How the new park got its name

I attended the grand opening of the newest park in Jurupa Valley, Centennial Park, this morning. It is located at the corner of Jurupa Road and Camino Real. The park, which is also a flood control basin,  can accommodate up to eight children's soccer games at one time, which is a great addition to the number of soccer fields we have in Jurupa Valley. The landscape architect who helped plan the park took questions for the audience. It probably won't surprise you to find out that I wanted to know where the name of Centennial Park came from. The story is that since the flood control basin was designed to handle a 100 year flood event, the board of the Jurupa Area Recreation and Park District decided, some 20 odd years ago, that the park in the basin should be named "Centennial." I will add that to my list of historic facts I have to confirm one of these days...in my spare time....   

So Many Limonites, So Little time....

Did you know that there are four streets with the word Limonite in their names right here in Jurupa Valley? Yes, I think our fair city has single handedly cornered the market on naming streets after this obscure mineral! First of all, what is limonite? Well, according to Mindat.org it is an earthy looking light brown to brown or yellowish brown mineral that is created from the decomposition of many iron minerals, most commonly pyrite. Click on the following link to see a photo of limonite:http://www.mindat.org/min-2402.html

So, once there was a street called Limonite Avenue. It was just a two lane road that wandered and curved and followed the landscape. Then someone decided it should be a four lane road that didn't wander but went as straight as could be accomplished with road graders and dynamite. One small problem was the big gas pipe that went right down the middle of where they wanted to put the road. No problem! They would just create a nice wide median. Two more small problems: two short pieces of Limonite Avenue which already had houses and such on them would be left out when Limonite Avenue was straightened. And so the County, in its infinite wisdom, created Limonite Frontage Road, which is east of Avenue Juan Bautista in the Jurupa Hills area and Old Limonite Avenue in the Mira Loma area between Dodd and Marlatt Streets.

The County had boatloads of infinite wisdom, however, and so they were not done. They decided to put an underpass under the railroad tracks at Limonite and Van Buren. Remember that gas pipe? It was still there! So to avoid digging under and around and through that big gas pipe, they just left it and Limonite where they were and dug to the north of where the right of way was. The existing portion of Limonite, west of Morton Road, became a cul de sac and new Limonite curved slightly and went under the railroad tracks and Van Buren Boulevard. That little bit of old Limonite became Limonite Court.

I did what I admit was a limited search on Google Maps but could find no other streets named Limonite in the United States. But we have four! Whoo Whoo!
  

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!