A little more than 24 acres are left of the 2,000 acres that Ellwood Cooper ran in cattle in the late 1800s and where he planted groves of fruit trees that were famous for their variety. More than 100 years later, the land in the foothills of western Goleta is still farmed and also home to a 142-foot-tall lemon-scented gum tree called the Ellwood Queen. When the property was put up for sale privately and off-market, neighbors said a prospective buyer had talked about building four “mini-mansions” there and removing the eucalyptus trees that shield the property from Cathedral Oaks Road. Tom Modugno, a Goleta historian who posts at GoletaHistory.com, heard about the sale and immediately thought of the Ellwood Queen. Was it in danger?
Planted by Ellwood Cooper in 1887, and now grown to have a trunk 14 feet in circumference, the Queen is a Champion Tree on California’s Big Tree Registry and towers over Cooper’s ranch. Also onsite are a small house, a two-story called “the Store” which is lived in, and a redwood barn that dates back to the 1870s, said Modugno. “There’s a huge eucalyptus grove there that may or may not have monarch butterflies in it,” Modugno said, “and a Morton Bay Fig Tree as big as the one in Santa Barbara.”
The land is deeded to the Bradley Family Trust. One family member familiar with the sale, who asked not to be named, said the ranch was one of several properties being sold after the death of a relative. He’d been disturbed to hear the purchaser ask about taking down the eucalyptus grove, and he worried that structures, like the old blacksmith’s shop still onsite, might not be valued by the new owner.