Ojai

By Richard Hoye, Jane McLenahan, Tom Moore and Ojai Valley Museum

A resort community surrounded by mountains, Ojai is the gateway to Los Padres National Forest, the Sespe Creek Valley, and Lake Casitas Recreational Area. The setting offers inspiring views of and from Chief Peak and the majestic Topa Topa bluffs. The sleepy, spa reputation of Ojai (pronounced Oh-hi) belies one of the busier civic schedules of any California community its size. This corner of Ventura County is home of the world-renowned Ojai Music Festival and the century-old Ojai Tennis Tournament, as well as a concentration of top-quality boarding schools. It's a meeting and greeting place known for its painters, sculptors, photographers, musicians, and filmmakers. The valley also welcomed the New Age when it was still very new--as many of the area's denizens are committed to the well-being of body, mind, and soul--and has been favored through the years by such resident spiritual leaders as the philosopher Krishnamurti.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Sep 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781439635919

Richard Hoye

Author Richard Hoye has been the Ojai Valley Museum’s principal researcher since 1997. Coauthor Jane McClenahan has been its executive director since 2002. Coauthor Tom Moore pored through the museum’s large photographic collection to help arrange this tour through the valley’s historic past. The Ojai Valley Museum exhibits history and natural history, and features a Chumash interpretive garden, local and regional art, and traveling exhibits.

Book preview

Fry.

INTRODUCTION

The beautiful Ojai Valley is located in the mountains of the central coast of California about 17 miles inland from the city of Ventura, the county seat. The ranges that ring the valley rise to an elevation of around 6,000 feet, with the looming Topa Topa Bluffs overlooking the valley in the east. From time immemorial, this was the realm of the giant California condors, which have wingspans of more than 9 feet. Grizzly bears and mountain lions prowled the valley floor, and steelhead trout swam the Ventura River as it flowed on its way through the valley to the sea.

Native Americans, a people we now call the Chumash, lived in settlements scattered around both the lower and upper Ojai Valleys. One principal village was named Ojai, which is understood to mean the moon.

The spiritual and military authority of Spain spread across the valley when Franciscan missionary Fr. Junipero Serra founded Mission San Buenaventura in 1782 and a presidio was established at Santa Barbara. During the Spanish period, the Chumash people from the valley converted to Christianity and became part of the mission population. Sheep grazed in the valley under the watchful eyes of shepherds guarding against wild predators.

Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821, and Mexican governor Juan Alvarado granted Rancho Ojai to Fernando Tico in 1837. Almost at the same time, the governor granted Rancho Santa Ana to Crisogono Ayala and Cosme Vanegas. Rancho Ojai is located on the east side of the Ventura River, while Rancho Santa Ana lies on the west side of the river (where the man-made Lake Casitas is now). The Mexican rancheros built adobe dwellings at a number of sites in the valley.

The accession of California by the United States in 1848 ended the Mexican period, and both Rancho Ojai and Rancho Santa Ana were bought and sold several times. Juan Camarillo (for whom the city of Camarillo is named) owned Rancho Ojai from 1856 to 1864. The California Petroleum Company obtained ownership of the ranch toward the end of the American Civil War. The firm’s agent, a young Thomas Bard, was sent to explore for oil on the ranch.

Thomas Bard put down wells from Rancho Ojai’s western to eastern limits. All failed except for the last one, drilled in the upper Santa Paula Canyon. It was reportedly the first gusher in California and the state’s earliest commercially viable oil well. The value of the oil, however, was diminished at the time by the great cost of transporting it; therefore, the company stopped production and subdivided the ranch.

A future U.S. senator, Thomas Bard acted as the valley’s first real estate agent, and the sales he made established the pattern we find today of a valley filled with ranches. At first, the ranchers engaged in dry farming, which involved raising grains. Progressively, however, they began to plant groves of olive, apricot, and orange trees in abundance. The greater part of the east valley is covered with fragrant orange groves today.

The valley’s growing population justified the founding of a village. In 1874, Royce G. Surdam established a village named Nordhoff after the author and journalist Charles Nordhoff. He wrote a popular guide to the state of California that had been published just a year earlier.

Four brothers of the Thacher family arrived in the valley in the 1890s. Sherman Thacher started a private secondary school that he at first called the Casa de Piedra Ranch School for Boys. The name in time was shortened simply to the Thacher School. Other private and secondary boarding schools have since been opened in the valley, making it one of the most concentrated centers of private education in the state. Edward Thacher, the oldest of the brothers, pioneered the development of the