Wicked Jurupa Valley is Coming!!!!!

I am happy to report that the History Press accepted my book proposal! Just found out this week! I haven't seen the contract yet, but my plan is for the book to appear on bookshelves everywhere in May or June of 2012. I am so happy to finally be doing another book on Jurupa history! So, it looks like I will be deep into murder, scandal, and the like for the foreseeable future!

The Day Mira Loma Got its Name

I love going through the historic archive of the Los Angeles Times. Because the Press Enterprise is not on line the Times is the next best substitute. Last night I was looking for articles about bootlegging in Wineville by looking for any articles about Wineville between 1920 and 1933. I admit I could do this stuff 24 hours a day, it is so fun! Who knows what you might find? Well, last night I was rewarded with one of those random things I never expected. An article popped up which said that as of November 1, 1930 Wineville would cease to exist and the town would be known as Mira Loma. Because the area was unincorporated, changing the name required a name change for the post office and for the Union Pacific railroad station. So, there you go folks. November 1, 1930 is officially the day Mira Loma came to be!  I hope someone out there is as excited by this piece of information as I am! Whooo whooo!!!!

Eastvale and Riverdale Acres History with Loren

One of the most delightful things about researching and writing about local history are the people I get to meet along the way. Some I have known a long time and some I have met more recently, but they are always generous people who share their time, their memories, and their talents with me. One of my more recent  local history acquaintances is Loren Meissner. Loren grew up in Riverdale Acres which was in the Eastvale School District, now part of the Corona/Norco School District. As such, Loren has an interest in the history of the Eastvale School and, by extension, Eastvale. I think, maybe just maybe, he feels I have the research into the history of Jurupa Valley somewhat under control, but he wants to get his generation's memories of Eastvale and Eastvale School recorded before they are all gone.  Loren has a website where he has put some of his memories as well as a few pictures. Keep in mind, Loren actually grew up in what is now Jurupa Valley. He just went to school in what is now Eastvale. Unfortunately, Loren doesn't live around here, he lives up north, but we go through spurts when we email each other ALOT! That is happening right now, as a matter of fact. Loren kindly made the rancho lines map that was in my last post. Below is his website, because, if you are looking at my website I know you will want to look at his!!!  

http://meiszen.net/eastvale/river_walks.htm

The Jurupa Rancho and Our Fair City

This great map was done by Loren Meissner who grew up in Riverdale Acres back in the day. It shows an outline of the Jurupa Rancho superimposed on a map of the cities of Jurupa Valley and Eastvale.  The diagonal line that is the northern boundry of the rancho is today's Bellegrave Avenue. So, if you live south of Bellegrave you live in the Jurupa Rancho and if you live north of Bellegrave you live in an area that was homesteaded, at least to some extent. Thanks to Loren for his mad mapping skills! 

There May be a New Book in the Works!

I just submitted a proposal to a publisher of local history books for a new book on Jurupa history. Yeah! This one will look at famous and infamous crimes over the years. Yes, yes, I will include the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders! We couldn't forget those! If anyone out there has any ideas for me on crimes that have occurred in the Jurupa area, I would be happy to consider them for the book, assuming the publisher accepts my proposal. I am looking for crimes other than murder ( I have enough of those, unfortunately). Something like a swindle, or a crime with a funny or ironic twist, would be great!

I have removed the requirement that you sign up for a Google service of some sort in order to comment on this blog. I didn't realize that that box was checked! So please feel free to comment on my blog postings. I would love to hear your stories, too!  

But then, what would we be called?

Our neighbor to the southeast, Riverside, is, as we all know, a Johnny come lately compared to our fair area. Juan Bandini was granted the Jurupa Rancho in 1838 and built a house by the Santa Ana River near the Hamner bridge.  Another house was built by Benjamin Wilson in today's Rubidoux sometime around 1843. The colony of Riverside didn't began seeing families move in until October 1870.  Riverside is situated on what was called "bench land" that was originally part of the Robidoux Rancho. Since it sat above the river it was difficult to irrigate, given the available knowledge of the day, and so it was considered worthless, except perhaps for cattle grazing. As a matter of fact, when Louis Robidoux's holdings were assessed in 1854 for tax purposes by San Bernardino County, he was only assessed for 3000 acres, since the other 3000 or so acres he owned on the other side of the river were  considered without any value for tax purposes. Wow! If the tax man thinks something is worthless, it must really be bad! Well, obviously someone thought it had potential since it was the site John North et al picked out and purchased for a new town.  When trying to decide on a name for this new place, they did float the name Jurupa, but Riverside won out. A little uninspired, perhaps, but much easier to spell! Now, over 100 years later, I guess those of us in Jurupa Valley have to admit that Riverside has done pretty well for itself! 

Childhood Summer in Jurupa Hills

I have just one brother who is much older than me so I was, in many ways, an only child. When we lived on Moraga Way in Jurupa Hills the late 1960s there weren't a lot of kids around, either, so I had plenty of time to myself, creating my own fun. At that time there were still lots of undeveloped lots in the area and the houses on Pico hadn't been built yet. So, I had lots of open fields to range around in. My little dog Patches and I would sometimes be gone for hours while I made up stories along the way of the adventures I was pretending we were having!  There were lots of great big rocks to climb on, and if I went really far I could check out the rail road tracks. One time I found a dead baby rabbit. I felt so sorry for it not having a proper burial that I took it home in a box and hid it under my bed until I could have a proper ceremony the next time my friend Myra came over. Well, Myra didn't come over as soon as I had hoped and one day I looked under the bed to check on the rabbit and caught a whiff of something unpleasant. Somehow I knew that I better get that rabbit buried soon. I enlisted the help of David who lived down the street, even though he was a yucky boy (it wasn't that he personally was yucky, but at that time of my life I though all boys were yucky!!). We buried the rabbit. David, of course, slammed a big old rock down on top of the grave. Note I said "slammed," not "placed." I was annoyed but knew that it was better that the rabbit be out from under my bed, rock or not.