All the Latest News

Time to give all of you folks with an interest in history, and Jurupa Valley history in particular, an update on future happenings!

I am told that Wicked Jurupa Valley ships on June 21st. Yeah!

I am in the process of arranging book signings and hope to have some scheduled soon. So far I know for a fact that I will be giving a presentation at the Riverside Historical Society meeting on Sunday, October 7th.  If any one is interested in having a book signing please just comment on this post and I will contact you.

There has been another exciting development on the history front. My friend Steve Lech and I will begin a new weekly history column for the Press-Enterprise starting Sunday July 1st. We are both very excited about this new opportunity, or excuse, to delve into Riverside County history!  Because we both have other history related writing and research that we do, we decided to share this activity. We will be trading off, with each of us responsible for a story every other week. So look for us every Sunday beginning in July!

Dangerous Bridge

I don't know who has jurisdiction over the Rubidoux Bridge today, but in the late 1800s and early 1900s the bridges of that time were paid for 50/50 by the City of Riverside and the County of Riverside.  This 50/50 arrangement extended even to the maintenance of the bridge with the city maintaining their half and no more and the county responsible for the maintenance of their half.   

This practice could cause problems as was reported in January 1904. At that time the Riverside Enterprise reported that the West Riverside bridge (as it was then known) was in a dangerous condition. The wood flooring of the bridge was rotting and that allowed two horses to break through the wood. One horse was severely injured. According to the paper the city had repaired its end of the bridge and that half was in good shape. However the county had not yet fixed its half and it was in "dangerous condition." 

1905 Advertisement

The April 20, 1905 Riverside Daily Press reported that the the people of West Riverside had produced a pamphlet to advertise their area. According to the Daily Press, " These pamphlets are considered a fine advertisement for so small a section and as every word can be proven, send them to your Eastern friends and you can make good any statement."

Wow! I wish I could see one of these!

A Story from the Good Old Days

From the September 17, 1889 Riverside Daily Press:

"Yesterday afternoon a gentleman and two ladies from West Riverside were driving home from the city, and in going down the northwest side of Rubidoux one of the wheels went into a "chuckhole" and upset the carriage, which turned completely over and threw the horse down. In its endeavors to get up the horse bruised the foot of one of the young ladies quite badly, although not seriously. The carriage was somewhat broken, which constitutes the damage. Considering the nature of the accident the young people were very fortunate in escaping with so slight injury. "

Collecting Rubber During WWII

One of the features of the home front during World War II was the collection of scarce resources for recycling to help the war effort. In July 1942 Morton Taylor's service station in Mira Loma held a rubber drive. Mr. Taylor and the Century and St. Helen oil companies donated money so a prize could be offered to the girl and the boy who brought in the most rubber for recycling. Doris Meissner won first prize for the girls by bringing in 872 lbs. of rubber. Billy Haynes topped all the other boys with 1395 lbs. They each won $2.00. Second place finishers Eleanor Anderson and Stanley Anderson each won $1.50. Altogether 20,349 pound of rubber we recycled from the Mira Loma area.

I contacted Loren Meissner, Doris' brother, about this story which I found in the local paper. These are his memories of that long ago rubber drive in Mira Loma:

My sister Doris, and Billy Haynes, were both Eastvale students. I don’t remember the others, but they were most likely from Union Joint which served all the way down the east side of Etiwanda. (The west side, north of Limonite, was a grain field.)

In July 1942 (7 months after Pearl Harbor when the US had declared war), Doris was 15 and I was 14.

Doris and I went all over Riverdale Acres with our little red wagon, asking everybody if they had any scrap rubber, such as old tires or inner tubes, or maybe some kind of pads. It was supposed to be a big help for the War Effort – I think they said it was going to be used to retread tires, cuz all during the war nobody could buy new ones. It was one of the many items that were being totally diverted to the military for “the war effort,” like coffee and sugar. Later I figured out it was mostly propaganda, helping the civilian population feel like we were participating a tiny bit.

When we got close to the time limit, we found out we had collected enough to have a chance for the girls’ prize but no way were we going to compete with Billy. So we figured out our best strategy was to put our collection in Doris’s name and it worked. She might even have given me some of the $2 – I don’t remember that part. Of course kids could get quite a lot for two dollars in “those days.”

=

Mr Knight lived on Mann Ave, and he had several tires being used as planters for rose bushes. He told us (with tears in his eyes) that his wife had planted them that way before she died, but he knew she would have wanted him to contribute the tires to help in the war against “them Nazis, who are worse than animals.” So he carefully removed the tires without disturbing the roses very much, and we thanked him and hauled the tires away in our wagon.

The Legion Ranger

On April 7th, 1943 the Riverside Daily Press reported that American Legion Post 500 of Mira Loma had presented a framed copy of the celebrated picture "Legion Ranger" to the Union, Eastvale, and Glen Avon elementary schools.

The "Legion Ranger" was described as depicting a soldier of the "present war" (World War II) lying in a fox hole with an automatic rifle in his hand while pulling the pin on a hand grenade. The presentations to the schools were made by James L. Bullock and James K. Howey.

I tried searching on the Internet for a photo of this picture but was not successful. If anyone knows where I can find one please let me know!

Flabob Airport

I think one of the most unique names we have in Jurupa Valley (other than the word "Jurupa" itself) is the name of our local airport - Flabob. This is how that name came to be.

The first Riverside Airport was actually established on this side of the river in West Riverside. It was almost wiped out in the 1936 flood and really was barely an airport after that.  However, the little airstrip was still know as the Riverside Airport. In the early 1940s it was purchased by Falvio Madariaga and his partner Bob Bogen. They continued to use the Riverside Airport name. Meanwhile, the city of Riverside purchased the old Arlington Airport on Arlington Avenue and renamed it the Riverside Municipal Airport.

One day someone working around the planes at the airport in West Riverside was injured by a rotating plane propeller. An ambulance was called to come to the Riverside Airport. It sped to the Riverside Airport on Arlington Avenue. That was when the owners of the airport in West Riverside realized that THEIR airport needed a new name. So, by combining Flavio and Bob's first names, Flabob Airport was born!     IT has been pronounced in almost as many ways as "Jurupa" but the common pronunciation today is "flay-bob" with the emphasis on the first syllable.