In 1986, a ranching family sold California's 53,000-acre Santa Rosa Island to the US for nearly $30 million; they retained about 7 acres and the right to stay for another 25 years

In December 1986, the United States federal government completed a deal to buy Santa Rosa Island for $29.5 million. The 53,000-acre island, located 26.5 miles off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, was bought by the National Park Service from its longtime private owners, the Vail & Vickers ranching partnership. Under the deal, the ranching family kept a 25-year reservation of use and occupancy covering a seven-acre area at Bechers Bay. This allowed cattle operations and commercial hunting to continue for a limited period while the island moved towards full public management as part of Channel Islands National Park. The deal ended decades of private farming and ranching on the second-largest island in the Channel Islands. National Park Service records show how Santa Rosa Island changed from an ancestral Native American home into a working cattle ranch and finally into a protected national sanctuary.

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