Added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 12, 1982

Determined eligible for National Historic Landmark designation on March 16, 1990

High up in the Santa Monica Mountains above Malibu, one of the most significant works of art ever made in California is painted on the underside of a large boulder.

At the Saddlerock Ranch Pictograph Site, you’ll see around 100 figures and shapes painted by the Chumash, a Native American tribe that once thrived in the coastal regions of southern California, from Malibu in the south to San Luis Obispo in the north, plus three of the Channel Islands. The Chumash artist(s) at this site painted moons and suns, people, animals and abstract “pictographs,” all rendered in natural materials like red ochre, black walnut and animal fat. Researched have dated the paintings at the site to some time after 500 CE.

There’s no lack of Native American rock art in southern California. Many sites are closed to the public due to their fragility, or because of ongoing archaeological research. Some, like the Tataviam pictographs at Vasquez Rocks (see visit #150) and Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park in Santa Barbara, are available for getting up close and personal. 

So what makes the Saddlerock Ranch site so special? First, they include the only known Chumash paintings of humans in profile. That’s pretty cool from an art historical perspective. They also include the first known Chumash depiction of humans on horseback. Horses didn’t exist in Southern California until the Spanish arrived, which has led archaeologists and historians to conclude that the “Cave of the Four Horsemen,” as it’s colloquially called, documents the encounter between Native Americans and the Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portolá. The Portolá party journeyed through the area in 1769–70 with a large party of men, horses and mules, a year before the first LA-area mission was founded. Other historians point to the expedition of Juan Bautista de Anza in 1775 as a possible inspiration.

If either interpretation is accurate, it’s a huge deal. We know from diaries written by Portolá’s men that they encountered Native American villages on their travels from San Diego to Monterey Bay. But consider that the Chumash, like the large majority of Native American tribes, didn’t develop a written language before the Europeans came. So these cave paintings could very well offer a rare account of these early interactions with the Spanish, from the Native American perspective. The Cave of the Four Horsemen isn’t the only rock art in Southern California that has been connected to the Portolá/de Anza expeditions – there’s another site on a private ranch in San Diego County with an early image of a conquistador, according to some archaeologists. But Saddlerock is by far the earliest and best preserved in the LA area.

Even beyond the Cave of the Four Horsemen, archaeological excavations of the site from the early 1980s yielded a ton of evidence that the Chumash lived here as early as 5000 BCE. There’s a midden nearby the rock shelter, where the Chumash would put whatever trash resulted from their daily life – bones, shells, that kind of thing. 

The cave is situated underneath Mitten Rock and close to another formation, Saddle Rock, both of which served as sacred places for the Chumash, and also landmarks for navigation by prehistoric peoples. They still anchor the landscape today. 

The Saddlerock Ranch Pictograph Site is situated on a picturesque 1100-acre ranch bordering the Mulholland Highway, owned and operated by Ronnie Semler, his artist wife Lisa and their kids. Decades before the Semlers bought the ranch, Ronnie’s dad Arnold Semler founded Associated Industries, an export business that specialized in military helmets, communications devices and, for a time, aircraft.

Currently the ranch’s rolling hills are covered in endless rows of grapevines, which produce wine for the family’s Malibu Wines brand. But it wasn’t always that way. The year before Semler purchased the land in 1978, it had been devastated by a massive brush fire. Semler saw the potential in the land, built a house and planted avocado trees.

Even before Semler came along, there’d been considerable debate about what should happen to both the land and the rock art. Before the fire of 1977, officials at Santa Monica College considered buying it from its previous owners the Mudd family for use as a field research campus, but the Mudds demurred. A nearby ranch manager tried to convince a Saudi Arabian billionaire to donate money to for a private purchase – and received just a $200 check from the guy’s brother-in-law. After Semler purchased the land, the National Park Service tried to buy it and turn it into a national monument operated by the federal government, part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. Those negotiations fell through in late 1980, after the Reagan administration cut much of the Park Service’s budget available for land acquisitions.

Ironically it was Ronald Reagan himself who, in 1989, advocated to designate the Saddlerock Pictograph Site a National Historic Landmark. It had already been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1982, with Semler’s endorsement. But this time around Semler vetoed the designation, writing in a letter “I have had my fill of US government bureaucrats and US government employees…I have had more than enough experiences, all of them negative.” As a result, the site is listed simply as “eligible for designation” as a National Historic Landmark. 

