San Rafael Ranch, Historic cattle ranch in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, US
San Rafael Ranch is a cattle ranch in the San Rafael Valley about 1.5 miles north of Lochiel, Arizona, near the Sonora border. Its headquarters is a three-story brick house in the French Colonial Revival style, unusual for a rural Arizona ranch, with a machine and blacksmith shop, two barns, corrals and other livestock structures. The 18,500 deeded acres lie beside a grazing preference on the state natural area.
Colonel William Greene acquired the property in 1903 and made it headquarters for the Greene Cattle Company, operating thousands of cattle. The operation grew to become one of the region's largest ranching enterprises during that era.
The ranch house, built by Colin Cameron around 1900 after a Christmas Eve fire destroyed his first home, is in the French Colonial Revival style, unusual for a rural Arizona ranch. The name comes from the Mexican land grant San Rafael de la Zanja. The headquarters is not open to the public.
The ranch headquarters, designated a National Historic District in 2008, is not open to the public, so visits are limited to viewing the surrounding rangeland of the San Rafael Valley. The site lies about 1.5 miles north of Lochiel, near the Sonora border. Arizona State Parks bought 3,557 acres including the ranch house in 1999 and holds a conservation easement on the rest.
The property served as a filming location in the 1950s for the Western film Oklahoma, starring Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones. This film connection brought the location greater recognition in popular culture.
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