PLEASANT VALLEY MUSEUM : Show and Tell : Visitors hear about history while looking at artifacts such as an old washing machine and a miniature of a church.

In the old days, there was a bunch of antique tools displayed in a corner of Fulkerson’s Hardware Store in Somis.

But, as other collectors have found, such hoards tend to take on a life of their own.

Ranchers, Jack Fulkerson says, would stop by the store and say, “Well, Jack, you like this old stuff, I’ll look around the barn and see what I’ve got for you.”

They bestowed on the store owner tools, furniture, tack, a hand-operated corn planter, an early toaster, all manner of stuff. Today, all of it has a permanent home in the Pleasant Valley Historical Museum in Camarillo.

It was the Pleasant Valley Historical Society that set out to find an affordable building to exhibit the treasures. By then, other members had become custodians of gifts.

“There was stuff scattered all over,” said Fulkerson, a founding member.

Much of it was housed at the home of Tweedie Rouce, Adolfo Camarillo’s daughter-in-law, and an enthusiastic member of the society.

“Widows breaking up housekeeping would bring their stuff to Tweedy,” Fulkerson remembered. “Unfortunately, Tweedy never put down who gave her anything.”

The society figured out the era of the artifacts and their donors when possible, and opened the exhibit in 1988. Now, they could use a space four times as large as the onetime developer’s office that the museum occupies. And the goods continue to come in.

Trying to get the history of Pleasant Valley into one room is not easy. The museum has managed to give coverage to the Chumash culture, the Spanish rancho era and its heritage of pioneer farming.

One of the finest exhibits of the early days is a replica of a Baptist Church in what was then Springville near what is now Camarillo. The work was hand carved from the original church’s wooden door by Wendell P. Daily, grandfather of Camarillo’s present mayor, Stanley Daily. It is complete down to lifelike worshipers and the coins in a collection plate.

A more mundane artifact is a restored turn-of-the-century wooden washing machine rescued from a onetime Ventura dump by a man who knew of Fulkerson’s longing for such things.

Fulkerson demonstrated the relic’s hand crank agitator and a gnarled rubber wringer, and produced a 1902 Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalogue that offered an identical machine for a moderate $2.75.

“Of course, that was without the wringer. It was an attachment,” he said emphatically.

Visitors to the museum who draw Fulkerson as a docent--usually larger groups--get a bonus with the tour. The lifelong Somis resident throws in stories of his grandfather’s time--two-day wagon trips to haul barley harvests from Simi Valley to Port Hueneme--along with tales of Juan Cabrillo and Father Serra.

When he turns to an exhibit of ranching souvenirs and honors from the late Joel McCrea’s estate, he adds a personal note:

“I knew Joel for 50 years. He was a true working cowboy--that cattle ranch was his life. As soon as he finished with a movie, he was right back out there at the ranch. He was one of the nicest men anybody could ever meet.”

Leaving the museum, one finds a surprising outdoor exhibit. Fulkerson recounted a more recent piece of history--that of an acre of dusty tumbleweeds that came with the building lease. They were vanquished by volunteers, and in their place is a handsome landscaping project.

Hundreds of specimen plants are growing in a huge garden complete with a curving creek bed and decorated with American Indian bowls. A rustic wooden wagon from the Adolfo Camarillo ranch gives a sense of history to the 2-year-old project.

The overhaul has been a joint effort of the society, the Pleasant Valley Garden Club and the Seabees, who did the initial ground sculpting, Fulkerson said.

Walking a curving path, visitors quickly pass from a wildflower meadow to an oak woodland, enter an area of desert, then chaparral, then a miniature redwood forest. They see sage and ceanothus, palo verde, Matilija poppy, woolly blue curl and penstamon.

Every plant is a California native. Many are not found in local nurseries, so volunteers have scoured from the San Fernando Valley to Santa Barbara for specimens.

The plan is not only to offer a pleasant walk, but to be a resource for home gardeners. Eventually, visitors will be able to see mature plants, which they can picture in their own yards, get growing tips and learn where to buy seedlings.

The landscaping is three-quarters complete, Fulkerson explained, but gardeners will have to be patient. Labeling and resource data haven’t been worked out yet. The society is waiting for more volunteers.

* WHERE AND WHEN

The Pleasant Valley Historical Museum, 720 Las Posas Road, Camarillo. Museum is open 1 to 4 p.m. weekends. Or tours for 10 or more may be arranged. Admission free. Donations are accepted. For information, or to book a tour, call 482-3660.