Putney Ranch: The Next Chapter
Change is coming, again, to one of Madera County’s most historic properties.
Putney Ranch – 92 acres off Malum Ridge Road between North Fork and Bass Lake – has been purchased by a group of Californians who intend to use it as a camp for dancers, singers and perhaps yoga practitioners.
The land will soon sport a new name: Cedar Springs. The new owners plan to rehabilitate some of the buildings on the site and perhaps add yurts and tents for summer activities.
As for the “Peace Cabin” (left) on the property, which served as the first headquarters of the Sierra National Forest, it will be spruced up for a variety of potential uses. The original cabin, with one room and a fireplace, was built in the late 1800’s.
Owner Frank Malum sold the house and surrounding land to newcomers Charles and Julia Shinn (right) in 1902. Charles Shinn became the first supervisor of the Sierra National Forest. Julia Shinn became his indispensable partner who helped train newly hired rangers. Together, they set and carried out policy in the fledgling National Forest.
When they bought the cabin, Julia Shinn named it Peace Cabin because, she said, it was so much more peaceful than the Bay Area, where they had previously lived. The cabin was their home, and every time a new ranger was hired for the National Forest in those early years, a room was added to serve as living quarters.
When Charles Shinn passed away in 1924, Julia moved back to Northern California. Over the following decade, Peace Cabin and the land around it were sold to several different people. All seemed to have money troubles that forced them to give up the property.
In 1934, Marcia and Earl Nelson moved to North Fork from Southern California. They convinced the cabin’s then-owner, a man known as “Shorty,” to sell the structure and surrounding land. Marcia later said Shorty had been using the cabin’s bathtub to make home brew.
Four years later, Marcia divorced Earl and married George Putney, who worked for the Forest Service.
In 1945, the Madera County Board of Supervisors appointed Marcia Putney to the bench, making her the first female judge in county history. She served until her retirement in 1965.
Marcia and George Putney became a “power couple” in North Fork decades before that term became part of the culture. Together or singly, they appeared in local newspapers more than 750 times from 1938 until 1965.
George Putney passed away in 1956. Marcia continued to live in the cabin until her death in 1965. Long before their deaths, their property had become widely known in North Fork as Putney Ranch.
Marcia Putney willed the ranch to Madera County for use as a camp for developmentally disabled children. For years, it was used for that purpose until funding from the state dried up.
In 2001, Madera Sheriff John Anderson convinced county supervisors to buy $10,000 worth of repair materials and, with the help of volunteers, rehabbed some of the structures on Putney Ranch. For a decade, the property was used as a training camp for the sheriff’s department and as a site for youth services.
After Anderson left office, Madera County put the ranch up for auction in 2013. A Southern California religious group bought it and used it as a summer retreat for children from around the nation.
In recent years, that group tried to sell the property. Eventually, Putney Ranch went into foreclosure. The new owners, mostly from the Bay Area, bought it for $1.4 million this past October. Christina Tuccillo, a spokesperson for the group, said they have ties to the dance community around the state.
“We’re people who love to dance and love community and love nature,” Tuccillo said, adding that they are part of the Northern California Dance Collective. For years, they ran a series of summer camps for families on property they had rented. Their camps include dancing, singing and yoga.
“After 20 years of renting,” Tuccillo said, “we decided that we would try to buy our own place so we could run more of our events.”
In addition to their own future offerings, Tuccillo said the owners will rent space for other groups to use. The 92-acre site will be kept intact. The owners want to improve the two access roads into the ranch — Putney Place and Shinn Cabin Lane.
The new proprietors hope to host their first events by next spring or summer. Before that, they plan to invite the North Fork community to an open house at the ranch.