Rancho del Llano Seco: Northern California’s Last Rancho

Rancho del Llano Seco, an original 1844 Mexican land grant, stands as the last intact Mexican rancho in California today. Nestled in southwestern Butte County, California, ten miles southwest of Chico, this beautiful working ranch spans almost 18,000 acres along the Sacramento River.

Building on this rich history, Rancho del Llano Seco: Northern California’s Last Rancho invites you to explore its natural environment and discover over 7,000 years of continuous human history, beginning with the first people, the Konkow. The Llano Seco Ranch, as it would come to be known, also saw pioneers, squatters, oil tycoons, and even a World War I fighter pilot-turned-aerial photographer who captured unique and detailed aerial photo mosaics of the ranch in 1922.

John Parrott gained full title to the ranch in 1870, and his descendants still own and continue to steward the land to this day. Thanks to an unprecedented and comprehensive treasure trove of original family papers, ranch documents, and photographs, archaeologists, historians, and Native American descendants uncovered new insights that deepen our understanding of the rich historical legacy of Northern California’s Last Rancho.