"May all who come to this land carry on the heritage begun by the first People who lived here from ancient times, and the settlers who came after, love and stewardship of all the Earth and the creatures who inhabit it." -- Eleanor Norris
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CIRCLE J - NORRIS RANCHEnvironment: Foothills, oak woodlands, working cattle ranch, ponds
Activities: birdwatching, photography, school field trips Open: Students' field trips are scheduled by their schools; open to public by appointment only (see under Directions below), and during public special events (pre-registration required) Site Stewards: Tulare County Office of Education (TCOE)/Clemmie Gill School of Science and Conservation (SCICON), 559-733-6300; Sequoia Riverlands Trust (SRT), 559-738-0211 Opportunities for Involvement: Audubon Christmas Bird Count, donate, volunteer Links: www.tcoe.org/SCICON Sequoia Riverlands Trust Directions: See map and directions at bottom of page. |
Conservator: " One who conserves or preserves; a protector; a guardian; a custodian." -- Webster's Dictionary
"The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer 
Elli holding the logo for the Tule Oaks Land trust.
Elli with the Circle J-Norris Ranch branding iron.
"As we take care of the land, the land takes care of us." - - Canadian First Nations Photos for this article by: John Greening, Greg Schwaller, and Laurie Schwaller; and courtesy of Elli Norris and Tulare County Office of Education/ SCICON-Clemmie Gill School of Science and Conservation |
History:
A Dream Come True: The Story of the Circle J-Norris Ranch by Eleanor Norris The Circle J-Norris Ranch lies in the foothills of the Southern Sierra Nevada, 25 miles northeast of Porterville and seven miles north of Springville. Its 620 acres of rolling oak woodland was owned and ranched by one family, the Marion and Julia Gill Andersons and their offspring, for nearly eighty years. But in 1997, while still home to cattle, the ranch began to serve also as an outdoor classroom for children of all grade levels to study the amazing workings of the natural world they find there. This is the story of how that came to be. It all began with a dream - a dream I shared with my mother - that the Circle J would remain as open space, and never be broken up into many parcels with big houses, instead of cattle and wildlife, dotting its hills. I had no idea how the ranch could be preserved, but when my mother, Cora Norris, died in 1991, and left the ranch to me, I began to learn how to turn our dream into reality. That challenge led me to draw together a group of people to help create a land trust so that I could place legal restrictions on how the land could be used, now and “in perpetuity.” It took well over a year, but with the help of many friends and a few experts, we at last got our Tule Oaks Land Trust established as an official non-profit organization, and I got a conservation easement placed on the ranch, specifying that it could be used only for conservation, cattle ranching, or education. (Later, our Tule Oaks Land Trust merged with two other Tulare County land trusts to become the Sequoia Riverlands Trust, which stewards a number of preserves and other properties today in and beyond Tulare County.) While I was thinking about how the ranch should be used, SCICON came to mind, the Clemmie Gill School of Science and Conservation. Since it began, in the 1960s, SCICON has provided all Tulare County sixth-graders with a week of outdoor education on its residential campus, located just six miles from the Circle J. The campus's original 35 acres were a gift to SCICON from my great-aunt Clemmie Anderson Gill. That led me, in 1992, to ask Jim Vidak, Tulare County Superintendent of Schools, “Do you need any more land for outdoor education?” "Yes!" said Jim immediately. They wanted to expand SCICON to include a day-use program for all grade levels. Soon we began meeting in my living room, with school teachers and administrators, dreaming into being the new life for the ranch. I explained that I loved the land, it was part of my family, and I wanted to keep it in open space. We walked over the ranch and saw it as a place where kids could come and experience being in the open, where many have never been -- in the foothills, studying the oaks and the wildflowers, the streams and the pond, the wild creatures, and the long story of human use of that land.    In 1997, this exciting educational endeavor got underway, with first graders from Springville as our first students. Dedication to outdoor education for young people must run in my family!
In 2004, with the outdoor education program growing steadily, I sold the ranch to the Tulare County Office of Education (TCOE). TCOE manages the ranch as a second campus of SCICON, available for children of all grades, from pre-school through high school and into college, who come by bus for day use or, occasionally, for special weekend studies. With 600 acres protected under permanent conservation easements, cattle continue to graze there, as they have for close to 100 years. And so, my dream has come true. In closing, I want to tell you the story of how the Circle J-Norris Ranch got its name. When I was getting near to reaching my goal of protecting the ranch as open space, I wanted to give it a name that would honor both sides of my family. My Grandpa and Grandma, Marion and Julia Anderson, first owned the land, and their cattle were all branded with the Circle J. The Circle J-brand was on cattle that belonged to Grandpa Anderson’s mother, Martha McDaniel Graham, and her first husband, John Graham, when they came across the plains in a cattle drive from Texas to California n 1859. They settled near Farmersville, but in 1866, John died from pneumonia. So it was Martha's second husband, Garland Anderson, who registered the Circle J brand in Tulare County in the Anderson name in 1868. Martha and Garland Anderson were my great-grandparents. All four of their children, including my grandpa, Marion, were born in the old Anderson homestead in Yokohl Valley (where the family had moved to escape the wet flatlands of the Central Valley floor). Many years later, my mother, Cora Anderson, was born there, too. In the 1920s, my grandparents bought the land that I have named the Circle J-Norris Ranch. It was deeded to my grandmother, Julia Gill Anderson, in 1927. My grandparents,who made their year-round home in Porterville, ranched it, and they spent a few weeks there every summer, out of the valley heat. Then, in the late 1940s, my family moved to the ranch, and it was my dad, Norman Norris, and my mother, Cora Anderson Norris, who kept the place going for so long, until it came to me. So there you have it, the story of how the Circle J-Norris Ranch got its name. October, 2012 
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Directions:
Address: 41893 Yokohl Valley Dr, Springville, CA 93265 Latitude/Longitude: N36° 13.4031'/W118° 49.7658' 36.223385/-118.829429 Note: Visits to Circle J - Norris Ranch must be arranged in advance through SCICON -The Clemmie Gill School of Science and Conservation. From Visalia: Head east on Hwy 198. Turn right (south) onto Road 204/Spruce Rd. Turn left (east) onto Hwy 65 south toward Porterville. Turn left (east) onto County Route J28 through Strathmore to the junction with Hwy 190 into Springville. In Springville, turn left (north) at the big white barn onto Balch Park Road/County Route J37. Drive 6 miles and turn left onto Yokohl Valley Road. In about 3/4 of a mile, see the gate on your left with the Circle J sign and turn into Circle J-Norris Ranch. |