The family that for decades operated the Stewart Horse Camp has discontinued its agreement with the National Park Service, leading equestrians to ask whether the Olema site will reopen after its seasonal closure.
The campground, run for nearly 50 years by the Stewart family, had been operating on a one-year extension after its 10-year concessionaire agreement expired in 2018. Last November, the park announced that Amanda Wisby—a fourth-generation rancher on the land—had decided to end the concession contract.
Now, Andrew Loose, the owner of neighboring Five Brooks Ranch, has expressed interest in running the camp this season while the park service puts together a prospectus. Though the government shutdown has interrupted the conversation, Mr. Loose said he has signaled his interest in a longer-term agreement for the site.
“It is just an informal conversation at this point, just like for everyone, but we are interested in helping to keep it open this season, and beyond. We are right here, so it makes sense,” said Mr. Loose, who has run Five Brooks, a 35-horse operation, for the past 25 years.
The horse camp and neighboring 2,188-acre cattle ranch was most recently operated by Ms. Wisby and her husband, Quincy Campbell. The couple could not be reached for this story.
The Stewart family has a long history on the land, which housed a dairy ranch since the mid-1800s. Nicasio resident Samuel J. Stewart bought the dairy for $54,000 in 1924, according to Dewey Livingston’s book “Dairy Farming in the Olema Valley.” Samuel passed it off to his son Boyd, Ms. Wisby’s father, who moved home to continue to the legacy after graduating from Stanford University.
By the mid-1970s, the Stewarts had sold their entire property in exchange for a reservation of use and occupancy and turned their focus to beef and the horse boarding business.
The family’s last concession agreement for the campground, granted in 2008, expired in March 2018. Months before it expired, park spokesman John Dell’Osso circulated news that the park service had offered Ms. Wisby a one-year extension “while working on the development of a new business prospectus for this operation” in order to “facilitate horseback visitation” to the seashore.
Last November, Mr. Dell’Osso announced to the equestrian community, “We wanted to let you know that the long-time operator of the horse camp within Point Reyes National Seashore, Amanda Wisby/Stewart Ranch LLC, recently notified the National Park Service that she no longer wishes to operate the facility, and requested to end the concession contract.”
This week Mr. Dell’Osso, one of a small number of park employees working without pay through the government shutdown, added, “We are looking for a short-term solution to this upcoming season when the camp would normally have reopened. The longer-term question of a prospectus will be on hold until the budget is passed.”
Besides the Sky, Coast and Wildcat Campgrounds, which together accommodate up to six horses per night, Stewart Horse Camp is the only spot in the seashore to stay with horses. The campground has restrooms, showers, firepits, picnic tables and access to a wide network of trails. The fees were $20 per person per night, according to the California State Horsemen’s Association.
Besides the concession contract, Ms. Wisby has a 10-year ranching lease that expires in 2020. In 2014, the reservation of use and occupancy the Stewart family held for the 18-acre parcel that includes five houses expired after the death of Ms. Wisby’s mother, Jo Ann Stewart.