You can understand Semler’s disdain for the Feds, since at the time, he was sitting in federal prison serving a three-year sentence related to exporting helicopters to North Korea while he was leading Associated Industries with his brother. At one of the most picturesque viewpoints at Saddlerock Ranch, there’s a giant yellow metal sculpture in the shape of a windowless picture frame. The plaque below makes it clear how Ronnie Semler feels about the court case that locked him away.

In the years since, the Saddlerock Ranch has undergone a roller coaster of troubles and comebacks. An intensely cold snap just before Christmas of 1990 froze a million pounds of the Semlers’ avocados in two days, just weeks before harvest time; they replanted grapes instead. The Woolsey Fire of 2018 scorched much of the ranch, destroying their main family house, multiple barns, Lisa’s art studio and 100 vintage cars, in addition to many of their grapevines. All of the family and staff had been evacuated, along with most of the 150 animals they kept on premises, including horses, zebras, yaks, camels and Asian water buffalo. Stanley the giraffe survived the ordeal just fine in one of the pastures at the ranch.

Look, I do think it’s ridiculous that a site of such obvious national significance should not be designated a National Historic Landmark, especially given that the Semler family clearly understands the importance of what they have. To their credit, they have kept the Chumash cave paintings in great condition and vandal-free, something you could argue would be far less likely if this were publicly-owned land. They’ve also made the paintings available to students and researchers, and the public is invited to pay for the privilege of seeing them. Currently you can book a two-hour walking or driving tour of the Saddlerock Ranch, which includes a stop at the Cave of the Four Horsemen.

There’s also plenty of wine samples, and you get to visit whichever animals are around. When I took the tour it was springtime, the scenery was stunning, the adorable mini-horses were grazing, and one of the three llamas came out to say hello (its name was Barack Ollama; they’ve also got Kendrick Llama and Llama del Rey).

Anyone who appreciates nature will love visiting the Saddlerock Ranch. For LA history and Native American history enthusiasts, seeing those 250-year-old paintings is especially moving. It’s like you’re staring at the hinge point between two eras of Los Angeles history.

Sources & Recommended Reading

+Akst, Daniel: “Authorities Say 2 in N. Korea Deal Stood to Gain Millions” (Los Angeles Times, February 3, 1987)

+ Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau: “Establishment of the Saddle Rock-Malibu Viticultural Area (2003R-110P)” (Federal Register, July 17, 2006)

+ Baker, Bob: “Convict Blocks Reagan’s Wish to List Cave Art as Landmark” (Los Angeles Times, April 28, 1989 – ProQuest)

+ Ball, Joel: “Sacred Chumash site inspires Malibu winemakers” (Malibu Times, April 9, 2003)

+ Jones, J. Harry: “Deciphering the ‘Remarkable’ Pictographs in Remote San Diego County” (Los Angeles Times, December 23, 2016)

+ Lara, Jovana & Lisa Bartley: “Stanley the giraffe seized as evidence as dozens fight for refunds at Malibu Wine Safaris” (ABC7.com, Friday, March 19, 2021)

+ Levin, Myron: “Recreation Area Copes With an Identity Crisis–But It’s a Survivor” (Los Angeles Times, November 28, 1993 – via ProQuest)

+ Luther, Claudia: “S.M. College Eyes Mountain Study Site” (Los Angeles Times, January 20, 1977 – ProQuest)

+ malibuwinehikes.com

+ Rainey, James: “Farmer Is County’s Biggest Loser in Freeze : Disasters: Ronnie Semler lost a million pounds of avocados on his ranch near Malibu.” (Los Angeles Times, January 27, 1991)

+ Rasmussen, Cecilia: “200-Year-Old Pictures Tell a Chumash Indian Story” (Los Angeles Times, September 19, 2004)

+ Saddle Rock Ranch Pictograph Site (National Park Service, updated July 24, 2018)

+ Sahagun, Louis: “Ancient Indian Art Stirs Modern Fight” (Los Angeles Times, April 22, 1982 – via ProQuest)

+ Spinks, Johanna: “Face of Malibu Rebuilds: Ron Semler” (The Malibu Times, March 29, 2019)

+ Thackrey, Ted Jr.: “Fire Sears 2,000 Acres South of Westlake Village” (Los Angeles Times, November 16, 1977 – ProQuest)