Land under spanish role were former soldiers who had been on the expeditions, exploring Southern California and that was true of one of the first here and when he died, the land was split amongst his children and so it was formed into the five ranchos, each of which is about 500 acres. That is all that is left. We are standing in the adobe, the alamitos core of the ranch house, which is where the adobe is, the walls that are surrounding us right now are adobe walls. The adobe was built when man wrongly a go owned when men owned when manuel ranchos los alamitos. It was not on her occupied at outtime meant well man u manuel built it. Over the years, the adobe was added to, there have been many owners of ranchos los alamitos. Grantees andnish everybody who lived here added to it what they needed, so the original adobe is completely and there additions are additions over in this direction with the bedrooms are, the main part of this bedroom is in the adobe, but the little sunroom out there was an addition from about 1909. We also have the library partially inside the adobe but the music room is outside of the a rather organic structure that grew over the last 200 years to suit the families and cultures that living inside of it. That were living inside of it. Right now we are in the music room of the ranch house, outside of the adobe core. It was added to the house by john and susan bixby when you lived here at the ranch in when they lived here at the ranch in 1780. John and susan bixby were the first bixbys to ranching or at ranch los alamitos to ranch los alamitos. Out selling things to the miners. They had a butcher shop. They sorted buying up some of the ranches and the land that was here they started buying up some of the ranches and the land when california became part of the united states. This started in Central California but ended up down here. First, they purchased a ranch in long beach called ranchos los alamitos ranchos lous sony kos los soritos. Andived there with his wife he invited other of his bixby relatives to come down to the ranch as well as some of his wifes relatives. When the cousins the came down to help joseph xp was john bixby, a young man from maine joseph bixby was john bixby, a young man from maine. He was quite young when he was on the when he ranch, he was learning how to become a rancher and he met joseph bixbys sisterinlaw, Susan Hathaway and he married Susan Hathaway. T righteous los alamitos when ranchos los alamitos became available, john and susan purchased it along with partners including joseph bixby. Theyame the first became ranchers in 1878 and purchased the ranch with harners in 1881 partners in 1881. The bixbys had two children. After inheriting the ranch from their parents, the siblings tried to operate the ranch for themselves, but it did not work out so they divided the property between them. Fred bixby inherited the ranch house and he continued to ranch here, ranging cattle. Fatherst continue his theory or she operations dairy or sheep operations. Engaged in cattle ranching. However, he also had a soft spot for horses and particularly, big draft horses which were the tractors of those days. He bred champion shire horses. Atkept his stallions here los alamitos. He kept his other horses at another ranch. He had quite the horse breeding operation. We have two shire horses on the ranch, today. Preston and valentina. At the time he passed away, he had the largest shire horse breeding Operation West of the mississippi. There were no buyers for the horses after he died. Some of them were sold to other breeders, but most of the rest off and the breeding did not continue. The last bixby to live here at the ranch was fred bixbys wife, who passed away in 1961. Their children, four of them, got together and talked about it and they decided that this should become a historic site, available to all the people of california. Generations before, even susan bixby had the sense of the history of this place and when she was making repairs and additions, it was with the history of the place in mind. Even 100 years before it was donated to the city of long beach, there was a sense of the history. Beach, the of long transfer was made in 1968. The family donated seven and a half acres to the city. All the buildings, the contents of those buildings. Furnishings that you see inside the ranch house are original to the family. This is the way they lived, this is the way it looked. Barnes were just a the limits ofside the seven and a half acres. Except for the horse barn, all the barns were moved in for just a little were moved in just a little bit. We completed a restoration in to ato align the barns more functional relationship to each other. The bixbys made a lot of changes to the ground, starting hereearly, they had guards but back then, you had to hand water everything. Howhad to be very careful much labor it was going to take. You also had animals, so you had animalshe issues of coming to eat whatever you had just thrown. This room, just in called the old garden, or installed by john and susan bixby. When fred and florence xp took over, Florence Florence picks be to go over bixby took over, oil anddiscovery of because the bixbys were large owners large landowners, and a lot of oil was under the land. More incomeem a lot to play with than just the ranch would provide, so Florence Bixby of thee to hire some premier Landscape Architects of early 1920s, including through the auspices of her sister. We have four acres of beautiful landscape gardens. There are many levels. One of the things that is important to us is you get some relief from being in a certain environment. The whole Visitor Experience is not terrifically structured. You can come and just be in the garden. You can come and decide to take a house tour. You can, decide you want to explore the center here in the fields. Wee this unstructured try to be unstructured as an interesting as we cancer people can take on it what they want. Take from it what they want. We recently traveled to long beach, cal on you. Learn more about long beach and other stops at east end. Org cities to her stops. Org citiestour. Teaches us that democrats and republicans are supposed to be at odds with each other. I think that people need to need to behat we respectful towards each other and we need to understand that senators are respect towards each other and that will be more conducive to getting real policy done in synergist acrimony and vitriol. These people are we see on television. , on cspan, they are real people. When we saw president obama, with seduction me was he had bags under his eyes, he was a real person dealing with real thing. That was what was most interesting. Tonight, Top High School students from around the country attending the 54th annual Youth Center Program talk about their experiences in the program, plus their plans for the future. They met with members of the three ranches of government, plus military and media representatives. Washington post journalist mr. Capehart cant talk to us and i really loved the insight he gave us about being the outside source, reporting back to us and the electorate about whats going on in our government. Ruth gator bait she has been one of my idols for a long time. I either want to be in a Legal Profession or possibly a senator. I understand the need for bipartisanship at times, but he also think it is important that politicians go to washington or the state capitals with their eyes on the goal and are determined to meet that goal instead of sacrificing it in the light of. Money or bipartisanship. We need to get back to constructive discourse. When you get back to respecting americans to matter what their backgrounds and making this country a more respectable place. Tonight at 8 00 eastern on cspans q and a. Up next on history bookshelf, economics professor thomas to lorenzo talks about his book, how capitalism saved america he argues that capitalism has positively affected the development of the noted states over the past 400 years and that its often inaccurately blamed for economic setbacks like the great depression. This program was recorded in 2005 during freedom fest in las vegas. I am currently a jr. At the george and to the technology in