In 1940, actor James Cagney bought hundreds of acres of California grassland; decades later the remaining 417 acres became a protected wildlife corridor

• For decades, the grasslands outside Ramona, California, looked much as they had for generations: open country, seasonal pools and wide stretches of native vegetation broken by grazing land.
• As reported by the local news report, The San Diego Union-Tribune, among the people who once owned part of this landscape was Hollywood actor James Cagney, who acquired hundreds of acres in the area with his brother William during the 1940s.
• The property did not remain intact forever.