2006-2007 Orange Book: Internet Directory
History of Ramona

More scenes from Ramona

The area of Ramona was first inhabited by the Diegueno Indians, a semi-nomadic people who traveled between the coast and the Back Country, living in Ramona when it became too cold for them in Mesa Grande.

The Dieguenos left considerable archaeological evidence behind them: some etchings and paintings on rocks, and many grinding stones. The Dieguenos mashed the acorns from the great oaks into a meal and baked it into a staple. Their grinding stations were always located in stands of rock, near streams and oak groves.

The first instance of white men mentioned, in what came to be known as the Santa Maria Valley, occurred in 1775 when a squadron of Spanish soldiers marched into the area to punish the natives for the destruction of a nearby mission.

Records show the Spaniards attacked a native village called "Pamo." This may have been in what is now Ramona, or possibly in Pamo Valley.

The next mention occurred when a Catholic mission, led by a Father Sanchez, and an escort of six Spanish troops, traveled through the Santa Maria Valley from the Presidio in San Diego. The missionaries passed through Ramona, north of Goose Valley and had breakfast in Ballena (Spanish for whale), which then, as now, looked like that great mammal.

The party continued to Santa Ysabel and then to Warner's Hot Springs. The padre remarked that the Ramona area looked like it would be good for raising hay.

In 1843 the original mission grant of 18,000 acres in the Santa Maria Valley and Santa Ysabel was made to Jose Juaquin Ortega. The house was visited three years later when Gen. Stephen Watts Kearny passed through Ramona on his way to fight the Battle of San Pasqual with the Californio ranchers. His dragoons lost to the superb lancers and horsemen who had raised cattle in the area all their lives.

Ramona has several connections to the battle. Beside houses in town Kearny supposedly visited, one of Ramona's earliest settlers, the Englishman Edward Stokes, met the general when he was encamped at Warner Hot Springs.

Stokes, was a former British sailor. His father-in-law was Jose Joaquin Ortega. Stokes built his own adobe ranch house in 1843 in Goose Valley.

The trail the general and his dragoons took on that December in 1846 still exists in sections and is known as Old Survey Road 97.

In 1849 a Lt. Dave Couts brought the first four wheeled wagon into the valley.

The gold rush that flourished in Julian after 1870 led to the creation of a stage line that ran between San Diego and Julian, and passed through Ramona. The trip began at 6 a.m. and arrived in Ramona at 3 p.m.

The first house built in present day Ramona was the still-standing Verlaque House, now housing the Guy Woodward Museum. It was built as a store on two acres given for that purpose by a Bernard Etcheverry, who had acquired the land grant that had originated with the Ortegas. Etcheverry raised sheep until driven out of business by drought and Ramona's native burrs, which, according to records, made the wool worthless.

At first the town was called Nuevo, because there was another Ramona farther north. But when that town became defunct, our town acquired that name permanently. However, Helen Hunt Jackson, writer of the famous fiction book "Ramona," had no connection to the town, nor did the story.

The town site was laid out in the 1870s, with Main Street following the original San Vicente Road. The town was developed by the Santa Maria Land and Water Co., which purchased 3200 acres and sold them off. The head of this development was a man named Milton Santee. The plan was also to build a religious seminary here, but nothing ever came of it.

Water was brought into town by pipelines from Hatfield Creek.

In 1886 a man Augustus Barnett made bricks for Santee to build the Ramona Hotel (later called the Kenilworth Inn), which opened in 1887. A wealthy man originally came from New York, Barnett decided to share his wealth with his fellow citizens by building the Ramona Town Hall, which he gave to the town.

The first grammar school built in town was constructed from bricks left over from these building projects.

The first drug store opened in 1889 and in 1895 John C. Bargar opened the first blacksmith shop. Bargar also built a lumber yard in 1909, which he sold to the Ransom Brothers in 1924.

The first locally owned bank was established in 1911. It operated until 1928 when it was taken over by the Bank of America. Electricity arrived in town in 1926, the same year the first paved highway was completed.

In 1925, at the instigation of the Chamber of Commerce and Farm Bureau, a water company was created to deliver water from Santa Maria Creek to town. A bond issue passed 93-3 to appropriate money for the project.

In the 1920s Ramona was the site for some of the largest turkey ranches in the world, and, in fact, the town called itself "The Turkey Capital of the World." One of these turkeys was presented as a gift to then President Harry Truman in 1947.

In the 1930s the town received an interesting distinction by being awarded a silver cup six times for having the best voting record in the state. The voting percentages ranged from 93.8% to 98.3% during this decade.

In the 1950s and 60s Ramona connected to the San Diego Aqueduct and established a sewer.

In 1967 the current high school was built on Hanson Lane, and the old high school became first the junior high and finally the school district office.

In the late 1960s, poised for the development that has continued ever since, Ramona had a population of about 5000. Today the population is nearer to 40,000.