Around 1910 Vail & Vickers built two small but functional buildings in the corrals. The scale house held a livestock scale with instruments for precise weighing of incoming and outgoing cattle. Al Vail took pride in the correct weights at shipping time, which determined the amount of income Vail & Vickers would acquire from a sale after roundup. Weights also determined the pattern




















of loading cattle on the cattle boats and barges.

Near the scale house is the branding shed (or chute shed), a utilitarian shelter housing the ranch squeeze chute (this squeeze chute was installed in the 1960s to replace an older wooden one) and equipment used for processing incoming cattle and others as needed. The squeeze chute held cattle while they were vaccinated, dehorned, and castrated.

Branding, traditionally used to identify cattle on the range between ranches, was not truly necessary on the island, as there were no other ranches bordering the Vail & Vickers ranch. Finished beef didn't need brands because they went straight to slaughterhouses. Nevertheless, the Vails marked their cattle with various brands. A "V/V" didn't last long because it was graphically too complicated. After the war the managers used "VR" (Vail-Rogers), reflecting Ed Vail's partnership with Jimmy Rogers (son of the famous Will Rogers) on the Jalama Ranch near Lompoc. A heart-slash was the standard brand on the ranch for the last decade of the operation.

For more detailed historical information and citations, please refer to the Historic Resource Study: Island Legacies - A History of the Islands within Channel Islands National Park