Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/636897
from Robinson Canyon Road and some shacks. There was no electricity, no running water. They were roughing it." Mike got busy. He had a plan. First, he drafted a letter to his friends. "I have just completed purchase of the old McFadden Ranch and Homestead," the missive reads. "I am turning the place into a Community Rod, Gun and Vacation area, with facilities to swim, play tennis and hike [with] a trout lake, six miles of stream, wild boar, deer, dove, pigeon and quail hunting. There will be a Community Meeting area with a barbeque area, baseball field and swim- ming pool. The spot has a lot of natural beauty with an abundance of redwood, fern, etc." That's pretty much what exists at San Clemente Ranch to this day. Dormody blazed roads, erected bridges, dug a 5-surface-acre trout lake and built a water system, swimming pool, bathhouse, changing rooms and two tennis courts. Mike and Donna eventually moved here full time, rais- ing their three sons and one daughter here. "By the 1980s, my dad start- C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 1 6 139 This man-made lake offers fishing, swimming, boating and just plain relaxation to San Clemente Rancho members and their guests. One is never far from the soothing sounds of running water. Photo: Bruce Dormody Photo: Kelli Uldall