Melodee Buzzard, the missing 9-year-old girl from Lompoc, was found shot to death in rural Utah in what the Santa Barbara County sheriff called a “ruthless act” that ultimately led to the arrest of her mother Ashlee Buzzard on suspicion of murder.
Just before 8 a.m. Tuesday, Buzzard, 40, was handcuffed and arrested at her home in the 500 block of Mars Avenue in Vandenberg Village, the agency said during a Tuesday news conference.
She was taken into custody without incident and booked at the Santa Barbara County Southern Branch Jail, according to a news release from the Sheriff’s Office.
At the news conference, Santa Barbara Sheriff-Coroner Bill Brown said Melodee’s remains were found in Caineville in Wayne County, Utah, about 100 miles south of Provo and just outside the eastern entrance to Capitol Reef National Park.
The girl reportedly was shot in the head at least one time, Brown said.
The Sheriff’s Office recovered “a significant amount of evidence” that clearly indicated “this heinous crime was committed by Ashley Buzzard,” Brown said during the news conference.
“This is an extraordinarily tragic case involving the murder of a child by the very person she relied upon and trusted the most,” Brown added in a news release. “While maternal filicide is rare and difficult to comprehend, the evidence in this case clearly indicates a calculated, deliberate, and ruthless act.”
Melodee Buzzard had been missing since October
Law enforcement had been looking for Melodee since Oct. 14 after a Lompoc Unified School District administrator reported that the girl was continuously absent.
Melodee was enrolled at the school district in August after she and her mother began the process to register her at Mission Valley Independent School.
The school launched mandatory truancy procedures once Melodee failed to attend classes or pick up assignments.
Meanwhile, Ashlee Buzzard remained “uncooperative” during the investigation and did not provide any information about her daughter’s location or condition, authorities said.
Detectives honed in on a four-day multi-state road trip that began on Oct. 7, when Buzzard rented a car and took her daughter to Nebraska, The Tribune previously reported, apparently stopping in Kansas on the way back.
Deputies said Buzzard switched license plates on the rental car, backed into gas stations and swapped wigs with her daughter to avoid recognition during the trip.
Melodee Buzzard, left, and her mother, Ashlee Buzzard, appearing to wear wigs inside a car rental shop in Lompoc on Oct. 7 before embarking on a roadtrip to Nebraska. The Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office said 9-year-old Melodee did not return from the roadtrip. Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office
“Investigators now believe Melodee was murdered shortly after that point,” the Sheriff’s Office said in its release.
When Buzzard returned to her Lompoc residence, Melodee was no longer with her.
On Oct. 30, during the investigation into Melodee’s disappearance, sheriff’s deputies and the FBI searched Buzzard’s home and found an expended cartridge case. They also found a live round of similar ammunition in her vehicle.
Then, more than a month later on Dec. 6, the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of a decomposing body found in a remote area of the county.
“The decedent was determined to be female and had died from gunshot wounds to the head,” the release said.
Signs in front of Ashlee Buzzard’s home on Mars Avenue in Vandenberg Village continue to plead for information about her 9-year-old daughter’s whereabouts. Janene Scully / Noozhawk photo
The cartridge cases recovered in Utah were then compared to the cases found at Buzzard’s Lompoc residence and “determined to be linked,” the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office said.
On Monday, an FBI analysis confirmed that the remains found in Utah bore a familial DNA match to Ashlee Buzzard, leading to her arrest the next day, according to the agency.
“The loss of Melodee Buzzard is heartbreaking,” Brown said in the news release. “We hoped against hope that she would be found alive. The outcome is devastating.”
“This investigation does not end here,” Brown added. “We remain committed to working closely with prosecutors to ensure justice is pursued with integrity, care and compassion. Melodee deserved a far better life, and she will never be forgotten.”
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office released a timeline of the Melodee Buzzard case, from Oct. 7 to Dec. 23, 2025. Ashlee Buzzard was arrested on suspicion of murdering her 9-year-old daughter in Utah in early October. Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office
This story was originally published December 23, 2025 at 7:19 PM.
