Randall Ranch
Shoreline Highway
Olema Valley
Founded 1857

In 1857, Vermont-born William Randall and Swedish immigrant John Nelson acquired 1,400 acres to construct three dairy ranches. One was operated by Randall and Nelson, the second by Randall’s brother-in-law Daniel Seaver, and the third was leased as a tenant ranch. Only a few of the early Olema Valley ranches were large enough to rent dairies to tenants. Most were operated by the families that purchased them in the 1850s and 1860s.

Sarah Randall took over the ranch after her husband was murdered in 1860. She produced five thousand pounds of butter annually, a rare instance of a woman operating a dairy in western Marin County.

Azorean immigrants leased the Randall Ranch from 1911 to the mid-1930s and converted it to a Grade A dairy in 1934.

The woodframe, Italianate residence was built in the early 1880s for Sarah Seaver Randall. It is the only surviving structure on the property.

The Randall Ranch contributes to the Olema Valley Dairy Ranches Historic District which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.