Rancho Camulos | |
 A view of Rancho Camulos from the northwest. | |
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 Interactive map showing the location of Rancho Camulos | |
| Location | 5164 East Telegraph Road,Piru, California |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 34°24′24″N118°45′24″W / 34.40667°N 118.75667°W /34.40667; -118.75667 |
| Built | 1853 |
| Architectural style | Spanish Colonial Mission Revival Spanish Colonial Revival |
| NRHP reference No. | 96001137 |
| CHISL No. | 553 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | November 1, 1996[2] |
| Designated NHL | February 16, 2000[1] |
| Designated CHISL | 1956[3] |
Rancho Camulos, now known asRancho Camulos Museum, is aranch located in theSanta Clara River Valley 2.2 miles (3.5 km) east ofPiru, California, and just north of theSanta Clara River, inVentura County, California.[4] It was the home ofYgnacio del Valle, a Californioalcalde of thePueblo de Los Angeles in the 19th century and later elected member of theCalifornia State Assembly. The ranch was known as theHome of Ramona because it was widely believed to have been the setting of the popular 1884 novelRamona byHelen Hunt Jackson. The novel helped to raise awareness about theCalifornio lifestyle and romanticized "the mission and rancho era ofCalifornia history."[1]
The 1,800-acre (7 km2) working ranch is a prime example of an earlyCalifornia rancho in its original rural setting. It was the source of the first commercially grownoranges inVentura County.[5] It is one of the few remainingcitrus growers inSouthern California.
State Route 126 bisects the property, with most of the main buildings located south of the highway, and a few buildings on the north. The mainadobe is one of the few extantSpanish Colonial buildings left in the state. Most of the other buildings are done inMission Revival orSpanish Colonial Revival styles, both of which are derivatives of the original.
Rancho Camulos is designated aNational Historic Landmark, listed on theNational Register of Historic Places, and has also been designated as aCalifornia Historical Landmark. Many of the buildings and grounds are open to the public as amuseum of this period in California history.
In 1769, the SpanishPortola expedition, the first Europeans known to see inland areas of California, traveled downriver by boat and camped by the Santa Clara River on August 10. Their exact location is unknown but this area was later included in the territory of Rancho Camulos. FrayJuan Crespi, a Franciscan missionary traveling with the expedition, named the valleyCañada de Santa Clara.[6]
The indigenousTataviam people had a village here namedKamulus (meaning "juniper".[7]) The area was used as early as 1804 byMission San Fernando Rey de España for growing crops and as a grazing area for livestock. The population of this relatively isolated area (only traversed by theEl Camino Real), as recorded byWilliam Edward Petty Hartnell during his inspection of the mission in 1839, was 416.[8] It was included in the 48,612-acre (197 km2)Rancho San Francisco granted to Del Valle's father, Antonio del Valle, administrator of Mission San Fernando, by GovernorJuan B. Alvarado on January 22, 1839, after the secularization of themissions.[9]
After Antonio's death in 1841, his son Ygnacio inheritedRancho San Francisco. This action was challenged in court by his father's second wife. Nevertheless, by 1853 Del Valle constructed a four-roomadobe house and acorral at Camulos. By 1857, the land title dispute was settled. Ygnacio got the western portion and the remainder was split among Antonio's children and his second wife. Del Valle bought back some of the other portions from his family, as well as the neighboringRancho Temescal to the north, and beganlivestock operations on the expanded area.
