suffering from the stock market crash. John Denman closed down the dairy 

 operation about 1945, after asking Elfie Franzi to leave, and put a herd of sheep 

 on the ranch. The Denmans lived in the old family home called "Minerva 

 Lodge" on the county road which, during their lifetime, became a state highway. 

 Mrs. Denman died of a stroke in 1938 at age 71, leaving the ranch in life estate 

 to her husband John and to her daughter, Mrs. Lupton. John and his son 

 Charles continued the sheep ranch through World War II. Two parcels on the 

 west side of State Route One were sold, the first in 1938 to Ralph and Emma 

 Benevenga, the other in 1953 to John C. Williamson. 98 



When both John Denman and Mrs. Lupton died in 1954, the ranch 

 passed to Mrs. Lupton's son, Lt. Col. Earl Lane Lupton. Lupton leased the 

 ranch to Lynn Elphick, who continued to run sheep on the hills until about 

 1960. In 1964 Lupton sold the old Parsons home on the highway to William 

 Pinkerton, who remodeled the historic house. A parcel adjacent to the 

 northern Five Brooks bridge was sold to Thomas Holcomb in 1967." 



Lupton retired from a career in the U. S. Air Force in 1970 and moved to 

 the ranch, building a large house overlooking the highway in 1971 and 

 establishing a herd of beef cattle. During this construction the lower part of 

 the old ranch road was rerouted to serve the new house. Between 1967 and 

 1993 Lupton rented the house on the old Parsons dairy ranch to longtime 

 family friends Tom and Ollie Pinkerton. The house has been vacant since Tom 

 Pinkerton's death in 1993. 10 



The 836-acre Lupton Ranch was sold to the National Park Service on 

 March 25, 1974, after 109 years in the Parsons family. Earl Lupton negotiated 

 a 25-year reservation of use and occupancy for his 1971 home and grazes a 

 small herd of beef cattle under a special use permit. 101 



In December of 1994 the two-story section of the old ranch house was 

 knocked down without Section 106 compliance under orders from John Sansing, 

 the superintendent of Point Reyes National Seashore, an act in direct defiance 



98 Deeds Book 232, p. 25, and Official Records Book 458, p. 292 and Book 790, p. 139, MCRO; 

 Marin Journal. December 15, 1938; Point Reyes Light. November 11, 1976; interview with Earl L. 

 Lupton. 



"Official Records Book 1820, p. 362, MCRO; interview with Earl Lupton. 

 '""Point Reves Light. December 14, 1967; interview with Earl Lupton. 

 '"'Administrative files, PRNS. 



201 



