Cowboy humorist Will Rogers was one of the biggest stars of his day when he died in an Alaska plane crash in 1935. So it was fitting that his widow, Betty, would leave the Pacific Palisades ranch where he played polo with Hollywood royalty to the people of California, who had helped enrich him by flocking to his movies reports the Los Angeles Tomes.
The 1944 deed that turned the 186.5-acre property over to the state included a key provision: California would maintain the structures and grounds as a memorial to Rogers. If the property were not properly preserved, it would revert to the family.
Until recently, it had seemed a remote possibility that the family would ever take back the land. But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget-cutting plan proposes closing Will Rogers State Historic Park, one of the jewels of the state parks system but one that operates at a financial loss.
Suddenly, family members are having to face the possibility that the park, fresh from a $5-million renovation that restored luster to the 31-room ranch house and expansive grounds, could land back in their laps.
“We’re not fighting to take it back; we’re fighting to keep it open,” said Jennifer Rogers-Etcheverry, who made the drive from foggy Bakersfield on Friday to visit the ranch her great-grandfather built, starting in 1926. She said family members — including Bette, Chuck and Kem Rogers, grandchildren of Will and Betty Rogers — would have no intention of selling the property for development. Nor would they want to pay the property taxes, she emphasized.
Rogers-Etcheverry said she and her father, Kem, and her aunt and uncle were shocked by Thursday’s news that the park was included on a list of 48 facilities facing closure.
Read it here: Rogers Family faces fight to keep Park open