Hannah Poukish covers San Luis Obispo County and California news as The Tribune’s service journalism reporter. She previously reported and produced stories for The Sacramento Bee, CNN, Spectrum News and The Mercury News in San Jose. She graduated from Stanford University with a master’s degree in journalism.
What began as a theft at a beauty store in Goleta ended with a freeway traffic stop and the arrest of three men accused of stealing nearly $2,000 worth of designer fragrances, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies were called to the Ulta Beauty in the Camino Real Marketplace around 2:12 p.m. on Friday after receiving reports of suspects running from the store with stolen cologne and perfume. Witnesses said the men fled in a red sedan headed toward Highway 101 southbound.
Sheriff’s deputies quickly located the car and stopped it near the Castillo Street off-ramp, officials said.
As they approached, deputies reported being met with an “overwhelming scent of cologne” coming from inside the vehicle. A search turned up about $1,900 in stolen merchandise, linking the three occupants to the theft, according to the department.
Three men were arrested after deputies recovered nearly $2,000 in stolen merchandise following a freeway traffic stop linked to a retail theft. (Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office)
The suspects — identified as 33-year-old Rigoberto Aguirre Andrade of Santa Clara, 32-year-old Miguel Tinoco Hernandez of Santa Barbara and 37-year-old Jose Encarnacion Reyes of San Jose — were taken into custody without incident.
All three were booked on suspicion of felony organized retail theft. Andrade is also being held on two out-of-county warrants for theft-related crimes, with bail set at $325,000. Hernandez faces an additional misdemeanor charge of providing false information to an officer, with bail set at $200,000. Reyes was also booked on a misdemeanor charge of providing false information to an officer, as well as three out-of-county theft-related warrants. His bail was set at $310,000, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
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Cooler temperatures and potential rain is coming to southern California this weekend, but with increased fire risk in a region where the state’s largest blaze this year is already burning.
The National Weather Service is predicting scattered showers and thunderstorms in the southern half of the state on Saturday, along with some cooler temperatures over the weekend that could finally bring some temporary relief to a prolonged heat wave scorching the region.
National Weather Service meteorologist John Dumas said despite potential wet weather and lower temperatures, fire risk may only increase.
In a pattern referred to as virga, the moisture in the middle layers of the atmosphere will fall as rain, but evaporate before hitting the ground, Dumas said.
“Unfortunately, the lightning can still make it,” Dumas said, which might spark new wildfires.
That could worsen conditions for fire personnel working around the clock to extinguish the Lake fire in Santa Barbara County, California’s largest so far this year. That blaze has grown to 37,742 acres, but firefighters have worked to contain the blaze around the Santa Ynez and Los Olivos region where structures were threatened.
Crew members have made a “visible difference” on the south side of the fire in recent days, where flames could previously be seen from Santa Ynez and the Lake Cachuma area, said Capt. Scott Safechuck, spokesperson for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department
Firefighters have worked through nights to make some progress on the blaze with controlled burns of dry vegetation and a water-dropping helicopter. Those coordinated efforts have “really been successful for us eliminating a lot of the threat on the south side,” Safechuck said.
Risk of fire-igniting dry lightning have led to weather officials issuing a red flag warning until 9 pm Saturday for the mountain and foothill regions of Los Angeles County, according to the weather service, along with the Antelope Valley and valleys of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties, Ojai and Casitas Valley.
Dumas said weather service officials have tools that can both track in real time and model likely lightning strikes, which helps firefighters on the ground.
Dumas also said the heat will decrease by one or two degrees over the next few days, leading to “almost normal temperatures” by Monday or Tuesday before a new heat wave is expected to roll through Southern California.
A wildfire in the mountains above Santa Barbara County’s Santa Ynez Valley has exploded to more than 16,000 acres, prompting evacuations near vineyards and Neverland Ranch.
