Rancho del Cielo, or "Sky's or Heaven's Ranch," is a 688-acre (1.075 sq mi) ranch located on the top of the Santa Ynez Mountain range northwest of Santa Barbara, California. It served as a vacation home for President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan.
The ranch was originally named Rancho de los Picos after José Jesús Pico, a descendant of Santiago de la Cruz Pico who came with the Anza expedition in 1776, who homesteaded it and built the original adobe house in 1871. The Pico family owned the ranch until 1941, when one of Jose Pico's sons, Joe, sold it to Frank Flournoy, a surveyor for Santa Barbara county, for $6,000 (equal to $94,805 today). He, in turn, sold the ranch to Roy and Rosalie Cornelius, who purchased additional land for the property.
The Reagans bought the ranch from the Corneliuses for about $527,000 in 1974 (equal to $2,483,514 today) when his second term as Governor of California was coming to an end. The estate contains a pond called Lake Lucky, stables and a barn for horses, and a 1,500 ft² (139 m²) house decorated with 1970s-style furniture. The ranch is located on the crest of the Santa Ynez Mountains adjacent to Refugio Pass. It can be reached from the ocean side of the mountains by the one-lane, paved Refugio Road from U.S. Route 101, and from the other side of the mountains by an unpaved, one-lane road from Solvang, California. The dirt road may not be passable during the rainy season.
Reagan spent vacations during his presidency at the ranch, which became known as the Western White House. Reagan signed the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 at the ranch, as well as hosted British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher various times, Queen Elizabeth II, and Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev. After leaving the presidency in 1989, the Reagans moved to a home in Bel-Air, California, but kept the ranch as a retreat.
Ronald Reagan last visited the ranch in 1995 due to his affliction with Alzheimer's disease, and Mrs. Reagan last visited in 1998, before selling the property to the Young America's Foundation, a conservative group which preserves it today as what it calls "a living monument to Reagan's ideas, values, and lasting accomplishments." Although the ranch is closed to the public, Young America's Foundation offers students and supporters the opportunity to visit the property Reagan called "heaven."
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Ronald Reagan signs the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 in front of the press at Rancho Del Cielo, 1981.
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Ronald and Nancy Reagan with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh at Rancho del Cielo, 1983.
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Ronald and Nancy Reagan in the dining room at Rancho del Cielo, 1980s.
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Ronald Reagan riding his Arabian horse "El Alamein" at Rancho del Cielo, 1986.
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Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev visiting Ronald Reagan, both in western wear, at Rancho del Cielo, 1992.
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An aerial view of Rancho del Cielo with "Lake Lucky" on the bottom right side, 2009.