In 1908 Hardy McConnell and his son Leslie, a Native Son, left Temescal Canyon near Corona to settle in Imperial Valley, driving two teams of horses pulling wagons, hauling farm implements and chickens, and leading a cow. Fourteen days later they arrived in the town of Imperial. After buying raw desert land, the McConnell family leveled the sand dunes with teams of horses pulling fresno scrapers. Land that had once been sand hills became a highly productive farm, and McConnell Ranch remained owned, operated, and inhabited by the McConnell family, with six generations having lived on the ranch.