Foundation changes approach for Will Rogers California ranch

 

Will Rogers State Historic Park in Pacific Palisades, Calif., has been spared from closing.

The Will Rogers Ranch Foundation, formed to help support the ranch, pursued permission to operate the Park when it appeared the state could no longer afford to keep it open.

A Palisadian-Post news article said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled a plan that calls for reduced spending and fee increases rather than closing parks.

Todd Vradenburg, a board member of the ranch foundation and Will Rogers Motion Pictures Pioneers Foundation executive director, said the foundation has turned attention to strengthening its partnership with the state park system to provide new programs and services.

Will Rogers is a part of the Angeles District of parks. Ron Schafer, Angeles District superintendent, told the Post the district has reduced some services and is looking at different funding sources.

At Will Rogers, parking fees have been increased and vacant positions of field ranger and supervising ranger may not be filled. Rangers, field maintenance workers, the maintenance chief and groundskeepers at the ranch are under state mandate to take three furlough days a month

A visitor center and gift shop, located inside the Will Rogers’ garage is near complete and will be operated by the foundation.

Jennifer Rogers Etcheverry, great-granddaughter of Will Rogers and daughter of Kem, a member of the Will Rogers Memorial Commission in Oklahoma, has been conferring with Julie Luna, Claremore museum store manger, and Steve Gragert, Claremore museum executive director, on gift shop operations.

The foundation is also recruiting docents to help with tours of the entire park as well as the historic ranch house.

Foundation board members are also Trudi Sandmeier, whose grandfather was Will’s personal assistant; Wyatt McCrea, grandson of actor Joel McCrea and Diane Keaton, Academy Award-winning actress. New members added recently are Christopher Aronson, senior vice president and co-general sales manager for Twentieth Century Fox; Felice Densa, executive director of the Will Rogers Polo Club; Brian Shea, Pacific Palisades resident who co-founded the Palisades-Will Rogers Run; and Lester Wood, Palisandian and park docent.

Polo games are played regularly on the grounds. Will was under contract to Fox when he was killed Aug. 15, 1935 in an Alaskan plane crash.

Mrs. Rogers gave property her husband owned in Claremore to the state of Oklahoma for a memorial and later gave property to the state for what is now the Will Rogers Birthplace Ranch park. Before her death she gave the California property, including the house where they lived, to the State of California.