Alphonse Burnand

Olympic medal record
Men's sailing
Representing the  United States
	1932 Los Angeles	8 metre class

Alphonse A. Burnand, Jr. (January 21, 1896 – December 4, 1981) was an American sailor who competed in the 1932 Summer Olympics.

He was born in Colorado and died in Orange, California.

In 1932 he was a crew member of the American boat Angelita which won the gold medal in the 8 metre class.

Alphonse A. Burnand, Jr. is considered the "Father of Borrego Springs". He was born in 1896 in Colorado, the son of a miner. The family moved to Santa Monica where Burnand grew up and attended the University of California at Davis, majoring in agriculture. Following graduation he went to Delano in California's Central Valley, the largest table grape producing area in the state. After working in the fields, he soon acquired his own vineyard, and met the DiGiorgio family, at the time the largest grape growers in the world.

Alphonse Burnand attended Stanford, as did his Olympic skipper, Owen Churchill. Burnand graduated in 1914 and later started his own business as an investment broker. Burnand and Churchill sailed together frequently, were close friends, and also went into business together as fruit and vegetable brokers in the San Joaquin Valley.

Alphonse was also an American sailor who competed in the 1932 Summer Olympics. In 1932 he was a crew member of the American boat Angelita which won the gold medal in the 8 metre class.

Around 1933, Burnand made his first trip to the Borrego Valley looking for areas where crops would ripen early. The first crops to market would command a higher price and potentially greater profit. In the Borrego Valley grapes would be ready to pick several weeks ahead of other growing areas. The grapes would usually be sent to markets in New York. In 1936 Burnand purchased an interest in the Coyote Canyon Ranch, to be followed by the de Anza Ranch. The heat, high winds and winter cold made growing grapes in Borrego difficult - but despite some failures Burnand had spent enough time in the Valley to see its potential as a resort. He began buying up railroad in-holdings in the Park area, and trading them with the State for valley land as well as picking up property from tax sales and homesteaders wanting out. His holdings grew to about 17,000 acres.

In 1945, Burnand announced plans for a resort community. The San Diego Union reported that he "was ambitious to create a San Diego County rival of Palm Springs". Development would not start until the end of the war. Burnand gathered several Los Angeles investors and incorporated the Borrego Valley Land and Development Company (to own the land and handle development) and the Borrego Springs Company (to handle sales and marketing). Burnand also formed the Borrego Valley Water Company to supply the development with this most precious resource in the desert.

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