* Editor's note: The historical sale of the grove has fallen through. Over the next two days, the Register will take a look at the legacy of the grove (today) and its future (Monday). *

A walk along the southern end of Commerce Way in American Canyon is like a stroll through a ghost town.

Gone are the garage doors that fenced the property. Hundreds of makeshift poultry pens are exposed and empty. The air is still, except for the faint crowing of roosters still living in the middle of 107 acres of eucalyptus trees.

If only those trees could talk.

A cloud of suspicion, and sometimes guilt, has surrounded the property for more than 10 years. It has been the subject of surprise raids on several occasions, with citations handed out for illegal cockfighting and drug possession.

It is now a property in limbo. Last June, owners Patricia and Robert Crouch filed an agreement to sell the land to developer Steve Brock. The roosters were evicted, the owners tried to clean up the property. Then the deal fell through.

But there was a time when "The Grove" was full of promise.

The land has belonged to the Couch family since 1935, and Robert Couch, along with his wife Patricia, took ownership from his father just before his death in 1974.

That May, about 40 American Canyon youth spent the night in sleeping bags and tents on the property, which then spanned 165 acres, according to Register archives.

The next morning, they cleared land for a motorcycle path, and spoke of future plans for boarding animals, building campsites, a football field, tennis courts, a recreation hall and a swimming pool. Members of the U.S. Army from San Francisco's Presidio promised to provide the manpower and heavy machinery.

The teens were members of the American Canyon Youth Involvement Project, a program to keep south county kids active and out of trouble. The group hoped to lease 100 acres from the Couches, and in turn, name the park in memory of Robert Couch Sr.

At the time, the city had a population of almost 5,500 but had only one recreational outlet: a small tennis court.

The plan was ultimately thwarted when federal funding was canceled a year later. The group asked the county to pick up the estimated $13,000 tab to operate the fledgling park, but was denied.

John Tuteur was county supervisor for the then-unincorporated city. He said the project failed for several reasons.

"The first was that the county wasn't going to get into the park business," Tuteur said. "The second was the issue of dealing with the property owners. The third was the lack of community infrastructure."

Thus ended plans for the R.L. Couch Memorial Park.

Things were quiet for a while. Then in 1990, a state-county task force raided the wooded area and discovered a dozen encampments, piles of suspected toxic waste containers, hundreds of cocks used for fighting and tons of junk.

People were living without running water, sanitation facilities or electricity.

Ruben Oropeza, a county environmental health specialist, said the property looked like a Third-World country.

"I was raised in Mexico, and there people make do with those types of conditions," Oropeza said. "But I wasn't expecting to see those conditions here in California."

He found one family living in an abandoned bus, using a hole in the ground as a toilet.

"The rent was probably inexpensive, but that's not the way you want to raise a family," Oropeza said.

In an interview with the Register following the raid, Robert Couch said he had been renting acre-size parcels for $60 to $100 per month for people to live on.

"During the war (World War II) that made this county free, my dad housed 125 trailers and campers there," Couch said. "There has to be a place for people who don't have much."

More than ten years later, Couch's son David defended his own father in the same way.

Interviewed last summer, David Couch said his father felt compassion for those who had less, and saw nothing wrong with giving them an affordable place to live. As far as the conditions of the property -- crowded with broken-down autos, machinery and what most people would call trash -- Couch said his father was a "collector," and always had been.

Unfortunately for the family, few shared Robert Couch's philosophy.

In 1993, a superior court judge ordered the property owners to clean up and immediately evict all tenants.

The lawsuit filed by the district attorney's office said items on the property ranged from scrap lumber to appliances and containers filled with hazardous wastes. Further, officials found 230 abandoned cars, piles of garbage, scrap metals, broken concrete, rubber tires, auto parts and furniture.

The couple was also ruled to have rented substandard property in violation of building codes and engaged in unlawful building practices. The suit further alleged there were many examples of "illegal sewage disposal ranging from holes in the ground and illegal outhouses to illegally installed septic systems."

In 1996, law enforcement officials descended upon the property again. This time, it was to break up an illegal cockfight.

Eight suspects were given misdemeanor citations for being spectators at the fight and $2,000 in alleged betting money was confiscated. Deputies found one dead rooster, but said it may have been dead for days.

Napa County Animal Control officers checked more than 100 birds, and said five may have been involved in a recent fight. An unspecified number of razor-sharp spurs designed to be attached to the feet of fighting cocks were found.

"That (bust) was generated on the fact that the county had received numerous complaints about cockfighting," said American Canyon Police Chief Doug Koford, who was a sheriff's sergeant at the time.

Meanwhile, American Canyon was incorporated as a city. Plans for a city-owned wastewater treatment plant thrust the grove into the spotlight again.

The city took 58 acres of the grove through eminent domain, which gives jurisdictions the power to obtain land for the greater good of its residents. A jury determined in November of 2000 that the grove was worth $975,000, instead of the $616,000 the city offered.

"It was a wild, beautiful place," Patricia Couch said from the witness stand. "When I would walk down there I would feel that I was miles and miles and miles from civilization.

"I just thought the land would be in my family forever," she said.

But there was more trouble on the horizon.

In 2001, the grove was raided again. Officers confiscated 12 fighting roosters and spurs, and issued one citation for misdemeanor cockfighting.

The property was still a mess, eight years after the court-ordered clean-up. Dirt and garbage filled the grove, rats the size of small cats scurried through the property, and camper shells and makeshift wooden shelters cluttered the ground.

Police Chief Koford said it has been tough to clean up the grove since the property has always been in the county. "We were always at the mercy of (other agencies)," he added.

If the grove were in the city, Koford said an ordinance could have been drafted to prevent various activities on the property. Further, the city could enforce a 10-year-old ordinance that prohibits roosters within city limits.

Although the sale of the property has fallen through, there have been changes. Most of the roosters are gone. The garage doors are coming down. And the city is in the process of installing utilities on a city-owned access road that cuts through the property.

"You can see there is a change going on there," Koford said.

Roseann Keegan can be reached at 256-2220 or rlanglois@napanews.com