Countywide : Museum Exhibits El Camino Real Bells

Beginning today and continuing through October, the Ventura County Museum of History and Art will resound with the tintinnabulation of some very special bells.

On display will be samples of four generations of bells that since 1906 have designated the coastal route of El Camino Real, or King’s Highway, which connected California’s missions during the state’s Spanish period.

In an exhibit that museum librarian Charles Johnson called the first of its kind in the state, the museum will trace the history of El Camino Real and mark the 100th anniversary of the movement to preserve the historic highway.

The display reflects the research of Max Kurillo, a Ventura resident whose curiosity was piqued during a trip to Santa Barbara when he noticed the decorative roadside bells along the Ventura Freeway.

After discovering that facts about the commemorative bells were difficult to find, Kurillo devoted nearly two years to gathering available information about the bells from libraries across the state.

He published the results of his research, “Marking the Past,” in the current edition of the Ventura County Historical Society’s quarterly journal.

Kurillo learned that a grass-roots group founded in 1904 called the El Camino Real Assn. lobbied for public recognition of the road that Franciscan missionaries built in the late 18th Century.

The group supported the idea--first advanced by Anna Pitcher of Pasadena in 1892--of installing bells along the highway’s route. By 1906, the first of 450 bells, a 92-pound version made of brass alloy, was in place.

Johnson said the group’s choice of a bell was inspired by the missionary period.

“Bells were the way the padres called people to church, and they thought this would be a good way to draw attention to the road,” he said.

Museum staffers found samples of earlier bells in the collections of the Native Daughters of the Golden West and the Automobile Club of Southern California, two groups that took a special interest in the history of El Camino Real.

Ed Robings, the museum’s director, retrieved a brass alloy bell this week from the auto club’s Los Angeles headquarters, and he said the ride home was memorable.

“Every time the car went over a bump or turned a sharp corner, there was a humongous bong, “ said Robings.

A public reception will be held at the museum at 3 p.m. today to open the exhibit. The museum, at 100 E. Main St., Ventura, is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday; it is closed Mondays.