Vina, California is approximately three miles from the estate, and was founded at the end of the Peter Lassen Trail, in the later 1800's. It was located on a 55,000-acre historical Spanish land grant, owned by Leland Stanford. This area was also the land of Ishi who was found in the early 1900's. Ishi was a Native American Indian, from a tribe, which had been considered extinct at the time of his discovery.
Although Stanford University located in Palo Alto was known as "down on the farm" this was actually the farm. Stanford developed what was at the turn of the century the largest vineyards and winery in the world. The town of Vina had a train station, several hotels, shops and saloons. There were French, Japanese, and Chinese camps for the labor force utilized to establish Stanford's agricultural projects.
Today you can still see miles of fences built of volcanic rock from Mt. Lassen, built by Stanford's Chinese work force. After his son was killed in a horse drawn plow accident, and the fact that he was becoming more involved in politics, his interest in the farm waned. A fire destroyed the majority of the town, prohibition set in, and the “farm” was broken up and sold to various agricultural operators. The Flynn family gave the winery to the Trappist Monks, who today still operate the Monastery. Four years ago, the monks revived the winery tradition, by opening the “New Clairvaux Vineyard” which is producing award winning wines.
In approximately the mid 1960's, "Niobrara Farms commenced developing 1,300 acres in the area, to orchards and vineyards. This agricultural developer and his wife (the Dobsons) built a home on the headquarters parcel (which is approximately 1 ½ miles south of the estate.) Mrs. Dobson wrote soap operas in their home and "General Hospital" was created! The setting was modeled after Enloe Hospital in Chico. In 1971, they sold the property, "Ballard Estate" to U.S. Hertz, Inc. of Oakland, CA. In time, the Dobsons moved to Santa Barbara where Mrs. Dobson continued to write 'soaps' and Mr. Dobson started producing them.
In 1971, the current owner of the estate purchased a 195-acre parcel adjacent to the headquarters parcel of Ballard Estates and planted a varietal wine grape vineyard. In 1972, he purchased Ballard Estates, and operated it until 1990 when it was sold to the Mormon Church of Salt Lake City. "Ballard" consisted of 9 parcels in two counties partially bordered by the Sacramento River. In the late 80's, the owner carved this special 3-4 acre parcel on Long Barn Pond out of the rest of the land as the perfect site to build his family's permanent residence.
(Note: Prior to 1987, the owner lived in Tiburon, CA on the San Francisco Bay as he had offices in the Bank of America Center in San Francisco. He used to bring his boys up to the "ranch" for long weekends once or twice a month. It was such a healthy atmosphere, that in 1987 he moved them up permanently and never looked back to the city life (except for his sail boat, which has always been kept at the Corinthian Yacht Club in Tiburon!)
Historically, this building site had been a large dairy known as Long Barn. The old abandoned concrete floor and foundations were used for riprap along the side of the pond adjacent to the property. Old stone walkways were found, but their origin is so far unidentified. Approximately ¼ of a mile north of the property, there was a large iron pillar, which marked the southern boundary of the vineyards and the beginning of the hay fields.
