Rancho Camulos

South of the highway, the remaining buildings from the original land grant of the Camulos Rancho still stand. Shade trees surround the structures and you have entered the setting for Ramona - Helen Hunt Jackson's masterpiece. It was responsible for bringing to the public eye the historic mistreatment of the native population by the mission and rancho system. 

The prolific orchards of the ranch and its buildings were largely spared from the flood because much of the land sits on a small plateau, the slight elevation of which allowed the farmhouse and adjacent buildings to survive.

The few survivors from the tragedy upstream at the edison work camp near Kemp siding came to Rancho Camulos for help (and dry clothing).

Ranch owner August Rubel—a New York-born son of Swiss immigrants—and his wife Mary were awakened by a ranch foreman, who alerted them to a lot of water running through the normally dry river. The truth is that along its path, the water flooded over the river banks and—although no one lost their life at the ranch itself— it did create extensive damage to their citrus orchards and cattle ranch.

The flood waters washed up past the old fountain that had been built in 1852 by Ygnacio Del Valle, the son of the original recipient of this westernmost part of the 48,000-acre Rancho San Francisco Mexican land grant in 1839—Antonio Del Valle. In fact, the water came nearly right up to the ranch house, sparing the dwellings by just inches. And while the fountain took a pretty big hit, the Rubels—who'd purchased the property in 1924—rebuilt it in 1934.

Both father and son were members of an important Californio family during the Mexican period and early California statehood, Ygnacio having inherited the Camulos from his father in 1841.