May K. Rindge

Born: 1865

Died: 1941

Source of Wealth: Real estate

To this day, whenever a mudslide, fire or other disaster occurs along the stretch of Pacific Coast Highway near Malibu, locals attribute it to “Rindge’s Revenge.”

Dubbed the “Queen of Malibu,” May Knight Rindge fought valiantly but unsuccessfully to prevent a road from being built that would slice through her expansive ranch, which stretched from Las Flores Canyon to far beyond Point Dume.

She undertook the mission upon the abrupt death of her 48-year-old husband, Frederick Hastings Rindge. In 1892, the wealthy magnate had bought 13,300 acres for $10 an acre with money he had inherited from his father’s estate. He later expanded the property to 17,000 acres.

As a widow with three teen-age children, May Rindge was able to stave off Southern Pacific Railroad’s bid to lay tracks across her land by building her own $1 million private railroad. The line was used to ship grains, hides, walnuts and other ranch produce to market.

But after a costly legal battle that lasted nearly a quarter of a century, during which she took her case all the way to the Supreme Court, she lost her case against the government in 1925. A road easement that followed the shoreline was granted to the state, allowing Santa Monica and Oxnard to be linked by Roosevelt Highway now known officially as California’s Route 1 and locally as Pacific Coast Highway. The road opened in 1929.

Still intent on keeping her Shangri-La by the sea, Rindge embarked on a $500,000 construction project in 1928 to create a 50-room hilltop mansion.

By now she was involved in numerous business ventures, many of them failing. The broad undertakings proved more daunting than the former Michigan schoolteacher realized, and left Rindge cash-strapped. She filed for bankruptcy protection in 1936, and the mansion was never completed. Upon her death, Rindge was virtually penniless.

Nola L. Sarkisian