The younger Del Valle and his family did not live on the ranch initially, instead settling in a house on what is nowOlvera Street in Los Angeles. The Del Valle family did not move back to Camulos, which he had expanded, until 1861. During this time, the ranch was overseen by José Antonio Salazar, Del Valle'smajordomo. Although the rancho was associated withRamona andMexican California, the house was not constructed until after the United States acquired the territory and California was admitted as a state. The Del Valle family never lived there under Mexican rule.[8]
In the 1860s, adrought forced Del Valle to sell off much of his land, but he retained Camulos and prospered there.[5] By the time of his death in 1880, he had expanded the house to twenty rooms, and the compound had become a self-sustaining ranch, complete with a brickwinery,chapel,barn and workers' housing. Records indicate that in 1870 the ranch was largestvintner in the area.[5] Astagecoach line opened in 1874 and in 1887,Southern Pacific ran a rail line past the ranch, including a depot at Camulos, ending the ranch's isolation.[8]
In 1908, the Del Valle Company wasincorporated by Ygnacio's children, but by 1924, they had sold the property to August Rübel, a native ofZürich,Switzerland. Upon its sale, theLos Angeles Times lamented that:
An era in the history of California closed yesterday. The Del Valles of Camulos bade farewell to the homestead where they have lived in successive generations since Antonio del Valle. It was the passing of the old regime. They are said to be the last of the old Spanish families who held in unbroken succession to the ancestral acres. –Los Angeles Times, August 11, 1924[8]
Rübel continued operating the ranch in the same manner as the Del Valles, employing many of same workers. He had served in theAmerican Field Service duringWorld War I and whenWorld War II broke out, he volunteered for active duty again. He died while serving inTunisia in 1943. After his death, his widow Mary married a man named Edwin Burger, who was not as interested in maintaining the rancho. After Mary's death in 1968, Burger closed the ranch entirely. The buildings and grounds were left untended for years. Rübel's heirs regained control of the property after the1994 Northridge earthquake, which had damaged a number of buildings on the rancho.[8]
The Rübel family restored commercial citrus production and set about repairing the earthquake damage. They successfully lobbied to have Camulos listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. In 2000, it was further designated a National Historic Landmark.[1][10] Although the main house was restored in 1996, funding was not available to restore the smaller buildings until 2006, with construction completed in spring 2007.[11] The rancho is onState Route 126, but little is visible from the highway.
The driveway/parking lot and grounds immediate to the highway were used as a filming location for the 1970 science-fiction television movieThe Love War.
Del Valle acquired his firstValencia orange seedlings in 1857 from his friendWilliam Wolfskill. The fruit from these trees was the first to be commercially grown in what is now Ventura County, although this was relatively small scale because the crops had to be taken by wagon to Los Angeles. A Southern Pacific line opened in 1876 seventeen miles (27 km) to the east inSaugus, providing a more convenient form of transport.[8]
However, the primary agricultural product from Rancho Camulos waswine. Ninety acres (360,000 m²) ofvineyards were planted in the 1860s and Camulos wines andbrandies were known throughout Los Angeles andSanta Barbara.[8] In 1870, records indicate Camulos was largest of the four vintners in the San Buenaventura Township ofSanta Barbara County, with 45 tons (40,900 kg) of grapes grown, making 6,000 US gallons (23,000 L) of wine and 800 US gallons (3,000 L) of brandy.[8] In addition to oranges and grapes, the ranch producedalmonds,walnuts,apricots,wheat,corn andbarley. Flower petals from roses grown at Camulos were shipped to Europe to makeperfume.[12]
Over the years, the vineyards were replaced by other fruits. Today, about 600 acres (2.4 km2) are under cultivation, most of it oranges, butlemons,grapefruit, andavocados are grown too. This makes Camulos a rare instance of a surviving citrus operation. During the years 1920–45, the citrus industry underwent a period of great growth. In contrast to the natural desert-like conditions of the area, photographs of "citrus belts" were publicized that helped establish the image of Southern California for the nation as an idyllic farmland.[13] After World War II, urban and suburban development displaced much of the Southern California citrus production,[14] with the notable exception of the Santa Clara River Valley.[15]
Ramona, published in 1884, was based in part on experiences thatHelen Hunt Jackson had had during her visit to Rancho Camulos in 1882. Jackson spent only two hours on the ranch and did not meetYsabel del Valle, but she had a keen eye for details and used many of her observations in the novel. For example, the altar cloth in the rancho's chapel had a small tear in it which had been mended. In the novel, the character Margarita accidentally tears the altar cloth, and Ramona sews it back together.[16] The book became extremely popular and inspired a great deal of tourism,[7] which was stimulated by the improved access possible due to the opening ofSouthern Pacific railroad lines in Southern California.[17]
