A historic ranch property that traces its roots to the 1880s changed hands in August, the first of two large ranch sales in Crook County this year.

The Gutierrez Ranch, 21,500 acres west of Paulina, sold for $14.4 million to a Salem business owner, according to Crook County records. In September, a Crook County family partnership, Stafford Ranches LLC, completed its purchase of the 32,500-acre Foley Butte Block north of Prineville from the Ochoco Lumber Co.

Arturo Gutierrez Sr., the founder of a Massachusetts construction and real estate development company, sold his namesake ranch, along with permits to graze on 50,000 government acres nearby, to Kelley and Janet Tovar-Hamilton, of Salem. Kelley Hamilton is CEO and co-owner of Bonaventure Senior Living, according to the company website.

Gutierrez acquired the ranch in the 1980s, said Roger Dryden, a real estate broker in Crook County who represented the Hamiltons. County records show the property, most of it located along Watson Creek with outlying parcels along the North Fork of the Crooked River, last changed hands in 1988 for $1.5 million. The property includes four or five buildings, including a ranch house, Dryden said.

The Gutierrez Ranch began as the Bennett Ranch in the 1880s, said Steve Lent, historian with the Bowman Museum, in Prineville. In May 1864, Northern Paiute Indians attacked and killed several men with the Oregon First Cavalry, including Lt. Stephen Watson, on what later became the ranch. Watson Creek is named for the lieutenant, Lent said.

Gutierrez, the fourth owner of the property, arrived in the U.S. in the mid-1950s as a college student, said his assistant, Carol Jones. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and in 1978 founded The Gutierrez Co. in the Boston area.

He purchased the ranch as a retreat for family and friends, although it continued as a cattle operation, Dryden said.

“His motivation (to sell) is that he’s in his mid-70s and it was something he wasn’t using, the family wasn’t using; the resources could be used closer to home,” Dryden said. “He came to the conclusion it was time to move on and try something else.”

Jones added: “He didn’t really want to.”

Gutierrez was traveling and unavailable for comment, she said.

The Hamiltons formed a corporation, Hamilton Ranch LLC, to purchase the property. Bonaventure Senior Living operates 23 communities in Oregon, Washington and Colorado, according to the company website.

Kelley Hamilton did not return a message left Tuesday seeking comment.

Of the Hamiltons, Dryden said: “Their interest is the land, the recreational aspect of it and all that brings to the table.”

Tim Deboodt, Oregon State University extension agent in Crook County, said Kelley Hamilton, with whom Deboodt met over the summer, plans to continue raising cattle on the ranch, which Deboodt described as a sizable operation.

— Reporter: 541-617-7815, jditzler@bendbulletin.com