The Lake fire was sparked near Zaca Lake on Friday afternoon just before 4 p.m. and quickly spread through dry grass, brush and timber, officials said. The fire was zero percent contained on Sunday.
The Sheriff’s Department expanded the evacuation area Saturday night along Figueroa Mountain Road near Neverland Ranch, once owned by the pop star Michael Jackson. More ground crews were dispatched to the area.
“Our goal is to keep [the fire] away from all those structures,” said Kenichi Haskett, the public information officer assigned to the firefighting operation. “It’s going to continue to grow.”
The fire was burning in the mountains above Foxen Canyon Road, where there are more than a dozen vineyards. Several wineries north of Los Olivos were closed Sunday after fire officials cut off access to the road.
But there was no need to evacuate, said Ashley Parker, co-owner of Fess Parker Winery.
Though she could see the glow at night north of the winery, the wind appeared to be taking the fire farther north, away from populated areas, Parker said.
The threat level was low enough that the youngsters were simply entertained by the fire helicopters sucking water from the vineyard reservoir, she said.
“My nieces and their husbands live on the ranch,” Parker said. “All the kids were getting a real thrill out of it. Those helicopter pilots are really amazing. So lucky to have great fire crews.”
The fire was fueled by low humidity and hot inland temperatures. When the fire started, a red flag warning was in place because of gusty winds. The wind has now calmed down, but temperatures remain high.
“With less wind, they can get aircraft in there to drop retardant,” said Joe Sirard, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Oxnard. “But it’s life threatening heat for these firefighters.”
He said the humidity was still in single digits in some areas of the fire, especially in the highest elevations. The cause of the fire is unknown.
Amid scorching temperatures, crews continued to battle several wildfires in inland areas across California. The largest is the Basin fire in Fresno County, which started June 26. The fire, which has burned 14,027 acres, was 60% contained on Sunday.
Crews also gained the upper hand on the French fire, which began on the Fourth of July and briefly threatened the town of Mariposa outside Yosemite National Park. The 908-acre fire, which temporarily triggered mandatory evacuations and closed State Route 140 leading into the park, stands at 60% containment.
The weather service has issued an excessive-heat warning until 9 p.m. on Wednesday for inland valleys from Cuyama in San Luis Obispo County down to the Antelope Valley in Los Angeles County. Forecasters say the highs along this stretch of inland California are expected to range from 106 to 116 degrees.
The relentless heat shattered records in some parts of the state on Saturday. Palmdale tied its all-time record of 115 degrees. Death Valley set a new record for July 6 with a high of 128 degrees.
On Saturday, a cooling trend prompted the weather service to call off excessive-heat advisories and warnings in many of the coastal areas.
In Los Olivos, vineyard managers said they were optimistic the fire would soon be contained. Parker said she expected her winery to reopen Monday.
“I really do believe the firefighters knocked it back and that area is going to be up to speed in a day,” she said. “The last thing I want to do is encourage people not to come. The town of Los Olivos is in good shape. Businesses are open. People are having a good time.”
Adrian De La Cruz, who works at Petros Winery closer to town, said customers were being seated indoors because of the air quality.
“The smoke is getting really bad today,” he said. “Yesterday it was raining ash.”
He said one fire patrol officer stopped by, but he did not have time to talk to him.
Parts of Southern California have seen record rainfall in the past week after two atmospheric rivers pelted the region.
As the clouds began to lift, new projections from a modeling company were providing a visual representation of the scale of the flooding.
The projections, from Floodbase, show dramatic differences in accumulated water between late January and this week.
Below is greater Los Angeles on Jan. 28 (left) and Feb. 6 (right). On Jan. 28, much of the water is dark blue, indicating permanent water.
On Feb. 6, light blue floodwater surrounds waterways like the L.A. River and can be seen accumulating at the base of the Santa Monica and Verdugo mountains.
Public satellites haven’t yet flown over the areas hit by the storm, and private satellites have only targeted a few areas, said Floodbase co-founder Bessie Schwarz.
