The Icon of Baja's Golden Age

Freedom and Fun Lives On!

The "Golden Age of Baja" lasted from 1950 to 1975 and described a remote paradise, undiscovered, reachable only by small plane.  Founded in 1952, Rancho Buena Vista, became the first fly-in fishing lodge in southern Baja. The original visitors were fisherman, some of them famous: The likes of Bing Crosby, John Wayne, Chuck Connors, and President Eisenhower. The fishing was regarded as the best in the world, but something intangible made these guests fall in love with the place. It was a rare combination of desert, mountain and sea. It was wild, unspoiled, and full of life.

One man; a former Hollywood actor and director, Ray Cannon, above all others, symbolizes Baja’s Golden Age. He considered himself a “gypsy of the sea,” in the tradition of the ancient fishermen who wandered the Cortez coast in dugout canoes trailing hand lines.

In 1947, Ray Cannon gave up his life of movie star fame for the magic and simplicity of undiscovered paradise. He became a columnist for the new sports paper, Western Outdoor News, assigned to the Baja beat. His brilliant prose put Baja on the map and thus inaugurating its golden age. Ray’s home in Baja was the stone and palm –frond round house still in use today at Rancho Buena Vista. 

Back in Baja’s golden age, the motto at Rancho Buena Vista was simple; freedom and fun. That mantra still works for us today.  The new Golden Age of Baja has arrived. Come and find adventure where it all began.