Jurupa Valley: Oldest New City in Riverside County?

If the citizens of Jurupa vote to become a city on March 8th, the new city of Jurupa Valley will be brand new, but will have a long and interesting history. Long before Riverside existed, before Norco, Corona, and Moreno Valley, there was the Rubidoux Rancho. All the roads and trails of what we now call the Inland Empire converged on the Robidoux Rancho, making Louis Robidoux a very well informed and important man. As I told the Local Agency Formation Commission when they were considering allowing Jurupa Valley cityhood to go to a vote, "The residents of Jurupa were here to greet the founders of Riverside. We were hear to greet the founders of Corona. We were here to greet the founders of Norco, and we were here to greet the the first people to move in to the subdivisions of Eastvale."   Jurupa's long history will only serve to make  our potential city stronger, with a vivid past and identity that so many new cities do not have. I hope we vote to become a city. But whatever happens, I will still be here, researching Jurupa's history.

My Mom Worked at AeroJet

Around the time my mother brought me into this world (1961) she worked at AeroJet. It was located in the Glen Avon area of Jurupa and made munitions. That's right, like in "KABOOM!" AreoJet still exists but has been long gone from Glen Avon. I called the company headquarters up in the nothern part of our state and they had no record of ever having had a plant in the Glen Avon area.

My mother's friend Lila worked there as well and I asked her one time about it. This was back in the days before OSHA and the ladies who worked there filling shells with explosive powder (or what ever they used) woked in a little booth so if a shell exploded it wouldn't take out everyone around them. They especially feared the days when the Santa Ana condition rolled in because it got so dry and static electricty could cause an explosion. Lila said they would drape wet paper towels around their work stations to reduce the chance of static electricity.

At my mother's memorial service her best friend Emma Jane spoke about first meeting my mother on a Santa Ana day. My mom popped across the street to meet the new neighbors, breezely telling Emma Jane that she wasn't at work that day because of the wind and the danger it posed. Lila said that one of the reasons the plant was shut down and moved (or maybe it was combined with an existing plant, I don't recall) was because of danger on windy days.

My mom eventually quit AreoJet due to the danger posed by working with explosives. I do remember going to visit some ladies my mom used to work with at AreoJet.  At least one was missing part of a finger due to her employment there. Obviously this made a very vivid impression on me!

Considering the fact that my mom worked in a munitions factory the whole time she was pregnant with me, I am grateful I wasn't born with two heads or extra arms.

I would love to hear from others who worked at AreoJet or who had a family member who worked there.

The Santa Ana Wind Returns

Last night as we watched TV the Santa Ana wind came roaring in with a big "whoosh!" I don't like the wind now because it it makes my allergies worse and gives me a headache. But, when I was a little girl living in Jurupa I delighted in the wind! I remember being on the playground at Pacific Avenue School, where I went for 2nd -5th grades,  and windy days were very exciting! Back then school playgrounds were not covered in grass. We had a dirt playground that was topped with gravel. Dirt playgrounds were much more condusive to creative play than a grass playground could ever be. My friend Myra and I loved to play house and we would dig the heels of our leather shoes (mine were purchased at Junior Shoetown) into the dirt and carefully back up, dragging our heel in a straight line to create the walls of our "house." My husband was always Bobby Sherman and Myra's was David Cassidy. But, when the wind came, that was a special day! We would grab the bottom of our jacket and pull it up behind us above our head and lean over into the wind. The jacket would catch the wind and we could lean way over! Back in the 1960s little girls wore dresses to school every day and if our moms forgot to have us wear tights the wind would blow that gravel from the playground and it would hit our legs and sting our skin and we would squeal and scream as only little girls can!   Every time the wind blows I remember the sting of that gravel.

Where "Jurupa" Came From

The name "Jurupa" is derived from the languages of two of the Native American groups who called Jurupa home. The Jurupa area lies at the intersection of the territories of four different tribes: the Gabrielino, the Cahuilla, the Serrano, and the Luiseno. Research indicates that the root of the word (Juru) is Gabrielino and is their name for what we now know as "California Sagebrush.". The "pa" ending is Serrano. They used that ending to indicate a place name.   Of course, the first people to record this word were the exploers and settlers from Mexico so there has been some Spanish influence as well. However, it appears Jurupa means "Place of the California Sagebrush."   So, if Jurupa becomes a city in the near future, it should adopt the California Sagebrush as the official city symbol!

And so it begins...

Jurupa is located in the north west corner of Riverside County, California, north and west of the Santa Ana River and south of the Riverside/San Bernardino County line. It is home to over 100,000 people. It is an area whose known history stretches back about as far as can be expected in inland Southern California. I have written two books on the Jurupa area and I write a regular history column for our local weekly paper, The Record.    This blog about Jurupa's history is just an obvious continuation of my ongoing research into Jurupa's past. I hope you will join me on this journey. I think it will be fun.