The Floodbase data is “simulating what the satellites would have seen,” she said.
Floodbase uses an AI model trained on decades of satellite images, along with physical models from hydrologic, land surface and hydraulic data to predict what a satellite would see through the clouds.
According to the images, the flooding was at its peak around Los Angeles on Feb. 6, whereas in Santa Barbara County, it was most significant the previous day.
The image below uses the same methodology to show flooding in Santa Barbara County on Jan. 28 (left) and again on Feb. 5 (right).
On Jan. 28, the data show modest flooding near Lompoc and some water in the Santa Ynez Mountains.
By Feb. 6, dry riverbeds passing through Lompoc and Santa Maria were heavily flooded. The mountains above Santa Barbara were also flooded.
The atmospheric river storms of the past week killed at least nine people and caused significant flooding and property damage along the California coast.
After four days of rain, the skies were clearing Wednesday morning, leaving officials and property owners to sift through damage from nearly 500 landslides in Los Angeles County alone. Several locations got more than a foot of rain in a few days. One more dollop of rain was expected Wednesday night.
There is no snow in the forecast for Southern California this holiday season, but residents can expect heavy rain, flooding on roadways and creeks, and thunderstorms as a slow-moving winter storm system lingers over the region through Friday.
Forecasts show that Christmas Eve and Christmas Day will be warmer and dry.
A tightly-wound and well-defined low-pressure storm system about 300 miles off the coast of the San Francisco Bay Area is slowing making its way south, according to the National Weather Service.
Typically, winter storm systems are propelled by the Pacific jet stream, meteorologist Ryan Kittell from the National Weather Service in Oxnard said. But this holiday low-pressure system is cut off from the stream and merely wobbling its way toward Southern California in a cyclonic flow.
The National Weather Service issued a special marine weather warning for the Central Coast on Wednesday morning due to the potential for water spouts and strong winds. There is a slight chance that the current conditions will cause a tornado or water spout to form in the area between Point Conception in Santa Barbara County and Los Angeles County, according to the forecast.
There is a flood watch in effect for the next two days for most of Southern California. Residents in San Luis Obispo, Ventura, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles counties should be on the lookout for debris flows, flash flooding, general flooding and overflowing rivers, the National Weather Service said.
Areas along the Santa Ynez and Santa Monica coastal ranges near isolated thunderstorms could see rainfall rates of an inch an hour Wednesday and Thursday. Other areas could expect to see 0.30 to 0.60 of an inch of rain per hour.
“It’s not a typical or classic winter storm that would drop rain for a few hours and then move along,” Kittell said.
The brunt of the storm is forecast to hit San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, according to the National Weather Service. Los Angeles County will also see heavy rainfall, but forecasters are a bit uncertain if the area will get the same drenching as is expected for the counties further north and west.
The storm is expected to bring flooding for most of the region through Thursday, according to the National Weather Service, which cautioned drivers to avoid driving on roads that appear to be under water.
Southern California residents can expect showers throughout Friday, which will give way to gusty winds on Saturday and slightly warmer temperatures by Sunday, according to the forecast.
The slow-moving storm is also a bit warmer than average, Kittell said, dashing any hopes for snow below the 7,500-foot mark.
“It’s going to be cold, but not terribly cold,” Kittell said.
Central Coast environmentalists are celebrating ExxonMobil’s recent decision to scrap plans to replace miles of pipeline through Santa Barbara County, key to revitalizing a local network of petroleum energy production shuttered since the catastrophic 2015 Refugio oil spill.
But at the same time, the oil giant has raised fresh concerns, saying it is instead exploring the possibility of repairing existing, damaged pipeline.
The years-long effort by oil companies to replace two major segments of pipeline could have allowed the company to restart offshore oil platforms along Santa Barbara County’s coast and an onshore processing plant. These possibilities have been long reviled by local environmental groups and some residents, especially after the catastrophic 2015 spill, which continues to loom large in the region.
