Ragle Ranch Regional Park in Sebastopol

After a gloomy day of rain, we ventured out for a day of play at Ragle Ranch Regional Park.

The park is noted for its beautiful oaks and includes backcountry trails along the prime bird-watching habitat of Atascadero Creek. It features soccer and softball fields, tennis courts, sand volleyball courts, a playground, an off-leash dog park, a peace garden, and group and individual picnic sites with barbecues.

I am always curious about the history of a park especially when the word Ranch is in its name.

George J. Ragle came to California (from Tennessee) in 1849 to mine. He soon left mining for teaming in the Russian River district and bought 80 acres of land in Green Valley in the fall of 1850. Mr. Ragle married Jane Fruits in 1854. His agricultural enterprises steadily prospered, and he accumulated 325 acres in 1857, in Sebastopol, to raise cattle, apples, and a son. The family sold the ranch to the State of California in 1957 and it, in turn, sold it to the County of Sonoma in 1976 to form this 157-acre multi-use park. There are stories everywhere.

Our meandering led us to the Peace Park, which began in the summer of 1987.

Everything here has symbolic significance. Along with benches, there are boulders, a Japanese Black Pine, blue spruce, a pear tree, an olive tree, a peace rose, sunflowers, lavender, corn and much more (I want to return when everything is in bloom). This chestnut tree, referred to as the treasure of the peace site, flourishes in the site's center. It's considered a botanical miracle. The daughter tree rooted itself down the rotten trunk of the mother and now the two hold each other up. It was a chance glance that had me notice the wonderful carving.

Steve paused between the standing granite slabs of a sculpture called Prayer for Peace. Before him is a third carved piece with water waves that the artist Masayuki Nagase said, "Symbolizes the source of human spirit and consciousness."