seabee Navy Construction Battalion that assisted with
construction of temporary structures at the Ranch–the facilities necessary
for transforming Rancho del Cielo into the Western White House.
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August 13, 1981: The signing of the Economic Recovery
Tax Act
In a ceremony at Rancho del Cielo, Ronald Reagan signs the Economic
Recovery Tax Act. He secures a 25% across-the-board reduction in federal
income tax rates over a three-year period starting in October 1981. Eventually,
through this and subsequent cuts, the upper income marginal tax rate is
reduced from 70% to 28%.
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November 24, 1981: Barbara Walters interviews Reagan
at the Ranch
Barbara Walters interviews Ronald Reagan at the Ranch for a television
special, “Ronald Reagan: At Home on the Ranch, a Personal Portrait,” broadcast
on Thanksgiving Day 1981 by ABC’s 20/20. The show includes not
only interviews with Ronald and Nancy Reagan but also children Ron, Patti,
and Maureen Reagan and brother Neil Reagan, and friends and associates.
Walters and Reagan talked about a mixture of public policy–the budget
crisis, the tax reduction, and the assassination attempt eight months
earlier. “We have a great deal to be thankful for,” said Reagan. He says
of the Ranch, “It casts a spell. There’s such a sense of seclusion, and
I suppose it’s the scriptural line that, “I look to the hills from whence
cometh my strength.”
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March 2, 1983: Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip
visit the Ranch
Ronald Reagan hosts Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip at the Ranch.
The day of the Royal visit is very rainy and the winding road to the mountaintop
retreat is barely passable, yet the Queen insists on making the journey.
The visit is spent indoors by the warmth of the fireplace stoked with
wood that Reagan has cut.
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March 8, 1983: Reagan gives his “Evil Empire” speech
In a speech in Orlando, Florida to the National Association of Evangelicals,
Ronald Reagan calls the Soviet Union “the focus of evil in the modern
world”–an
“Evil Empire.” At the Permanent Labor Camp 35 deep within the Soviet gulag,
Anatoly Sharansky and his cellmates hear the news and rejoice that, at
last, someone in the West has spoken the truth about the USSR.
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September 1, 1983: Soviets shoot down Korean Air Lines
Flight 007
At Rancho del Cielo, Reagan learns from National Security Adviser Bill
Clark that a Soviet fighter aircraft blasted a South Korean commercial
airliner Flight 007 out of the sky, en route from New York City to Seoul,
killing 269 passengers–including 61 Americans. The Soviets initially deny
responsibility, but later admit their guilt.
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August 11, 1984: Reagan “Outlaws” Russia
Prior to his radio address from the Ranch, Reagan, not knowing that
the microphone is ‘open,’ makes a humorous remark about Russia, “My fellow
Americans, I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation
that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.” In
his diaries Reagan writes about the ‘open mic’ incident saying:
On one of them I gave the press an opening to display their irresponsibility
which they did. Doing a ‘voice level’ with no thought that anyone other
than the few people in the room would hear I ad-libbed jokingly something
about the Soviets. The networks had a line open and recorded it and of
course made it public–hence an international incident.
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April 14, 1987: Secretary of State George Shultz visits
Moscow
At the Ranch at 1:45 p.m. President Reagan receives a call from Secretary
of State George Shultz in Moscow where he had been meeting with the Soviets
on arms negotiations. After meetings in Moscow and Brussels, Shultz flies
to the Ranch, where he arrives on April 16 to discuss his efforts. After
convening inside the house, Reagan and Shultz greet the press, to whom
the president reads a statement. “It is my hope,” says Reagan, “that the
process now underway continues to move forward and that Mr. Gorbachev
and I can complete a historic agreement on East-West relations at a summit
meeting.”
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June 12, 1987: Reagan’s speech at the Brandenburg
Gate, Berlin, Germany
At the Brandenburg Gate, Ronald Reagan directs these words to the leader
of the Soviet Union: “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace,
if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you
seek liberalization: Come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this
gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” On Moscow television, Georgi
Arbatov denounces Reagan’s words as “political vulgarity” and “blackmail
by an American cowboy.” A year later at the Moscow Summit, Reagan makes
his request to Gorbachev in person. Gorbachev says that he “[cannot] agree
with the president’s view.”
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December 8, 1987: Washington Summit: INF Treaty is
signed
At the Washington Summit, Reagan and Gorbachev sign the INF Treaty,
the first and only treaty to successfully ban an entire class of nuclear
weapons, namely medium-range missiles. The agreement fulfills Reagan’s
first-term objective of a “zero-zero” balance on these weapons.
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May 3, 1992: The Gorbachevs visit the Ranch
The Reagans host Mikhail and Raisa Gorbachev at the Ranch. Only five
months earlier, on December 25, 1991, Gorbachev resigned as leader of
the Soviet Union, thereby also permanently disbanding the USSR itself–its
principal part is once again just Russia. The Evil Empire has at long
last been resigned to the ash-heap of history. For the first time, the
two former superpower leaders enjoy a friendly day not as adversaries
or negotiators but now as friends who changed the world.
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February 7, 1993: Lady Margaret Thatcher visits the
Ranch
On the foggy day in February following the celebration of the President’s
birthday at the Reagan Presidential Library the previous night, Lady Margaret
Thatcher, 71st Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, visits the Reagans
at the Ranch. Lady Thatcher is gracious as she tours the humble ranch
home and pauses in front of the fireplace to express her joy at finally
being able to visit Reagan’s beloved presidential retreat. As they chat
about the weather, the Reagans apologize for the foggy conditions to which
she remarks, “I love the fog.” She asks about the home and its history.
The President tells her about the history of the property and what they
have done to improve it over the years.
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July 25 - 31, 1993: Reagan speaks to the Young America’s
Foundation Summer Conference
Reagan addresses Young America’s Foundation’s 15th Annual National
Conservative Student Conference. Recalling his longtime collaboration
with the Foundation the 40th president says, “Together we worked to accomplish
much of what has come to be known as the Reagan Revolution. We helped
turn the tide against totalitarianism.” In those 15 years, says Reagan,
he and they have witnessed a rebirth of liberty worldwide.
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November 5, 1994: Reagan informs the world of his
Alzheimer’s Disease
Ronald Reagan releases a handwritten letter informing the world that
the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease is leading him into “the sunset” of his
life.
“When the Lord calls me home,” he writes, “I will leave with the greatest
love for this country of ours and eternal optimism for its future.”
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August 15, 1995: Reagan visits the Ranch for the last
time
Ronald Reagan makes his final visits to Rancho del Cielo during the
hot days of late August. Where he had previously enjoyed physical activities
such as horseback riding, cutting brush and fixing things, the activities
he can do with ease become fewer and fewer. Since the president can no
longer enjoy Ranch activities as he once did, the time has come to say
farewell to his beloved mountaintop retreat, an ‘old friend’ that has
served him well for nearly twenty-one historic and memorable years spanning
his governorship to his post-presidency.
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April 21, 1998: Rancho del Cielo is saved by Young
America’s Foundation
Rancho del Cielo is sold to the Young America’s Foundation. The Ranch
is now preserved as it was when President Reagan owned it, having been
saved with most original artifacts and memorabilia intact. It now lives
on as a monument to the life and ideas of Ronald Reagan.
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