“This [pipeline] replacement has been hanging over the community’s head for five years now,” said Jonathan Ullman, director of the Sierra Club’s Santa Barbara-Ventura chapter. “I was very happy to hear this news; it felt like their withdrawal signified that the writing was on the wall that they could not continue.”
Ullman said the construction project — had it been approved — had major implications for the environment, wildlife and public health, with heightened risks of oil spills and increased fossil fuel emissions.
The 2015 spill, caused by “extensive” corrosion on a section of pipeline, hemorrhaged more than 140,000 gallons of crude oil along the Gaviota Coast, much of which ended up in the ocean and along the region’s prized coastline, closing Refugio and El Capitan state beaches for weeks and affecting countless seabirds and marine life. Oil heavily coated a stretch of Santa Barbara County’s coast, with small tar balls reaching as far south as Redondo Beach in Los Angeles County.
Officials for Pacific Pipeline Co., a subsidiary of Texas-based ExxonMobil, wrote to Santa Barbara County leaders that it had found “the potential environmental impacts associated with the major construction of a second pipeline unnecessary and avoidable,” according to an Oct. 24 letter, withdrawing its proposal from the county’s permitting process.
The letter, however, also opened the door for another complicated fight in Santa Barbara County, with Exxon officials announcing that the oil giant would change its focus from building replacement pipeline to trying to restore old, damaged pipeline.
“Recent inspections and analysis affirms … the existing pipeline can be responsibly restarted,” the letter said. It also mentioned that during the replacement pipeline’s environmental review, “staff from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency indicated that restart of the existing pipeline is likely the Least Environmentally Damaging Practical Alternative under the Federal Clean Water Act.”
Exxon officials did not release additional information about those reviews but clarified that any “formal decision on the [Least Environmentally Damaging Practical Alternative] cannot be made until the entire environmental review and permitting process is completed.”
Exxon officials did not respond to questions from The Times requesting further details about such an undertaking, including any analysis of environmental impacts.
“Pacific Pipeline Company and ExxonMobil have assets that we intend to leverage to deliver reliable energy to Californians and others,” Exxon spokesperson Julie King said in a statement.
Kelsey Gerckens Buttitta, a spokesperson for Santa Barbara County, said Exxon and its subsidiaries do not have any current applications under review regarding the pipeline, noting that another recent proposal to upgrade multiple valves along the line was not approved this summer. However, any plans to restart the lines would fall under the jurisdiction of the California State Fire Marshal, she said, making it clear that county officials would still be paying attention.
“The County does have concerns with the integrity of restarting the existing pipeline but we are confident in the California State Fire Marshall’s ability to ensure that these concerns are addressed through their review authority,” Buttitta said in a statement.
Environmental groups also shared overwhelming concerns about Exxon’s portrayal of restoring the existing pipeline, which was found to be heavily corroded in 2015.
“At this stage of the climate crisis, building new oil infrastructure is reckless, to say the least,” said Maggie Hall, deputy chief counsel at the Environmental Defense Center, a nonprofit law firm that advocates for environmental protection in Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties.
“However, restarting a corroded and compromised pipeline that already caused one massive oil spill is even worse,” she said in a statement. “There is no way for the pipeline owners to credibly claim it will be safe. If this pipeline is allowed to restart, it’s not a question of if, but when, it will be responsible for another catastrophe.”
Ullman said he is hopeful that Exxon continuing to show interest in further construction in Santa Barbara County is simply a ploy by the company to keep investors interested, because he doesn’t believe such a plan could be successful.
“That pipeline cannot be repaired,” Ullman said. “It must be abandoned for the safety of the people who travel on the Gaviota Coast, but also for the massive amount of wildlife and sea life that’s there now.”
The ruptured pipeline that created the 2015 spill was built in 1987 and extended about 11 miles along the Gaviota Coast. It is part of a larger oil transport network that expands into Kern County, which Exxon had hoped to rebuild almost entirely, for a total of more than 120 miles through Santa Barbara County.
