Longtime Santa Rosa Island Rancher Dies at 78

Al Vail’s life was once described as being like a Louis L’Amour novel, chock full of cowboys, adventure and wide open land as pristine as a Montana prairie.

Vail, however, considered himself a regular guy who simply earned a living. But it was a living ranching a 54,000-acre spread on an island in the Pacific Ocean.

Alexander Lennox Vail, a lifelong rancher from Santa Barbara whose family owned and managed Santa Rosa Island for nearly 100 years, had a heart attack at his Santa Barbara office Tuesday and died. He was 78.

“He was a straight-talking guy, a principled guy and a hell of a good cattleman,” said Vail’s twin brother, Russ Vail.

Arnold Bohlander, a longtime business associate and friend of Vail, said the Santa Barbara rancher was a special kind of friend who comes along once in a lifetime.

“I always considered him kind of a throwback to simpler times, when a deal was a deal and everyone didn’t need a lawyer and a million-dollar liability policy,” Bohlander said. “Al told it like it was, and you didn’t need him to draw you a picture.”

Ironically, attorneys and litigation were all that were mentioned publicly about the Vail family in the last few years.

More than a decade ago, the island 45 miles off the Ventura coast was drawn into Channel Islands National Park, after which the government essentially forced Vail and the Vickers family, a silent partner in the island, to sell.

In what Russ Vail once referred to as a gentlemen’s agreement, the Vail & Vickers firm consented to sell the island for nearly $30 million with the condition they be able to continue ranching cattle until 2011.

A bitter dispute ensued over the years about grazing rights, public access and endangered species protection. In 1998, the Vail & Vickers firm was forced to remove the last of its 6,500 Angus and Hereford cows.

“I think to my father, his greatest achievement was taking care of the land and the livestock and the people who worked for him,” said his daughter, Nita Catherine Vail. “He felt what happened was a violation of the code of ethics he taught all of us.”

Vail was born Nov. 24, 1921, in Los Angeles and attended UC Davis and UCLA. He began working full time on Santa Rosa Island as a cowboy in 1942.

Until his death, Vail continued to run a commercial hunting operation on the island, said Nita Vail. The business attracted people from around the globe who sought to hunt deer and elk.

In his free time, Vail enjoyed golf, flying, reading and watching sports on television. He was a member of the Los Alamos Society and the California Cattlemen’s Assn.

Vail is survived by his wife of 43 years, Catherine “Kay” Sutherland of Santa Barbara; two daughters, Nita Catherine Vail of Sacramento and Mary Louise Vail of Moorpark; a brother, Russell Vail of Pasadena; a sister, Margaret Vail Woolley of Pasadena; and several nieces and nephews.

The Neptune Society of Santa Barbara is handling the arrangements.