Aliso Ranch History

The Aliso Ranch is the oldest continually operating cattle ranch in Ventura County. It became the headquarter ranch of the Hobson Brothers Packing Company after it was purchased from James Willouby in 1910.

The cattle business was started by William Dewey Hobson after he moved to Ventura in 1859. He is sometimes called the Father of Ventura County because he was selected to go to Sacramento where he successfully lobbied the California legislature and separated Ventura County from Santa Barbara County

Two of his sons, Abram and William, continued the cattle business that their father started and called it Hobson Brothers Packing Company. The packing house was in downtown Ventura where Pantagonia is now headquartered and the company had many butcher shops in downtown Ventura, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. Abram was considered a consummate horseman in the Vaquero tradition and loved riding his black horse Walter H. on the Aliso Ranch and around the state.

The Hobson Brothers owned other ranches, the Adams Canyon Ranch in Santa Paula, the Coast Ranch near Seacliff, the Flying H ranch in upper Ojai and leased properties like the Taylor Ranch for additional grazing land . They operated a feedyard in Oxnard at Vineyard and Central where cattle from Aliso Ranch and Adams Canyon ranch were driven each summer after the grass was grazed down.