With the replacement project now halted, Ullman hopes to see the existing lines — still not in operation — removed.
“We’re still dealing with the consequences and the threats,” Ullman said. “The Gaviota Coast is really a special place … and worth protecting.”
A California Coastal compound home to visionary filmmaker James Cameron and his wife, Suzy Amis … [+] Cameron, has come on the market for $33 million.
Blake Bronstad
Oscar-winning director James Cameron has listed his sweeping ranch set along California’s Gaviota Coast for $33 million––parting with otherworldly Pacific Ocean views that inspired his five-part Avatar film franchise.
The 8,000-square-foot home he and his wife, Suzy Amis Cameron, purchased 24 years ago is sited on an oceanfront 102-acre parcel in a biodiverse haven that’s among the world’s richest.
Cameron’s favored writing retreats as he conjured Pandora, Avatar’s blue-hued world, were an upper library in the five-bedroom home and a 2,000-square-foot guest house set on a rise to maximize the ineffable coastal expanse.
Located within Hollister Ranch, the 102-acre property includes a main estate home with swimming pool … [+] and tennis court, a guest house, two barns, an equestrian facilities and a ranch office.
Eric Foote
“I would just bounce up there and sequester myself for months on end,” says Cameron of writing most of the first Avatar script and about half of the next two installments. “Actually, right through four and five because all those scripts are done.”
The family switched to a plant-based diet in 2012 and, as environmental advocates, the couple employs experimental techniques when farming thousands of New Zealand acreage they own, along with about 10,000 acres in Saskatchewan. They’ve founded a holistic school and have been vanguards in numerous ecological ventures.
The architectural wood and glass main residence features soaring beams and Rocky Mountain quartzite … [+] slab floors.
Blake Bronstad
The pioneering couple’s ocean-adjacent land is among 136 parcels within the 14,400-acre gated Hollister Ranch, established in 1971 as a nature preserve shouldered by 8.5 miles of pristine shoreline. Residential development is restricted to 2 acres on each of the land’s approximate 100-acre parcels. A 250-year tradition of cattle ranching continues on virtually all of the preserve’s coastal spread with up to one-half million pounds of Angus beef shipped annually.
The Camerons’ wood and glass home opens to soaring beam ceilings and includes two executive offices, a gym, media room and game room. Set along the south-facing Gaviota Coast, the sunset-drenched residence cradles a lagoon-style pool and lounge area wreathed by curved palms that recalls the tropics. Off-grid-ready, the solar-powered home is both water and food autonomous, given its three-quarter acre garden.
“The bare bones of the house are California rustic,” says Cameron, citing Hollister Ranch master builder Bob Curtis who erected the structures in the 1980s. “It feels rural, but it’s also quite bold, architecturally. It’s very comfortable. It’s not precious.”
Walls of windows in the living room take in coastal bluffs and scenes.
Blake Bronstad
Upon purchase, the couple ripped out carpeting and installed irregular slabs of Rocky Mountain quartzite, patterning floors with cream, gold and rust hues. The great room’s Brazilian hardwood beams were stripped of stain and paint and then restored to a natural burnished finish. The expansive sweep of timber ascends to clerestory windows and then angles over the dining room and kitchen, which is inset with a vaulted peak.
The two-story home’s bold angles frame views of coastal bluffs and scenes of migrating whales, dolphin pods and rafts of sea otters. The straight-ahead view is of San Miguel Island, the westernmost of the Channel Islands.
The kitchen’s sugar maple butcher-block table has hosted the bulk of Cameron family meals. “The dining room seats 14 and, when we really need space, we come out onto a big landing where we can seat 30,” Cameron says.
Angled beams and rich woodwork draw the eyes upward in the massive cook’s kitchen.
Blake Bronstad
The angled beams continue in the primary suite and are matched by oak plank flooring. The rooms, which include a fireplace, are swaged with Balinese fabric, furthering the tropical view beyond the windows.
