By Edward Robinson

Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) -- The Cojo Ranch and neighboring Jalama Ranch don't have mansions or pools or tennis courts to feature in glossy ``exclusive'' real estate guides.

They've got something more spectacular -- miles of undeveloped central California coastline, 1,200 head of Hereford cattle, mountain lions, and an asking price like few others: $155 million.

Taken together, Cojo and Jalama are a ``kingdom property,'' a piece of real estate so vast and remote that the super-rich can disappear there and rule a private domain like William Randolph Hearst did until half a century ago at San Simeon, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) up Highway 1.

In a state famed for pricey real estate, the proposed joint sale of the ranches -- covering 37 square miles (96 square kilometers) of open land a 90-minute drive north of Santa Barbara -- has impressed even the most jaded Californians.

``We looked at the listing and just said, `Wow,''' says Matt Vaughan, president of the Santa Barbara Association of Realtors. ``It's staggering, even for here.''

The seller, Bixby Ranch Co., a family-controlled firm based in Seal Beach, California, is offering the properties jointly or separately. Cojo, pronounced KO-ho, is 8,580 acres (3,472- hectares). Jalama, pronounced ha-LA-ma, covers 15,550 acres. Neither has been for sale since Fred C. Bixby, a rancher who raised prize-winning appaloosa horses, purchased Cojo in 1913.

The Bixby Ranch Co. decided to sell at the behest of family members who want to convert the asset into cash, says spokeswoman Diane Reed. She declined to disclose potential buyers.

Record-Setting

The sale will probably be the richest, non-commercial real estate deal in California history, says Bente Madtsen of Luxury Real Estate.com, a Seattle-based national listing service. The record is the 42-acre estate near Santa Barbara that talk-show host Oprah Winfrey bought for $54 million in 2001.

``We are seeing more of these kingdom properties come to market,'' says Mark Lester, a Vancouver, Canada-based broker with Colliers International Property Consultants Inc. Lester handled the sale of the 5,400-acre Mago Island in Fiji to the actor and filmmaker Mel Gibson last year for an undisclosed sum.

``Clients want to get into these unique properties for the lifestyle they afford and the bragging rights,'' Lester says. ``You buy it because you can.''

Few outsiders have set foot on Cojo and Jalama, which have corrals, barns, bunkhouses and modest ranch residences. The sole way to reach them by land is the two-lane, 14-mile Jalama Road that snakes through the coastal hills from Highway 1 near Lompoc and ends at a public beach.

Helicopter Over

``If you can't pay to charter a helicopter, then you have no business making an offer,'' says Suzanne Perkins, Cojo's lead listing agent with Sotheby's International Realty in Santa Barbara. She wouldn't discuss potential buyers.

The new owner would possess a private realm that looks a lot like it did 170 years ago, when Mexico's governor in California bestowed the Rancho El Cojo to the Carrillos, one of the state's founding families, as a land grant.

Cowboys on horseback watch over cattle grazing on grass- covered bluffs near the edge of the Pacific. Mountain lions and wild pigs roam oak-shaded inland valleys. Steelhead trout swim the creeks that flow from the Jalama watershed to the sea.

The pastoral spell is broken only by the occasional jeep loaded with surfboards headed down Jalama Road toward the waves that break on the ranches' offshore reefs. Surfers ignore ``Keep Out'' signs to sneak across the properties.

One reef, dubbed Tarantulas after the abundance of hairy arachnids that dwell on the bluffs, is a world-class surf spot with 20-foot (6-meter) waves.

`Different World'

``It's a different world out here,'' says Matt Katz, a Santa Barbara surfer, who says the waves are worth the legal risks. ``It's like a little utopia.''

Preservationists say they're concerned that a new owner may despoil the landscape with development.

``These ranches are an undisturbed, intact habitat that should be preserved,'' says Charles Kimbell, a real estate lawyer in Santa Barbara who serves on the state advisory board of the Trust for Public Land, a San Francisco-based conservation group.

Both ranches are subject to state and county land-use restrictions. Still, the deed holder could seek to build at least 200 ``ranchettes'' on 2- to 4-acre parcels if they're clustered together, according to zoning rules.

``Some development is possible, but this is one of the last major open landscapes on the California coast and so we are extremely vigilant about what happens out there,'' says Peter Douglas, executive director of the California Coastal Commission, which has approval powers over development plans.

Trailer Life

A potential sale is very much on the minds of campers at Jalama County Beach Park. Mike Pilcher, nursing a can of Budweiser on a recent afternoon and wearing a baseball hat that says ``Trailer Trash, says he loves Jalama's openness so much that he lives half the year in a trailer at the park.

``I'm not some tree-hugger,'' says Pilcher, 65, a retired high school history teacher. ``But I'd hate to see them come in and set up more roads and fences.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Edward Robinson in San Francisco at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .