Point Reyes Light - December 21, 2000

Gallagher siblings sell Four Corners ranch

By Elizabeth Bourne

After ranching in West Marin for more than 140 years, one branch of the Gallagher family last week said good-bye to their 1,000-acre Nicasio ranch located at the intersection of the Point Reyes-Petaluma and Nicasio Valley roads.

After three years on the market and twice in escrow, the ranch was finally sold to James and Margaret Moore of Tiburon for $4.25 million.

An American flag anchored to a large rock flies near the entrance to the property, where the dirt ranch road runs northwest from the intersection known as Four Corners.

The biggest obstacle in selling the ranch was an easement to another large property bordering the Gallagher property, the Hicks Mountain Ranch, where the owners are planning to build a family compound.

"People wanted privacy and they didn’t want to see cars driving by," said Richie Gallagher, the youngest of nine siblings raised on the ranch. "People thought [it wasn’t selling] because of a lack of water, but there’s all kinds of water here."

Settlers from Cork, Ireland

Coming to America from County Cork in southern Ireland, Edward and Kathryn Gallagher settled in Connecticut in 1858, and a few years later headed west by wagon train to settle on the Marin-Sonoma border at Two Rock.

Generations of Gallaghers continued to settle in West Marin, living or working at many ranches including Pierce Point, Kehoe, C, and F ranches on Point Reyes, Black Mountain and North Bend along Papermill Creek, and the North and South ranches in Nicasio.

In 1923, Edward and Mary Rogers Gallagher were the first to take part of the Pacheco Land Grant by renting the North Ranch in Nicasio. There they operated a Grade B dairy (meaning they separated the cream from the milk) and raised nine children. The eldest six children attended Pacheco School located where the Nicasio Reservoir is now. The youngest three went to Nicasio School. Richie graduated in 1948, the last class to graduate from the "old red school" which was then yellow.

"Nicasio was quite different then," he said. "There was no traffic at all in front of the school. We played out in the road all the time."

Bought in 1950

Edward Gallagher eventually bought the property in 1950 for $110,000. As the Gallagher clan grew, some moved off the ranch, but brothers Ed, John, George and Richie stayed behind, raising cattle and pigs. Over the past decade, Ed passed away, and John and George moved, leaving Richie alone to run the ranch. Their sister, Marian Morris, still lives in Point Reyes and brother Ray ranches in Fallon near Tomales.

The Gallaghers’ 1,000-acre beef ranch is under a Williamson Act contract, which provides a property tax break to ranchers for limiting development to agriculture uses for 10 years or more.

Gallagher said the buyers hope to build a new home on the property. In the meantime, the old dairy building still stands on the property, as well as a main house, two barns, a bunk house and several out buildings.

Bill Harrison of Nicasio provided historical information for this piece.

Point Reyes Light Cover | News | Coastal Traveler