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Volume 048-1 - January 1994 (8 pages)
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Page: of 8
Nevada County Historical Society
Bulletin
Volume 48, No. 1 January 1994
Loma Rica Ranch and the MacBoyle Legacy
By Michel Janicot
Cuttin
Te LOMA RICA RANCH (Spanish for “rich land’)
was originally known as the Henry McCarty ranch in the
1850s, and after passing through several owners, was acquired by the Idaho Maryland Mines Corporation in the early
1930s. The property consisted of two separate entities—the
Loma Rica Ranch (166 acres) and the Loma Rica Rancho
(577 acres)—when Errol MacBoyle personally leased the
property from the Idaho Maryland Mines Corporation, and
eventually acquired title to it in 1934.
During MacBoyle’s stewardship, part of Loma Rica Ranch
was developed into an orchard of 220 acres, planted with
pear, plum, apple and cherry trees (whose fruit he often
“> generously donated to the needy), while in the valley adjacent to Wolf Creek he constructed barns, stables, and a race
track for the breeding and training of a price strain of Percheron show horses. He then turned his attention to
thoroughbreds, and acquired as his senior stallion Time
28 re ee €
g hay at Loma Rica Ranch. (Watercolor © 1984 Dave Comstock.)
maid —
Supply, a great race horse popular in California in that time
because of its “spectacular roughly ridden stretch duel’ with
Top Row in the 1936 Santa Anita Handicap, a race awarded
to Top Row in a much disputed decision.
After buying a large band of brood mares for his stables,
MacBoyle justified his expense by proclaiming he would
“plow back his gold where he had found it”—at Loma Rica.
To carry out his gold theme he named the produce of his
stables with the prefix “Gold’’—Gold Bolt, Gold Mike, Gold
Fun, etc. The ranch soon attained national prominence and
MacBoyle envisioned creating a landmark estate equal to
William Randolph Hearst’s San Simeon Ranch. He enlisted
the services of landscape architect James McLaren, superintendent and designer of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, to
produce designs for a grand Loma Rica Ranch.
Upon visiting the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition at Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay, MacBoyle’s