Wicked Jurupa is Here!

I am very happy to report that Wicked Jurupa Valley:Murder and Misdeeds in Rural Southern California is finally here! A big box of books arrived at my front door and it is also available at HistoryPress.com and Amazon.com. A Kindle version is also available at Amazon.com. Wicked Jurupa Valley will also be available in local stores if you like to shop locally, but I have not heard yet if it is actually in the usual places such as DeAnza True Value Hardware, Walgreen's, and the Jurupa Mountains Cultural Center. I will let you know as soon as I find out.

If you want to check my author's page at Amazon.com you can find it at   https://www.amazon.com/author/kimjj

If you would like, feel free to hit the like button or write a review (once you get to read the book, of course!) on Amazon. I would really appreciate that!  

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....   

Rubidoux Bridge

A bridge crossing the Santa Ana River between today's Rubidoux and Riverside dates to the 1890s. You might be surprised to learn that the bridge that we use today is over 50 years old and dates to 1958. Rumor has it that the the county is looking into replacing it. Below is a photo of the bridge next to the one it replaced, courtesy of Riverside County Flood Control. Our current bridge is the one on the right.      

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. "