Beginning in 1880, brothers Charles and Henry W. Coe, Jr. (known by his friends as Harry) began purchasing land parcels two or three miles to the northwest of the current Coe Park headquarters along the northern portion of Blue Ridge and the neighboring Cold Flat area.  Although the Homestead Act of 1865 had opened up California's mountain lands for early pioneers, the Coe brothers did not homestead the land they acquired.  Instead, they bought out original homesteaders or purchased government lands by "cash entry." By 1895 the Coe brothers owned 6,000 acres on which they kept about 500 head of cattle.

An 1895 article in the San Jose Mercury Souvenir described future park lands as "...used almost exclusively as range for stock ... seldom visited except by hunters and stockmen ... a great portion consisting of steep and rocky canyons and brushy hillsides."

Santa Clara County land records from 1887 show that the ranch headquarters land was owned by Boden and Company.  Of the three initial structures erected on the Pine Ridge Ranch by Wesley Boden, the stone cooler and hay barn remain.  Boden also built a small shack that was later torn down. Hay grown on ranch pastures was gathered every year and stored in the hay barn.  Later the Coes also stabled their horses and dairy cows there.

The Coe brothers purchased the Pine Ridge Ranch from Wesley Boden in 1900.  In the early 1900s, Harry Coe drove his cattle south to Santa Barbara markets by what is now Gilroy Hot Spring Road and New Avenue.  After the 1930s the Coes replaced overland cattle drives with truck transporation to move the livestock to San Francisco markets.

For more information about the ranch, look for the booklet Henry Coe's Pine Ridge Ranch, which is sold at the Coe Park Visitor Center.