Temple's Ranch, was the ranch and a home of F. P. F. Temple, a wealthy land owner in Los Angeles County, with large business and land holdings of thousands of acres in Madera County and Fresno County including this ranch in Fresno County near the Merced County border.
Temple's Ranch was a swing station in the First Division of the Butterfield Overland Mail in Fresno County, California. It was located 13 miles east southeast of Lone Willow Station and 15 miles northwest of Firebaugh's Ferry northwest of what is now Dos Palos.[1][2] The station at Temple's Ranch was located on the west bank of the San Joaquin River, at the home of F. T. F. Temple, the original owner of the property, who was living there in 1858. Temple sold the ranch in 1866.
This section of the mail road along the San Joaquin River and over the plain, west through Lone Willow Station to St. Luis Ranch and Pacheco Pass was described as one of the best for making fast time on the route. The fifteen miles between Firebaugh's Ferry and Temple's Ranch was frequently driven in one hour and twelve minutes.[3]
^Roscoe Platt Conkling, Margaret Badenoch Conkling, BUTTERFIELD OVERLAND MAIL, 1858-1869, The American Trail Series, Volume 4, Arthur H. Clark, Glendale, 1947, p.294
Fort Tejon – Located 15 miles southwest of Sink of Tejon Station, north of and below the summit of Tejon Pass.
Reed's Station – Located 8 miles southeast of Fort Tejon, near, to the south of the summit of the Tejon Pass.
French John's Station – Located 14 miles east southeast of Reeds Station, in the vicinity of the mouth of Cow Springs Creek Canyon.
Mud Spring, a later station operating in 1860, 14 miles east from French Johns and 13 miles north from Clayton's Station (formerly Widow Smith's Station). [1]
