Boney Mountain overlooks a landscape where the old west meets the new. The horse ranch was once part of a much larger operation that extended over 10,000 acres into present-day Point Mugu State Park, and Carl Beal named it Sierra Vista, or "Mountain View." The old buildings and surrounding landscape reflect a long ranching history: in 1803, Spanish soldiers Jose Ignacio Rodriquez and Jose Polanco received the 48,672-acre Rancho El Conejo for service to the crown; in 1881, German immigrant Johannes Borchard built a house and barns where the present-day horse ranch stands; in 1936, Carl Beal founded Rancho Sierra Vista; in 1947, Richard Danielson developed it into a prominent horse-breeding operation; and in 1980, after a long career on the Danielson's ranch, Sierra's Ace went to work for the National Park Service.
