Rocklin Historical Society

Video of Old St Marys Chapel of Rocklin taken back in April.

History in the making! Thank you John for your hard work, passion and dedication!

Please consider nominating someone.

The elves have been busy at Old St. Mary's Chapel! Take a drive down Front Street and give her a wave. Think she has been missing having people around!

Check out the Quarry Quarterly for Winter 2020. A reminder that RHS memberships are coming due. As of right now, if you sign up for Lifetime Membership you will receive a beautiful physical copy of this each quarter. Yearly members have the option of opting in for a small fee. Copies are also available on our website for free. Become a member directly through our website. Please feel free to email us with any questions! Physical copies of this issue will be sent out in the mail soon. https://rocklinhistorical.org [email protected] Old St Marys Chapel of Rocklin

Hidden gems in Rocklin! Bridge at Clover Valley -The largest of the twelve granite bridges on the road that connected Joel Parker Whitney’s Spring Valley Ranch with downtown Rocklin! #ThisIsWhereWePark

When I posted the photo of the Ranch Burger on Pacific Street in Rocklin, Cliff Kennedy asked if I had more. So, here you go. A sampling of photos of Front Street, Pacific Street and Rocklin Road. The dates are from the 1940s to the 1970s. Enjoy!

Old St Marys Chapel of Rocklin

It’s that time again, don’t forget to send in your RHS yearly dues for the coming year! Or consider the lifetime membership option. Donations can also be made via our website https://rocklinhistorical.org

The Art Task Force worked alongside the historical society to ensure that the mural’s design is true to the history of Rocklin. The mural is based upon a historic quarry photo from the late 1800s, but with a modern twist.

LOOMIS BASIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY'S THROWBACK THURSDAY: Placer County Citrus Colony On December 3, 1887, some forty or fifty citizens of Place County assembled at... the courthouse in Auburn to form the Placer County Board of Trade. The Board’s purpose was to promote and advance the commercial, manufacturing, mining, agricultural, horticultural, viticultural, and material interests of Placer County without political or sectional bias. Among the Board’s nineteen officers and directors were Edward W. Maslin and Jonas J. Morrison of Pino (now Loomis), Phineas W. Butler of Penryn, and W.B. Lardner of Auburn. J. Parker Whitney, the richest man in Placer County and owner of the 18,000 acre Spring Valley Ranch, was elected president. The Board had no sooner organized than it began planning for a citrus exhibition in Los Angeles, to include the distribution of ten thousand leaflets promoting Placer County agriculture. Maslin, Morrison, Butler, Lardner, and Whitney had something else in common. They each owned tracts of land in the western part of the Loomis Basin, the land they desired to improve. These men, along with twenty-nine other landowners, joined together to form the Placer County Citrus Colony. The Citrus Colony was an association of landowners organized for the purpose of systematically and uniformly improving their properties by laying out roads and bringing in irrigation. They were not land speculating; rather they were developing the land for their mutual benefit. The Colony incorporated on April 2, 1888, with Whitney as president, Butler as vice president, and Whitney’s brother James as secretary/treasurer. Maslin and Morrison were directors, along with B. Browning, Wm. Dana Perkins (former owner of the Pine Grove Hotel), and V.S. McClatchy (whose family owned the Sacramento Bee newspaper). The corporation authorized 10,000 shares of capital stock at a par value of $1 per share, to be issued to stockholders at one share for each acre of land committed to the colony plan. Whitney committed 3,025 acres, including Clover Valley. Butler and his associates accounted for another 1,000 acres. The remaining investors, some with as little as 10 acres, brought the total to 7,563 acres. The colony was not a new idea. Colony plans frequently had been used to develop agricultural communities in southern California. Whitney’s brother and nephew had been involved with the Washington Irrigated Colony, which played a prominent role in the development of Fresno. And the Thermalito Citrus Colony did the same for Oroville. If successful, the Placer County Citrus Colony would define the future of Rocklin, Loomis, and Penryn. This map, from a promotional brochure, shows the area that was the Placer County Citrus Colony shaded in gray. Present-day Citrus Colony Road takes its name from this piece of our local history. Stay tuned for next week’s Throwback Thursday when we’ll share more about the Citrus Colony and the story behind the Penryn palm trees.

There was a time in Placer County when men headed to the pitch for cricket matches. Pictured is the 1895 California champions from the Citrus Colony in Rocklin. More info here: https://bit.ly/34JR3DN Photo: Placer County Museums

LOOMIS BASIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY'S THROWBACK THURSDAY: Spring Valley Ranch In 1854, Massachusetts native, George Whitney came west to California. His sons arriv...ed earlier during the Gold Rush and were engaged in the mercantile business in San Francisco. In 1857, George purchased 480 acres northeast of Sacramento and started sheep ranching, raising Spanish merino sheep imported from Australia. He acquired more acreage and, joined by his sons, the family landholdings grew. After George’s death in 1873, control of the property, called Spring Valley Ranch, eventually came into the hands of his fifth son, Joel Parker Whitney. J.P. Whitney arrived in California in 1853 at the age of 17. Having made money in the mercantile business, he invested in a Colorado gold mine in 1865. The mine turned out to be poor in gold, but it was rich in silver. J.P. made his fortune. By the 1890s, he expanded the Spring Valley Ranch to over 18,000 acres located between Roseville, Rocklin, and Lincoln. Cattle, horse breeding, vineyards, and citrus orchards were added to the sheep raising operation. J.P. Whitney was known as the wealthiest man in Placer County. J.P.’s extensive business interests led him to spend time in England where he became enamored of the upper-class English country lifestyle. He designed Spring Valley Ranch to resemble a palatial English estate with a manicured grandeur. The ranch included four residences: The Gables, The Palms, The Heights, and The Oaks. Built in 1884/85, the Oaks was an ornate, 22-room mansion with a panoramic view of the Sacramento Valley. A place for social gatherings, its grounds included tennis and badminton courts, a cricket field, a private nine-hole golf course, and an 8-mile scenic carriage drive with arched, granite bridges crossing the creeks and streams. J.P. Whitney died in 1913. The ranch passed to his children and was eventually broken up and sold off, the buildings burned or removed. His elegant home, The Oaks (pictured here), was torn down in 1954. The 18,000-acre Spring Valley Ranch included areas that we know today as Sunset-Whitney, Stanford Ranch, and Twelve Bridges, named for the twelve stone bridges along the carriage drive. Whitney owned land in the Loomis Basin too. In next week’s Throwback Thursday, we will learn of his influence on the towns of Loomis and Penryn. [Photo credit: California State Library, California History Room, Picture Collection]