The Land Is Her Legacy: Sagehorn-Russell Ranch in Northern California
"Never sell the bones of your mother and father." Chief Joseph
The Soul of a Rancher Series profiles the men and women who feed America, manage our rangeland; the people we rely on every day but can’t see from the road. I want you to meet them, hear them in their own words. Let’s get to know each other. Today, we’re meeting Marilyn Sagehorn-Russell.
A granite gravestone on a Mendocino County hillside honors Herman and Alberline Sagehorn, who bought this ranch in 1948. The inscription reads:
Pioneers who cherished the land and each other.
“From birth to death,” says Marilyn Russell, looking beyond her mother and father’s graves to the hills and mountains of home.
Marilyn had a hardscrabble upbringing. She spent her childhood on horseback, her father’s right-hand man on the ranch. Her parents sacrificed comforts to afford a college education for their only daughter. After high school, she drove up the redwood coast to UC Berkeley and earned a degree in zoology. Her education helped her better understand the land’s natural resources, but it was her ranch childhood that taught her what the land can provide, and her duty to it.
“I knew this ranch was my heritage, something I needed to be responsible for,” Marilyn says. “When I was 16, I was riding with my favorite uncle Ernest and I thought, ‘He’s a wise person.’ So I asked him, ‘What am I gonna do with the ranch?’ He said, ‘I don’t know.’”
This question plagued her even she began to build her life and career in the city of Livermore. “Love at first sight” with Jerry Russell, her husband of over 50 years, upended her plans of becoming a doctor, but Marilyn treasures her three decades teaching biology at Livermore High School. With no children of her own, Marilyn calls her students her “gift sons and daughters.” Her career let her become a doctor of a different sort.
She explains this with a quote from the great conservationist Aldo Leopold:
“One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds…An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise.”
Aldo Leopold
In 1994, a new family moved to the ranch. Caretaker Paul Holleman and his son Colter brought many improvements, including an innovative water system for the cattle operation. The Hollemans honor the old Californio style, using horses and dogs for all ranch work.
The unique stewardship decisions Marilyn and Jerry have made for the future of this property preserve the soul and integrity of the ranch. Both a scientist and a rancher, Marilyn believes her home is enriched by continuing the grazing operation. She has chosen to give away the property and its development rights, foregoing financial gain not only from the real estate, but also from the conservation easement.
Marilyn and Jerry made the decision to leave the Sagehorn-Russell Ranch to Colter, his wife Renee, and their children. They have donated their development rights to the California Rangeland Trust, protecting the land from future development and ensuring it will stay in ranching. They allowed the UC Berkeley Eel River Critical Zone Observatory project to use their land as a primary research center.
“As a river-stream ecologist, I’m so grateful for the chance to see firsthand the way the careful ranching stewardship practiced by Marilyn, her father, and her ranch manager Paul has protected and sustained their land,” says Mary E. Power, one of the UC Berkeley researchers. “Conservationists and academic ecologists are appreciating, more and more, that the deep love and understanding of committed ranchers for their land will be crucial in sustaining nature and landscapes over much of California.”
When Marilyn watches the young Hollemans play with their two young boys, Cleo and Colter Jr., she knows she is watching the future of her family’s ranch. At last she has an answer to the question she asked her uncle so many years ago.
Standing at Memorial Rock, she recalls the dying words of Chief Joseph to his son in 1871:
“Always remember that your father never sold his country. You must stop your ears whenever you are asked to sign a treaty selling your home… My son, never forget my dying words. This country holds your father’s body. Never sell the bones of your father and your mother.”
Chief Joseph
A version of this post was published for the California Rangeland Trust.
Great read. Thanks.
What a beautiful story. Thank you! I live in the Owens Valley,on the eastern side of the Sierra. Ranch culture is alive and moving forward here. Was going to say alive and well, but maybe still kickin is more like it.