Despite Growth, Ramona Clings to Small-Town Ways

Where exactly is Ramona? The pamphlet from the Chamber of Commerce puts it this way: “Below the snow line, above the smog line, in the Valley of the Sun.”

To get to it, take California 67 North, away from the clutter and traffic jams of city life and into a community of feed stores and specialty shops for guns, knives and belt buckles.

Ramona is a small town that is starting to become a big one. Mary Kay Pinkard of the Chamber of Commerce is responsible for taking the census, and she figured out quite a while ago that it doesn’t pay to put exact numbers on population signs. They are too quickly outdated. In 1978, when the population was 12,000, she had the signs marked at 12,600 to allow for the rapid growth.

“I didn’t want to have to do it again the very next day,” said Pinkard, who was born in Ramona in 1918 and has lived there all her life.

Since 1978, the population of Ramona has almost tripled, to 35,000. With three elementary schools, a junior high and a high school, it is the fastest-growing unincorporated town in San Diego County, said Eunice Tanjuaquio of the San Diego Assn. of Governments. The school district had to hire 20 new teachers on the first day of classes last fall because of the unexpected number of new students. With the continued improvements in road conditions on California 67, Ramona has become a fairly simple commute from San Diego.

“Ramona used to be a very, very tough place to get to,” said Charles Le Manager, author of a recently released book titled “Ramona and Round About” and a former state director of Housing and Community Development (1967-70). “You would get behind a truck in Lakeside and you’d stay there until you got to Ramona. It was terrible. Whenever you improve the road, that just invites more people to come up.”

Le Manager is partially responsible for the rapid growth. In 1970, after he resigned from his position with the state, he helped plan Ramona’s San Diego Country Estates, a 3,250-acre housing development approved for 3,456 units. The project was approved in 1971, and the first houses, all custom built, were sold in 1972. According to Le Manager, sales were slow until the mid-1980s, and the project is now 80% full.

Ramona was founded in 1886 by land speculator Milton Santee and named after a novel by Helen Hunt Jackson about relations between Mexicans and Indians. At that time, Ramona’s 700 acres were inhabited by about 500 people. Santee sold 2 acres of land for $100 to Amos J. Verlaque, who built the town’s first store and post office.

Since its early days, Ramona’s biggest industry has been chicken and turkey farming. Eggs for breeding were distributed widely around the United States until 1959, when bigger companies cornered the market. Today, there are still four chicken ranches, each with about 450,000 laying hens, as well as rabbit and cattle ranches.

Ramona once was a popular spot for dairy ranches, but, because of rising land prices, only three remain. It was also once known for its rich honey, produced from a host of apiaries and sold as far away as Belgium.

Avocado orchards are sprinkled throughout Ramona and the rest of the valley, but freezes during the past three seasons have destroyed harvests and longtime growers have been forced to switch to other sources of income. Dave Galusha, a grower since 1972, cut his crop from 500 to 100 acres after a freeze in January, 1987.

“With these freezes hitting back to back, it takes a couple of years to recover,” said Galusha, who now teaches school part time. “Meanwhile, the cost of water is skyrocketing.”

Despite the hardships, growers have kept their sense of humor and formed an organization called Avocados Anonymous.

“If you take a notion of planting another avocado tree, you’re supposed to call up another member,” Galusha said. “They’ll come over and drink with you until the notion passes.”

Included among Ramona’s attractions is the Guy B. Woodward Museum, just off Main Street in the Verlaque House, built in 1886 by a Frenchman named Theophile Verlaque, Amos’ father. The Verlaque House was converted to the museum in 1985, complete with rooms decorated in the style of early Ramona homes.

Ramona is perhaps best known for Fred Grand Arena, home of the annual Ramona Rodeo/Casey Tibbs Roundup, which attracts top-ranked riders from around the country. Tibbs, a two-time world champion and longtime resident of Ramona, died of cancer Jan. 28. He founded Ramona’s first bronco riding school, where Steve Ford, son of former President Gerald Ford, was once a student. Fred Grand Arena is also the site of Ramona’s dog and horse shows and the Ramona Country Fair.

Other recreational activities with a distinct Ramona flavor are fishing--there are seven lakes within half an hour’s drive--archery, and horse auctions held every Friday and Saturday night at the Auction Barn.

Listed in several magazines as one of the country’s best places to retire, Ramona has only a handful of tract homes. Houses are primarily ranch style, built with a wood frame and stucco. Prices range from about $125,000 to $350,000. Houses surrounded by an acre or more of land and set up with horse stables are commonly priced from $180,000 to $230,000.

RAMONA

Population Total (1989 est.): 35,000 Averge household size: 3.1 Median age: 30.5

Income distribution: Less than %25,000: 32.9% $25,000-$49,999: 40.8% %50,000+ : 26.2%

Sex: Female: 50.0% Male: 50.0%

Median household income: $34,015

Racial/ethnic mix: White: 82.4% Latino: 13.2% Asian: 4.1% Black: less than 1%

Education: No high school diploma: 22.6% High school diploma: 39.5 Some college: 23% College graduate: 14.9%