“We have a lot of Balinese sculptures and woodwork around, an overlay of Indonesian motifs,” says Cameron. There’s one Greco-Roman nod in the great room: a colossal 800-pound stone head depicting Dionysius, its elvish look a match for a Cameron film.
“It’s from a facade of a hotel in New York,” Cameron says. “A gift from Bill Paxton.”
The ranch’s untamed land also includes a 4,795-square-foot equestrian facility with paddocks and ranch offices outfitted with a caretaker’s quarters and four apartments.
There are five bedrooms within 8,000 square feet of living space. Pictured is the primary suite, … [+] which includes a fireplace.
Blake Bronstad
There are two barns. “I’ve kept helicopters there,” says Cameron of the larger 24,000-square-foot barn. The barn was also a proving ground, he adds, “used when I was working on my subs and robotic equipment for expeditions,” which include 33 trips the intrepid “Titanic” director has made to the RMS Titanic and a solo descent he mastered to the lowest portion of the Mariana Trench.
The property also has a tennis court and permitted helipad.
The Camerons were reached at the tail end of a five-day 30-member family reunion held at the ranch. “We’re down to two nephews,” says Suzy Amis Cameron, speaking from the ranch. Post-gathering, her husband was working from his 100,000-square-foot Manhattan Beach studio where he was patched in before flying to New Zealand that evening.
Bedroom walls swaged with Balinese fabric, furthering the tropical view beyond the windows.
Blake Bronstad
Family has been central to the Camerons during their two-decade-plus stay at the ranch and it’s partly why they’re selling. The couple’s three children are “all pretty much out on their own now,” the Canadian-born director says. “And on Avatar, I’m working in Wellington and Los Angeles. And on the new Alita: Battle Angel films, I’ll be working in Austin, so it just didn’t make sense for us anymore.”
Adds Suzy Amis Cameron: “Our hope is that someone will come in with young children or decide to have children and enjoy it.”
The couple warmly recalls their children’s adventures: Checking tide tables; learning names of multitudinous creatures in the coastal ecosystem; foraging; taking mountain treks; riding horses named Tex, Monkey and Okie; and caring for donkeys, goats and a pig.
The sprawling garden on the property features roughly 150 different crops.
Blake Bronstad
“They were always coming home with some kind of critter, including a baby bobcat we named Rex,” James Cameron says. “They raised him and then released him back into the wild––he came back when he was an adult and ate Simon, our turkey.”
“You could feed 40, 50 people out of the gardens,” says Cameron, adding that the home’s large pantry is well-stocked. “The ranch runs on solar and wind, so it can be completely off-grid for as long as necessary. It’s got built-in battery storage that’s extensive enough to support the entire hundred-kilowatt system. There’s a sense of security and sanctuary here.”
The property is has a water well on the property for irrigation plus domestic water supplied by the … [+] Santa Anita Mutual Water Company.
Blake Bronstad
Drakes Beach, with its world-renowned surf break, is less than a quarter of a mile from the house. “There’s nothing between us and the beach,” Cameron says. “You go down, look left and right and there’s just nobody. It’s very, very rare.”
Hollister Ranch operates three cabañas along the sandy stretch that residents can reserve. Amenities include showers, restrooms and barbecue facilities.
Santa Barbara County’s 76-mile Gaviota Coast is Southern California’s largest stretch of undeveloped coastline. Bordered by the Channel Islands National Park, termed the “Galápagos of North America,” the fragile wildlife corridor provides a safe harbor for numerous rare and endangered species.
World-renowned surfing spot Drakes Beach is less than a quarter of a mile from the Camerons’ home.
Blake Bronstad
The astounding array of interconnected ecosystems––intertidal habitats, estuaries, grasslands, coastal scrub and striking bluffs––were favored by the Chumash Native Americans who settled the land nearly 10,000 years ago.
“It was sacred land,” Cameron says. “The Chumash called the whole area the Western Gate because it was where their souls departed across the ocean at the end of their lives. And you kind of feel that. It affects you at a subconscious level.”
