Photo courtesy of Jane Miller Thumbnail photo: George H. Washington lived on a mining claim near the Siskiyou Fork of the Smith River — where Bar-O Boys Ranch would be established — from 1894 to his death in 1927. His family say he's buried on the 34-acre property | Photo courtesy of the Del Norte County Historical Society With one supervisor noting that Del Norte County doesn’t have the means to maintain the 35-acre property, the Board on Tuesday took a step closer to preparing the former Bar-O Boys Ranch for sale. Their unanimous decision to modify a contract with Public Square Real Estate to determine if a Surplus Lands Act designation for Bar-O would be appropriate is not listing the property for sale yet. But it still prompted Jane Miller to show supervisors a photo of a gravesite that belongs to her great great great grandfather, George Washington. “He’s buried at Bar-O Boys Ranch and we just heard about the sale of the property being proposed today like an hour ago,” she said. “This man helped build the road … between Cave Junction and here for us to travel [on] and I just want to make sure his grave site is protected if you’re selling the land.” George Henry Washington was born on April 4, 1849 in Ohio and served with the 185th Regiment of Ohio Volunteers during the American Civil War, according to information Redwood Voice Community News received from Miller. After the war, he traveled the Oregon trail west and eventually wound up in Del Norte County. Washington lived in a cabin on a mining claim near the Siskiyou Fork of the Smith River from 1894 to 1927 when he died in a landslide, according to a remembrance from his grandson Jack Ridgeway, published in a 1987 edition of the Bulletin, a Del Norte County Historical Society publication that was distributed to its members. According to Miller, her great great grandfather owned a sawmill on land that eventually became Bar-O and allowed the construction crew building U.S. 199 to camp on his land. “He was hired and used his wood and steel horse carriage to help haul away the large boulder and brush,” Miller told Redwood Voice via text message Thursday. “He died building 199 in an avalanche after dynamiting the mountain.” On Tuesday, Miller asked the Board of Supervisors to table the potential sale of Bar-O Boys Ranch. However, according to Assistant County Administrative Officer Randy Hooper, the task order supervisors were asked to consider is meant to “further develop the idea of potentially listing the property for sale.” “I do want to stress it isn’t that the Board is deciding to sell the property immediately,” he said. “Obviously there needs to be some assessment done by a contractor on the logistics and legalities that need to be complied with including the Surplus Lands Act… This task order is issued to do some of these things.” Public Square Real Estate is a joint venture with the California State Association of Counties Finance Corporation and the global commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield, according to Hooper’s staff report. As part of the task order county supervisors were asked to approve, the firm would work with the California Department of Housing and Community Development to determine the appropriate Surplus Lands Act designation for Bar-O Boys Ranch. Public Square Real Estate will also conduct a preliminary title report and, possibly, a new appraisal of the property. If the Board of Supervisors does decide to sell Bar-O, Public Square Real Estate would list, market and represent the county through the sale’s closure, according to Hooper’s staff report. Public Square Real Estate is working for the county on a not-to-exceed fee structure. Their fee for services related to the Surplus Land Act designation is up to $5,000. The county would pay up to $500 for the title report on the property and up to $6,100 for an appraisal if the Board of Supervisors authorizes one. Public Square Real Estate would also receive a commission should a sale go through, according to Hooper’s staff report. Bar-O Boys Ranch was a 42-bed facility for juvenile offenders. Before it closed in 2020, courts across California assigned teenage boys to the school. Their teachers were from the Del Norte County Office of Education, though the Del Norte County Probation Department oversaw the facility. According to a closure plan the probation department prepared for the county in 2017, the site consists of a dormitory, offices, a gym, houses and outbuildings. But in its later years its population had dwindled and it was running on a budget deficit. In a Jan. 3, 2023 article, the Wild Rivers Outpost reported that since it closed the county had received a number of inquiries about using Bar-O Boys Ranch. It had leased the facility to the U.S. Forest Service during wildfire season in previous years. And, in 2018, the production company behind the Netflix film Bird Box had used the property, Hooper told the Outpost in January 2023. In his staff report, Hooper said that a feasibility study completed in January 2024 determined that significant investment would be necessary to make Bar-O Boys Ranch suitable for re-use. The study recommended disposing of the property “absent a clear government function.” This conclusion prompted the Board of Supervisors to issue a request for proposals for on-call real estate services. In November 2024, the Board approved an agreement with Public Square Real Estate Inc. to provide those services on an as-needed basis. On Tuesday, District 1 Supervisor Darrin Short said the Board had discussed possibly using the property as a training ground for local fire departments, the U.S. Forest Service and CalFire. But those agencies determined that it was too remote and needed extensive repairs for that to be a viable option. Supervisors also floated the idea of creating a summer camp for youngsters or a place to hold conventions, Short said. “There has been some discussion and investigation into those types of opportunities,” he said. “It’s in a state of disrepair to such a degree that it would be cost prohibitive to do those kind of things.” Short’s District 5 colleague Dean Wilson also said that the property is valuable but the county doesn’t have capacity to maintain it and should dispose of it. “As stewards of public dollars, the longer we wait for this property, the worse condition it’s going to fall into. The more it’s going to go into disrepair and the less value it will have,” he said. “As stewards of public dollars, it’s tantamount that we protect your investment because that is public money that went into buying this land originally and so, the sooner we can divest ourselves of it … the better it’s going to be.” Miller’s concerns, however, prompted District 2 Supervisor Valerie Starkey to confirm that she was not voting on the sale of Bar-O on Tuesday. She also asked Hooper if Public Square could find out what it would be worth to split the 35-acre property into lots versus selling it as one big piece of land and bring that information back to the Board. Hooper said that might be an option. The Board already authorized an appraisal of the property through a separate appraiser, so supervisors can understand the property’s value. He said the county could also discuss alternative ideas of how to approach the potential sale of Bar-O with Public Square and Cushman & Wakefield. Starkey said splitting the property up into lots might be a way of preserving Washington’s burial site. “Perhaps we can maintain that separate from the rest of the property being sold,” she said. As for George Henry Washington, in addition to the burial site on Bar-O Boys Ranch his namesake can be found at Washington Flat and Washington Peak. In his weekly column on local history published in the Daily Triplicate on March 11, 2005, Dave Gray writes that Washington’s grandson Jack would hike more than seven miles from Patrick Creek Lodge to spend time with his grandfather. “His grandson Jack described George as a very gentle, trusting man,” Gray wrote. “He would often take in strangers who were in need, feed them and share what he had with them and be their loyal friend. However, if they betrayed his trust and did him wrong, he would run them off and have nothing further to do with them.” Miller said that she grew up hearing stories about Washington. “He was a hard man and a harder worker — got the job done no matter what it took,” she said. “And it took his life. From what we were told, they buried his horses that died with him and part of the carriage.” George Washington 2Download