Tracing a Transition

Once upon a time, Simi Valley was endless acres of gently rolling hills and cultivated farmland. But more than a century ago, the owners decided to change things. Today, the rural scenario has been replaced by a city that’s home to more than 110,000 folks.

The events that turned Simi Valley into suburbia are depicted by a number of entertaining exhibits at the Strathearn Historical Park & Museum.

With the assistance of local families, the museum opened in 1969--the same year the city of Simi Valley was incorporated. The entire 5.9-acre site, designated State Historical Landmark No. 579, is dotted with large trees, including California peppers.

The visitors center is surrounded by morea, lavender and salvia. Inside is a wealth of artifacts, including photos, turn-of-the-century contrivances and remains of some of the locals from 30 million years ago--the rhinos and tortoises. The rocky hillsides that surround the area and extend south to Chatsworth have been below sea level many times and are thought to be about 80 million years old.

There are lots of photos of the good ol’ days of dirt roads and a few wood-frame stores that made up the commercial area. A 1914 shot shows Los Angeles Avenue and Tapo Street running through infinite farmland, proving that once a road is in place, progress--or whatever one chooses to call it--is not far behind.

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On the wall are several examples of colorful citrus-box labels, including the Native Daughter brand and the Simi brand. The latter label depicts an endless vista of farmland under cultivation.

Most of Strathearn Historical Park is dedicated to recalling the agricultural past of Simi Valley, when apricots and sugar beets were two of the main crops. Much of the museum property is dotted with rusty farm equipment, ugly heavy metal to be sure, yet fascinating items with such exotic names as gang plow, gang disk, spiked harrow and hay raker.

A beat-up freight wagon and a bean planter also show the effects of having sat outside for years.

One of the barns holds a wagon exhibit, including a wooden tank wagon and a smudge oil tank wagon from the days when lighted smudge pots belched out black smoke in the orchards to ward off the effects of frost. The Wood Ranch Exhibit Hall is a large sheet-metal structure that houses a Chumash room and a number of vehicles, including old trucks and more wagons.

Near the barns is one of several rustic wooden houses, with a “pioneer memory garden” that includes roses, rosemary, cupea, statice, alyssum, dianthus and lobelia. Near the house is another wood structure, the community’s original library.

Yet another well-preserved old wood structure is the so-called Colony Home, which was moved from Ashland Avenue and 2nd Street in 1970 and is a story in itself.

The Simi Land & Water Co. was formed in 1887 by local pioneer Thomas Bard and others to create the area’s first subdivision. Some promotional license was taken: Ads published in the Midwest reportedly showed boaters and fishermen living it up on the Simi River, despite the fact that the creek was dry most of the year.

The campaign succeeded. A group of Chicago doctors pooled their money and decided to build a health resort on the banks of the Simi River, believing it was a real river. They paid to have a dozen partly assembled houses sent to Saticoy by rail and ultimately taken by wagon to the newly christened Simiopolis. The two homes that survive are known as Colony Homes.

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Not far from the Colony Home sits a big rock with an inscription identifying the site as the headquarters of El Rancho Simi, c. 1795. The name Simi was taken from Shimiji, a Chumash village that once existed nearby. At 113,000 acres, the Spanish Rancho San Jose de Nuestra Senora de Altagracia y Simi was one of the largest land grants in California.

The site’s namesakes were Robert Strathearn and his wife, Mary, who had four sons and three daughters. The home of this pioneer family still stands, and the back two rooms were part of the original Rancho Simi Adobe. A separate gift shop stands nearby.

Not surprisingly, the museum is quieter during the week than on weekends, said docent Marie C. Bauer.

“It varies here,” Bauer said. “It depends on the school groups--we get a lot of third- and fourth-graders, plus a lot of different church groups and other organizations use the facilities. We also get a lot of elderly visitors. . . . Some will say things like ‘My grandmother used to have something like this.’ This is a place where you can learn about our local history from the Chumash to the Reagan Library.”

DETAILS

Strathearn Historical Park & Museum, 137 Strathearn Place, Simi Valley. Tours: Saturday and Sunday, 1 to 4 p.m., or Wednesday at 1 p.m.; free; 526-6453.

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Bill Locey can be reached by e-mail at blocey@pacbell.net.