Virtual Visit to Rancho Los Alamitos

Connect with Rancho Los Alamitos from home!
Explore the resources below to experience a virtual visit to the Rancho. What more would you like to see here? 

Send your questions and suggestions to our education team via email at [email protected].

Seeing Puvuun'nga: A Tongva Walking Tour

Take a self-guided tour and visit ten stops at the Rancho to explore stories of change, continuity, and the intersecting lives of those who lived, gathered, and worked here on izi.TRAVEL. 

Women’s Stories from the Gathering Place

View public programs centering women’s voices from our archives on our YouTube channel.

Explore Water History in Southern California

The story of water at Rancho Los Alamitos illuminates Southern California water history and invites us to plan a sustainable water future. Watch our new 10-minute film, Rancho Los Alamitos and the Story of Water.
With appreciation, we recognize our project partners: Long Beach Water Department, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Water Replenishment District, and the City of Long Beach, Office of Sustainability.

Get Creative with History

Click on the images below to download craft activities inspired by California's ranching history.
Create a Cardstock Chicken
Draw a Hen & Chicks 
Make a Folded Chicken
Draw a Cowboy/Cowgirl Hat
Create a Cardboard Cow
Make a Cowboy/Cowgirl Hat
Families who picked up craft kits at Cool Crafts on the Go on June 17 can follow along with the activity instructions below. If you did not pick up a kit, many of the materials can be easily found or substituted. We encourage you to get creative! Please share your creations with us on social media (#RanchoFromHome) or by emailing a picture to [email protected]
How to Make Your Lariat Bracelet
How to Make Your Movable Horse

Dive into our Archives with At-Home Activities

Click on the images below for a fun opportunity for family time. Consider reading the information aloud together, working on the activities independently, and then coming back together to discuss.  

What's going on in this picture?
History Mystery
Think Like a Historian

Take a Look Behind the Gates at the Rancho

This class photo is from Miss Ransom & Miss Bridges’ School (Piedmont, CA) during the 1918 flu pandemic. All three Bixby daughters attended this school, and Elizabeth Bixby was in her senior year at the time. One lesson from these students of a century ago is that we will get through this difficult time together.   
Rancho Los Alamitos celebrated National Public Gardens Week. Florence Bixby (pictured here around 1950) provided the vision for our gardens, which flourished for many reasons: the climate, the labor of gardeners, wealth from an oil strike, plans of landscape designers, and the ancient freshwater spring that sustained Povuu’ngna for generations. 
  
The Rancho "toasted" volunteers remotely this National Volunteer Week. From Executive Director Pam Lee: “You are the heart, soul, and face of the Rancho. Our visitors experience the Rancho through you and your work...The Rancho literally could not open its doors without the competent, creative, dedicated, and loyal support of the Rancho volunteers. I thank you. The Board of Directors thanks you. And generations of visitors thank you.”
The Mayor of Long Beach, local health organizations, and Preston the Shire horse encourage you to wear a face covering like a cloth mask, bandanna, or scarf when out in public to protect yourself and others. N95 masks and surgical masks are for medical workers. Stay safe. Stay healthy. 

Cheerful daisies are blooming in our Cutting Garden. Designed by the Olmsted Brothers firm in 1928, the Cutting Garden supplied fresh, colorful flowers for arrangements inside the Ranch House. What flowers do you like to bring inside? 
The earthquake of 1933 brought devastation to Long Beach. In response, Rancho cook Lydia Shinkle (left) and foreman’s wife Julia des Granges, prepared hot meals for ranch workers' families and neighbors. Check out the big pot of coffee on the outdoor grill pictured here! The difficult times our communities weathered in the past can inspire us to make it through this one together.
The orchid rockrose in our Native Garden is in spectacular bloom right now. Here is the bright, papery flower-up close. What’s blooming near you?     
Thanks to the Rancho's "Faux Foodies," the table in the Men's Dining Room is set for breakfast.   

Spanish bluebells thrive in our Friendly Garden, which began in the late 1920s as a garden where Florence Bixby could cultivate the gifts of plants she received from friends. While we practice social distancing, enjoy these beautiful blue blooms.
Check out this 1943 photo of the duck pond from our archives! Compare it to the video taken in March of 2020.