It?s an unwritten law ? or it should be ? that those who are fortunate enough to own something that is historically important or exceptionally beautiful have a moral obligation not to destroy it.
Unfortunately, this doesn?t always happen. Landmarks are paved over. Old-growth forests are logged. The greenest pastures are subdivided and mountains are reconfigured to accommodate vineyard and/or view.
Then there are people like Shirley and Jim Modini, whose home is east of Alexander Valley, off Pine Flat Road, in the rugged Mayacamas mountain range that separates Sonoma County from Lake and Napa counties.
Jim Modini grew up on the ranch, and he and Shirley have called it home all 66 years of their married life.
They are descended from the earliest settlers, who understood that land is not so much a commodity as it is a home. And they are people who take their moral obligation very seriously indeed.
Last month, the Modinis signed a collaborative agreement with Audubon Canyon Ranch, a nonprofit habitat preservation and environmental protection organization with sanctuaries (Bolinas Lagoon, Cypress Grove and Glen Ellen?s Bouverie Preserve) in Marin and Sonoma counties.
With this agreement, the couple, who have no children, are assured that their 1,725-acre ranch, handed down through four generations of family members, kept intact and pristine, will stay the way it is and pretty much way it has been for 142 years.
In a news story last month about their preservation agreement, it was reported that since Jim Modini came home from World War II, he and Shirley, both graduates of Healdsburg High School in the 1930s, have not been off their ranch ?longer than 10 days at a time.?
Actually, the reporter says he was confused by the fact that several people were speaking for the Modinis on the day of his visit. What he meant to write was that the couple, married in 1943, have not been away from the ranch for more than 10 days TOTAL since Jim came home from the Coast Guard in the mid-1940s.
They?ve never felt a vacation was necessary, they say; never felt a need to get away. Everything they love, which means the mountain peaks and high valleys, the springs and the wildlife and most certainly the history, is right there with them.
?People ask me how I can stand it, being so far out of town,? said Shirley, with some amusement. ?And I ask them how they can stand not being so far out.?
Where did they go, on these day or two trips? ?To look at bulls,? said Shirley, although Jim admitted to visiting friends who had a place in the Sierras.
DRIVING IN, you think about what could have been. It could have been a rich man?s hunting preserve, or divided into 100-acre ?estates? where urbanites could wow their friends with weekend views of Mount St. Helena.
But the sanctuary we enter has three young deer, two does and a buck, watching from beside the driveway. The kitchen table provides a view of a finch feeding her three babies in a nest under the porch eaves. The Modinis fill nine hummingbird feeders daily ? buying sugar by the 25-pound sack to satisfy the hungry hummers.
In past years Jim has rigged a camera to watch the black bear, mountain lions and other Modini ?neighbors? come to water on one of the several creeks that traverse the property. He declines to disclose the location, to protect his wild friends.
Apparently, the animals understand ?co-existence,? as Jim calls it. The Modinis raised prize Hereford cattle and, Jim says, never lost a calf or a steer to a lion.
The forces of nature shaped this spectacular landscape. And they aren?t through with it yet. Several fires have swept the area since settlement days, the last, the memorable Geysers Fire of 2004, came within a fire hose length of their house.
Then there?s the history to talk about. History tends to come in pockets in an environment as diverse as Sonoma County ? coast, valleys, mountains. The valleys were gone before we knew what happened. Wise and generous people saved the southern coast of the county 80 years ago. The eastern mountains, with their steep canyons and long, narrow ridges, have their own special stories. There may be more early history in this remote and sprawling corner of the county than some of the more populated spots.
Jim, at 92, is a little sketchy on the property?s history, although he has the deeds that tell the tale. The land falls between two of the northeastern-most Mexican land grants in the area, Rancho Caslamayomi and Rancho Mallacomes. The original homesteader was Emanuel Trancas in 1867, who was, in Jim?s words, ?a shirt-tail relation.? Trancas was the stepfather of Teresa Ingalls, whose son John C. Ingalls, known as Jack, ?married my Aunt Mame,? says Jim.
UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy: