Seabiscuit’s California ranch became a conservation haven for wetlands

​George Woolf on Seabiscuit (Image: Wikipedia) For years, Ridgewood Ranch in Mendocino County, California, was known primarily as the place where Seabiscuit, one of America’s most famous racehorses, spent his retirement. After a remarkable racing career, the champion arrived at the ranch in 1940, where he lived until his death in 1947. But the property’s importance extends far beyond its connection to a legendary horse. Its rolling oak woodlands, redwood forests, streams, wetlands and working farmland have also made it an important landscape for wildlife and conservation. In the early 2000s, preservationists and landowners were working to protect more than 4,600 acres of the remaining ranch from development. Today, Ridgewood continues to carry both its historic and environmental legacy, with conservation easements protecting important habitats and historic structures preserving the memory of Seabiscuit and the Howard family.Seabiscuit found a quiet retirement at Ridgewood RanchSeabiscuit’s final chapter unfolded at Ridgewood Ranch, where his stud barn was completed in 1940, marking the beginning of the property’s period of historic significance. According to the National Register o...