With all of the interest generated by the book, a number of communities declared that they were the setting for the novel in order to cash in on the boom, most notablyRancho Guajome inSan Diego County, which Jackson had also visited prior to writing her book.[18] However, the location of the fictional Moreno Ranch, "midway in the valley [between lands] to the east and west, which had once belonged to the Missions of San Fernando and San Bonaventura [sic]"[19] corresponds to the location of Rancho Camulos, and the physical description of some of the buildings on the fictional ranch accurately describe buildings at Camulos.[17] On the other hand, relative to the other locations in the novel (Ramona's having been married inSan Diego and Alessandro's family being from theTemecula area), Camulos seems too distant to be the real location.[20] Jackson died in 1885, never having publicly disclosed what locations she drew from for the book. Historians today are unsure whether Moreno Ranch represented a historic site.[21]
By 1886, many readers and observers already considered Camulos to be the setting of the novel. Edward Roberts published an article entitled, "Ramona's Home: A Visit to the Camulos Ranch, and to the Scenes Described by 'H.H.'" in the May 13, 1886 edition of theSan Francisco Chronicle. Significantly, he was one of the first to publish an account that blended fact and fiction. The inclusion of his article as anappendix to later versions of the novel only served to cement that association.[16]
The first book solely devoted toRamona and the ranch was published in 1888 byCharles Fletcher Lummis, a close friend of the Del Valles[17] and an admirer of their daughter, the teenage Susana Carmen (nicknamed "Susanita") del Valle.[7] Lummis took photographs of the buildings and published them in his own book,Home of Ramona: Photographs of Camulos, the Fine Old Spanish Estate Described by Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson as the Home of "Ramona".[18] He emphasized that the Del Valles were nothing like the fictional Morenos, who treated Ramona poorly, but he too would mix fact with fiction. For instance, he wrote, "[theveranda] is about a hundred feet in length and runs from the door of Father Salvierderra's room to that of Ramona's room."[22]
Lummis's goal was to discourage the novel's association with other properties. For the same purpose,Adam Clark Vroman'sRamona Illustrated: The Genesis of the Story of Ramona compared photographs of the rancho's buildings and environs with text from the novel, as well as photographs from competing locations. By 1909,George Wharton James could confidently declare that Camulos was the "avowed and accepted home of the heroine".[23]
Despite the lack of easy access to the ranch and any lodging in the area, tourists flocked to this site.[24] The 1887 completion of the Southern Pacific line increased the number of visitors, as the railroad featured the ranch in its advertisements in order to distinguish the line from its competitors. Although the ranch was not developed for tourism, the Del Valles, with their Californio sense of hospitality, would lodge the visitors. By October 1888, housing visitors was getting to be so expensive for the family thatReginaldo del Valle pressed his mother to stop being so hospitable.[25] The tourists could be quite a nuisance, and visitors would steal items from the house as souvenirs, or help themselves to fruit from the orchards.[26]
The name Camulos became so tied to the novel that many people began to use it instead of the original "Moreno Ranch" when referring to the novel. An 1897 play based on the book was called, "Ramona, or the Bells of Camulos". In Virginia Calhoun's 1905 stage adaptation, characters in the play called the ranch Camulos as well.[27]
D. W. Griffith shot portions of his1910 silent film adaptation at the rancho, using the chapel, the adobe and patio, and the nearby mountains as backdrops. Paintings and photographs of the rancho by noted artists such as Adam Clark Vroman,Henry Sandham (who had accompanied Jackson on her initial tour[28]),Henry Chapman Ford, andAlexander Harmer also illustrated later versions of the novel.
Although tourism brought much difficulty to the Del Valles, they capitalized upon their newfound fame,branding their wine and oranges as the "Home of Ramona Brand".[7] Their label used the same view of the veranda that had been popularized in postcards. One Tataviam servant girl was said to make quite a bit of money by pretending to be the "real Ramona" and charging tourists for a photograph.[29]
Tourists continued to arrive even after the SP relocated its main line in 1903 through theSanta Susana Pass, bypassing Camulos. Two daily trains made stops at Camulos until the service was discontinued in the 1940s, with tourism by automobile having become the preferred method of travel. After the Rübels took ownership in 1924, they continued to welcome visitors in small numbers, converting the second floor of the winery into a small museum with artifacts from the Del Valle family. The rancho hosts an annual "Ramona Days" festival in October.
