Middle Ranch includes an equestrian center.
One of the most frequent questions visitors to Santa Catalina Island ask is “What’s on the rest of the island?” For the most part, the answer to that question is wild lands and wild places, but there are a few spots other than Avalon that host human habitation and history.
One of those spots is Middle Ranch on Catalina Island. Located just about in the, well, middle of the island, Middle Ranch has long been a center of livestock operations on the island. A classic red barn pays homage to that history and is now the center of the island’s equestrian facility. The Catalina Island Saddle Club offers residents – both full and part-time – the opportunity to board their horses cooperatively and take advantage of the island’s trails.
Middle Ranch is also a center of activity for the Catalina Island Conservancy. The James Ackerman Native Plant Nursery propagates – and sells – a wide variety of native plants. Volunteers spend countless hours here ensuring the survival of Catalina’s flora, which includes several species that grow nowhere else on earth. The Conservancy also houses much of its facility maintenance operation here as well as several laboratories for studying life on the island. A number of families also live at Middle Ranch, in housing the Conservancy provides for its employees.