California ranch owned by former Levi Strauss CEO for sale
Former Levi Strauss & Co. CEO Bob Haas has put his 4,000-acre ranch near Mount Shasta on the market for $25 million, according to brokerage Hall and Hall.
Willow Creek Ranch includes a three-bedroom 4,300 square foot main residence, two guest houses, two staff houses and a lookout tower. The summit of Mount Shasta is visible from the property.
“Visiting Willow Creek Ranch is like stepping into a postcard,” Bill McDavid, Hall and Hall’s listing agent, said in a statement. “Whatever wealth we can accumulate in our lives only makes sense if we can find joy in the time we can spend with family and friends. This ranch has served the current owners well as a place of that joy. Now another family will have the same opportunity.
Haas winters about 20 horses in a barn that has two staff quarters on the upper level and is attached to an indoor arena of about 13,000 square feet. A second historic barn on the property, 3,200 square feet, was built in the late 1800s when the main part of the ranch was a dairy farm.
Squaw Valley Creek, the main tributary of the McCloud River, flows three miles from the property, which also has over 3,000 acres of wooded land. The ranch also shares a two-mile border with the Shasta National Forest. Wildlife — deer, turkeys, quail, geese and bears — is plentiful, according to Hall and Hall.
“The varied terrain is intertwined with a network of 20 miles of horseback riding and hiking trails plus nearly 50 miles of private dirt roadssuitable for horse-drawn wagon rides, leisurely hikes, and bike and mountain bike rides,” according to the official property listing.
Willow Creek Ranch covers parts of two counties, Siskiyou and Shasta. Accessible by paved road, it is about five miles south of the small town of McCloud, which has fewer than 1,000 residents.
Haas is a descendant of Levi Strauss, who founded the famous San Francisco-based clothing company, known for its denim jeans, in 1853. Haas was chief executive of Levi Strauss from 1984 to 1999. He served as chairman of the board of directors from 1989. to 2007.
“The ranch was a place to get away from it all, relax and do things you couldn’t do in town,” Haas told the Wall Street Journal.
He told the newspaper that he and his wife were selling because they were getting older and couldn’t enjoy the ranch as much these days. Haas is 79 and his wife is 74.
Other improvements to the property include a water treatment plant, a workshop, the tower that offers panoramic views, multiple garages, and storage buildings for ranch toys, hay, and heavy equipment.
