john and susan bixby were the first bixby's to ranch here.he bixby family was a very large family, originally from new england, from maine, and they came out here right after the gold rush with cousins, the flints, and they started out selling things to the miners. which the most successful people did at the gold rush. they had a butcher shop. then they started buying up some of the land that was here in california after california became part of the united states, and they started in central california, but eventually ended up down here in southern california, and first, they purchased a ranch here in long beach, which was one of the original holdings. joseph bixby lived there with his wife and he invited other bixby relatives to help him on the ranch as well as some of his wife's relatives. one of the guys who came out was john bixby. he was a young man from maine, he had been a schoolteacher, he had been a carpenter, cabinet maker, a varied background, but he was quite young when he arrived in california. when he was on the ranch, he was l

it was added to the house by john and susan bixby. bixby were the here.bixby's to ranch the bixby family is a large family, originally from new england, from maine, and they came out here right after the gold rush with cousins and they started out selling things to the miners. they had a butcher shop. they started buying up some of the land that was here in california after california became part of the united states started in central california, but ended up down here in southern california and at first, they purchased a ranch here in long beach, which was one of the original holdings. he lived there with his wife and he invited other bixby relatives to help him on the ranch as well as some of his wives relatives. one of the guys who came out was john bixby. he was a young man from maine, he had been a schoolteacher, carpenter, cabinet maker, quite young when he arrived in california. when he was on the ranch, he was learning how to become a rancher. sister-in-law, susan hathaway, and he married her. the adjoining rancho became avai

this room, just in called the old garden, or installed by john and susan bixby. when fred and florence xp took over, florence -- florence picks be to go over -- bixby took over, -- oil anddiscovery of because the bixby's were large owners -- large landowners, and a lot of oil was under the land. more incomeem a lot to play with than just the ranch would provide, so florence bixby of thee to hire some premier landscape architects of -- early 1920's, including through the auspices of her sister. we have four acres of beautiful landscape gardens. >> there are many levels. one of the things that is important to us is you get some relief from being in a certain environment. the whole visitor experience is not terrifically structured. you can come and just be in the garden. you can come and decide to take a house tour. you can, decide you want to explore the center here in the fields. -- wee this unstructured try to be unstructured as -- an interesting as we cancer people can take on it what they want. -- take from it what they want. >> we recently traveled to long beac

john and susan bixby where the first bixby's to ranch here at rancho lasala. the bixby family was a very large family, originally from new england, from maine. and they came out here right after the gold rush with cousins, the flints, and they started out selling things to the minors, which most successful bid at the gold rush. they had a butcher shop. but then they started buying up some of the ranches in some of the land that was here in california after california became part of the united states. they started in central california, but he ended up down here in southern california. first, they purchased a ranch here in long beach called fragilis reaches -- called cerritos. bought it with partners. .e lived there with his wife and he invited other of his bixby relatives to come out here and help them on the ranch as well as some of his wife's relatives. one of the cousins who came out to help john bixby with his ranch was john bixby, young men from maine. he had been a schoolteacher, a cabinet maker, a varied background. but he was very young when he arrived