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San Fernando Valley.  An anonymous donation of $150,000 has momentarily saved the Los Encinos State Park that includes a historic Basque ranch.  The park was going to be closed in June due to budget cuts, but folks started a campaign that has paid off.  The news was picked up by the LA Times.

According to the online news site EuskalKazeta, the ranch was founded near the end of the 1800s by two French brothers, Phillippe and Eugene Garnier, who raised sheep and produced “the best wool in southern California,” according to the park’s website.  It is not known if they were Basque or not, but they had a strong relationship with the Basque community for sure.  Barbecues at the Garniers were mandatory appointments for many Basques in the area according to the book, A Travel Guide to Basque America by Nancy Zubiri. 

In 1878, the ranch was sold to Gaston Oxarart, from Aldude, who had originally immigrated to Argentina and then to the US.  When he died the ranch passed to his nephew Simon Gless, who sold it to his father-in-law, Domingo Amestoy also a Basque.  Gless and Amestoy accompanied Oxarart on his trip from Argentina to California. 

The campaign to keep the park open is still going, with the goal of raising enough money to guarantee the survival of the Park for another year.  More information can be found at Los-encinos.org.

-Original article in Euskal Kazeta, here