Rancho Camulos Named a Historic Landmark

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt created Ventura County’s first National Historic Landmark on Thursday by awarding the designation to Rancho Camulos, an early California hacienda that inspired the setting for the 19th century novel “Ramona.”

The designation, which comes after a six-year campaign by local politicians and preservationists, makes the rancho eligible for additional federal funds, which are needed for a restoration project.

“Ramona,” Helen Hunt Jackson’s epic romance published in 1897, captured the essence of the rancho lifestyle and sparked a tourist craze that lured thousands of people to Southern California at the turn of the last century.

The privately held farm has been long associated with “Ramona,” but until recently it has competed with other sites in California as the original setting for the once enormously popular novel.

The issue was apparently put to rest by a historian in 1998, and that prompted local officials to step up their campaign for acquiring the landmark status.

“We knew it qualified, “ said county Supervisor Kathy Long. “We have the documentation that clearly shows [Jackson] was at the rancho.”

With its new federal designation, officials will be able to attract the funding necessary to complete the restoration of Rancho Camulos, which was severely damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The rancho, located along a portion of the historic El Camino Real just east of Piru, has since been open to the public only on a limited basis.

Long said that once the farm’s rehabilitation is complete, it will reopen as a tourist destination.

County officials and the owners of the farm would like to transform the site into a living museum to serve as the anchor for Heritage Valley--a marketing name for the cities of Santa Paula, Fillmore and Piru that was created to promote tourism.

“This is the crown jewel of the Heritage Valley,” Long said. “And now with this historical status, we will be able to complete the restoration and it will become a true tourist stop.”

Babbitt’s designation is a first for the county, Long said. Only 2,200 sites across the country are so designated. The farm had previously been on the National Register of Historic Places, a less prestigious designation that belongs to some 67,000 U.S. locations.

The 1,800-acre farm grows lemons and oranges. About 40 of those acres and the buildings on them would be set aside for the museum, including the 11,000-square-foot main adobe, chapel, schoolhouse, winery and barn.

Jackson’s tale of an ill-fated affair between a young Spanish girl and her Indian lover remains popular. It is still in circulation and continues to sell. Five film versions of the novel have been made, and the story is dramatized in an annual outdoor festival in city of Hemet in Riverside County.