The ranch was originally named Rancho de los Picos after José Jesús Pico—a descendant of Santiago de la Cruz Pico who arrived 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 Joe, one of Jose Pico's sons, sold it to Frank Flournoy, a Santa Barbara County surveyor, for $6,000. In turn, he sold the ranch to Ray and Rosalie Cornelius, who then purchased additional land for the property. The Reagans owned a ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains that was much closer to their home in Bel Air. The Reagans sold that ranch to a movie company and it is now part of Malibu Creek State Park. The Reagans then bought this ranch from the Corneliuses for about $527,000 in 1974 when his second term as Governor of California was nearing an end. The estate contained a pond called Lake Lucky, stables and a barn for horses, and a 1,500 ft² house furnished with 1970s-style furniture. The ranch is located in a remote area on the crest of the Santa Ynez Mountains adjacent to Refugio Pass. The nearest highway on the ocean side of the mountains is U.S. Route 101, with Solvang, California being the nearest community on the inland side of the mountains. Reagan spent vacations during his presidency at the ranch, which became known as the Western White House. He signed the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 at the ranch and at various times hosted British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Queen Elizabeth II and Soviet leaderMikhail Gorbachev. After leaving the presidency in 1989, the Reagans moved to a home in Bel-Air, California but kept the ranch as a retreat. Because of his Alzheimer's disease, Reagan last visited the ranch in 1995. Nancy 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.