Fifteen buildings are open to the public as part of the Rancho Camulos Museum, all of which were built before 1930 and are still in their original locations. They were built mostly inSpanish Colonial or Mission Revival styles (the latter is derived from the former). Later buildings were designed in differingarchitectural styles, more representative of their period of construction.Landscaping features, such aslawns, flower gardens, ornamental trees, and walkways, separate the residential areas from the working portions of the ranch.
The main adobe, also called the Ygnacio del Valle adobe, is a 10,000-square foot (929 m²), twenty-room, U-shaped structure. When initially constructed in 1853, it was an L-shaped four-room house connected with an externalcorredor (as opposed to an interiorhallway), as is typical of the Spanish Colonial style. It is unusual for its time period because around this time, theMonterey style was in vogue, as is evidenced by contemporaneous buildings in Santa Barbara.[8]Los Alamos Ranch House in Santa Barbara County, andRancho Guajome Adobe andLas Flores Adobe in San Diego County, all National Historic Landmarks, are built in a similar style.
The house expanded in several phases. In 1861, before the Del Valle family moved here permanently, they added three additional rooms as well as a free-standingcocina (kitchen). This was to keep fire away from the main building, as well as to keep it cooler. A basement was dug out as the foundation of the new rooms. In the 1870s, another wing was added perpendicular to the 1861 addition. Finally, some time after 1895, one more room was added to the new wing, as well as abreezeway to the kitchen, completing the current shape. Remodeling completed after this time was to the interior only.[13]
The basement of the house initially served as thewine storage area. In 1867, the family had a one-and-a-half-storybrick winery constructed. After 1900, when wine grapes were no longer grown commercially, this building served as a storage room. Rübel later converted it to a museum forRamona visitors, complete with Del Valle family artifacts.[13] In the 21st century it is used for storage of farm equipment and automobiles.
To the west of the main house is a largeCalifornia Black Walnut(Juglans californica) tree that was most likely planted by Juventino del Valle in the 1860s. It measures 25 feet (7.6 m) in circumference and its branches spread out almost half an acre (2,000 m²). It is believed to be the largest Black Walnut tree in the area.[5]
The woodenchapel was constructed around 1867, replacing a makeshift chapel that had been set up in 1861. After the secularization of themissions, this chapel became known as the "lost mission",[7] the only place of worship between Mission San Fernando andMission San Buenaventura. Directly to the northwest of the chapel is a bell structure. It originally contained three bells on a freestanding frame, which were used to call worshipers toMass. The largest and a second, slightly smaller bell were cast atKodiak, Alaska. The smaller one had previously been used at Mission San Fernando and may have been relocated to Camulos by Antonio del Valle when he was administrator at San Fernando. The third, and smallest bell, is missing.[13]
The exact dates of construction of the barn, gas station, and bunkhouse are unknown, but theAmerican Craftsman style of architecture indicates it was between 1910 and 1916, when this was popular.[13] The barn is located to the northwest of the living quarters, in the main work area. The gas station and bunkhouse are not depicted on the map.
The small adobe, next to the highway, was built by Nachito del Valle. ThisSpanish Colonial Revival house was constructed around 1920. It was damaged severely in the 1994 earthquake. Since its reconstruction, it has served as the museum's visitor center.[30]
The schoolhouse, constructed in 1930, was the last structure to be built on the property. It was built by Rübel for his and his bookkeeper's families and designed to match the main adobe.[13]
Few buildings are left on the north side of the highway. The most notable are the wooden Southern Pacificsaltbox-style section house and workers' bunkhouse, both built in 1887. Atrain depot andpost office both stood in this area, but have been torn down.[a] Three extant farmworkers'bungalows, built by the Del Valle family in 1916, are located west of the section house.[13]
citrus production southern california world war ii.
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| Footnotes | ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties | |
