Rancho Owners Hope to Revive ‘Home of Ramona’

As the Old South’s gracious plantations were to “Gone With the Wind” and the covered bridges of Iowa were to “The Bridges of Madison County,” Rancho Camulos was to “Ramona.”

The 19th-century romantic novel’s setting was so compelling that its readers wanted more--so they packed their bags and hopped the train to Piru.

Now the owners of Camulos, an early California ranch used as a setting in the book, want to revive interest in their family home and its literary past through the creation of an interpretive museum. But first they must rebuild the rancho, which was severely damaged during the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

Rancho Camulos was an example of cultural tourism long before the 1990s buzz term was invented to describe the marketing of history and heritage as tourist destinations.

The epic romance, written by Helen Hunt Jackson and published in 1884, sparked interest in California’s Hispanic past and in the plight of Indians in the state through the love story of Ramona and her Indian hero, Alessandro. The Piru site served as Jackson’s inspiration for the fictional rancho where the two lovers meet.

Public interest in “Ramona” was so great at the turn of the century that an entire industry sprang up in Southern California. Visitors flocked to Camulos and other ranchos. Five film versions of the novel were made, with the first shot in Piru and at Camulos in 1910.

Many Southern California communities lay claim to a Ramona connection: from the San Diego County town bearing that name to the Riverside County city of Hemet, where an annual outdoor pageant has dramatized the story for 76 years.

“Ramona is a perfect example of cultural tourism as we look at it today,” said Phil Brigandi, historian for the Hemet pageant. “There’s that fascination with other places, other people and other times.

“Camulos is really the first and most famous landmark in Ramonaland,” he added.

Jackson included the romance as “sugar-coating,” hoping to arouse public interest and, she hoped, anger over the plight of the Indians, Brigandi said.

“This is a book about the clash of three different cultures in Southern California and what happens when one begins to dominate the others,” he said.

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Anne Reinders, whose family has owned Camulos since 1924, said she has been amazed at how interest in the 114-year-old novel has endured.

“There’s just a romantic notion that people get in their heads and they fall in love with that story, and it’s always been that way,” Reinders said. “They’ve just got this image in their minds of what living in California would be like, and it was completely embodied in that story.”

Reinders and Brigandi will be among Ramona experts brought together by the Ventura County Museum of History and Art for a daylong symposium today on the novel and Camulos’ role in it. The workshop begins at 9 a.m. at Ventura City Hall. Information is available from the museum at 653-0323.

The symposium coincides with an exhibit, “Rancho Camulos and the ‘Home of Ramona,’ ” that opened Friday at the museum and features objects and vintage photographs from Camulos and material related to the book.

Camulos is one of the inspirations for the setting of “Ramona.” But, like any novel, it’s a mosaic of events and places, Brigandi said. Jackson spent only two hours there in 1882.

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In real life, Camulos sat at the western end of the del Valle family’s 48,000 acres. In 1871, the rancho produced 15,000 gallons of wine and brandy per year, capitalizing on its ties to the novel by bottling under the Home of Ramona label. Today the ranch grows mostly lemons and oranges, though the winery still stands.

As a museum, Reinders said, Camulos will serve as the anchor for the Piru end of Heritage Valley, a geographic identity for Santa Paula, Fillmore and Piru that was created to promote tourism in those areas.

In all, Rancho Camulos consists of 1,800 acres. Forty of those acres and the buildings on them have been marked off for the museum, including the 11,000-square-foot main adobe, chapel, schoolhouse, winery and barn. Plans are in the works to run the Fillmore & Western Railroad to the ranch.

About $1 million has been spent to reinforce the ranch’s buildings and restore the main adobe’s facade. Reinders said the rest of the project is in “fiscal limbo.” She hopes to receive more federal disaster relief money and other grants.

An Oct. 17 fund-raiser at Camulos will feature actors from the Hemet pageant performing vignettes while guests dine on California food under the rancho’s enormous walnut tree.

Reinders said she hopes the museum will open fully within a year. “We do try as best we can to give people tours if they call ahead and make an appointment.”

The museum is likely to include a re-creation of the Ramona-era lifestyle in the buildings and through farming exhibits.

“As many ways as we can use it, we’ll do it that way,” she said.

Reinders said she receives numerous calls from people interested in seeing the rancho, especially fourth-grade teachers whose students are learning about California history.

When the museum opens, Rancho Camulos may again become the destination for Ramona fans who yearn for more than just an imaginary image of what they have read.

“It’s coming back to life,” Reinders said. “It’s a little warp in time.”