Jurupa Valley History

Jurupa Valley History

The Jurupa Valley is located in the upper western corner of Riverside County, bounded to the east and south by the Santa Ana River, and to the north by the San Bernardino and Riverside County line. Before there were the cities of Riverside, Corona, or Norco, there was the Rancho Jurupa.

In the late 1800’s Jurupa began to live in the shadow of the more popular and incorporated City of Riverside. Much of Jurupa area has a Riverside mailing address. Yet, settlement of the area in and around what is now the City of Riverside actually began in Jurupa many years before city’s founding.

The name “Jurupa” is derived from the languages of the first inhabitants of the area, the Native Americans who called Jurupa home. The Jurupa area lies at the intersection of the territories of at least two different tribes. Research indicates that the root of the word is Gabrielino and the ending of the word that makes it a place name is Serrano. It is appropriate that the name Jurupa reflects that dual heritage. Over the years, three different meanings of Jurupa have been proposed. The most romantic but least likely is that Jurupa was a greeting made by a chief to the first padre that entered the area. This greeting was supposed to have meant “peace and friendship”. A second theory was put forth by Father Juan Caballeria, who studied the San Bernardino area Indian languages and wrote in 1902 that each of the mission rancherias had a name that suggested the place where is was located. “Jurumpa”, as he spelled it, meant “water place”. The third and most likely theory is that Jurupa originated from the term from an aromatic plant common to the area, now known as California Sagebrush.

Jurupa was always a more rural area. Scattered around were small communities such Mira Loma, Glen Avon, West Riverside (Rubidoux), Sunnyslope and Pedley. Between these communities was open and agricultural land with scattered homes and farms. Through the years as Jurupa has been further developed, those open and agricultural lands have been subdivided and the dividing lines between the communities have blurred. However, community distinctions still remain and newer areas such as Jurupa Hills, Indian hills, Eastvale and Sky Country have joined the older communities.

In spite of development, Jurupa still retains a rural atmosphere. Many areas have lot sizes that allow horses. Horse riders throughout Jurupa enjoy the close proximity of the trails in the Santa Ana River bottom. Animal keeping is still common in some areas. Efforts to incorporate in the past have failed due in no small part to many peoples’ desire to avoid what they felt would be the complexities of “city life”.

Glen Avon History

A combination of glen, a Celtic generic term meaning "secluded and narrow valley; a narrow depression between mountains or hills", and avon, a Celtic generic term meaning "river". There are conflicting stories of how Glen Avon was named. According to Gudde (1974 p. 121), A.C. Fulmor, longtime Riverside County Surveyor, said the name wad been chosen by L.V.W. Brown in 1909. Riverside County Map Books 3 (p. 67) and 6 (p. 89), however, show that the Riverside Development Company, of which Charles H. Low was President and C.L. McFarland was Secretary, gave the name of Glen Avon Heights to their 1909 subdivision of former Jurupa Rancho lands that had been called West Riverside since 1887. It is always possible that L.V.W. Brown was a director of this company.

On the other hand, Don Kurz, in his 1972 history of Jurupa area, told how the name was chosen purely by chance in 1909 by means of a lottery. At that time residents of the area decided to choose a more distinctive name than West Riverside, as that name had become associated more with what is now called Rubidoux and seemed to describe mainly the land across the Santa Ana River from the city of Riverside. When no agreement could be reached as to what the new name should be, it was decided to collect all potential names, put them in a hat, and have a drawing. The winning name had been put in the hat by a bachelor Welshman whose boyhood home was said to have been near the Avon River between two glens (Kurz 1972). The Welshman, a beekeeper named Powell, often told the story in later years to Welsh friends of how he had arrived at an approximation of the name of Riverside by translating it loosely in Welsh (Davies 1936). (Riverside County, California, Place Names. Jane Davies Gunther. )

Mira Loma History

The name is a combination of two of the most popular Spanish words that have been used both in this country and in Spanish-speaking countries in coining pleasant-sounding place names. Mira is an imperative meaning “Look!” Loma means “hill”. Following widespread and sensational coverage of the “chicken-coop murders” in 1928, the citizens of Wineville cast about for another name and on November 1, 1930, the name of the post office was officially changed to Mira Loma, to everyone’s satisfaction, with Charles E. Faulhaber as postmaster. (Riverside County, California, Place Names. Jane Davies Gunther. )

Pedley History

In 1903 or 1904 (accounts vary), the Union Pacific Railroad Company installed a switch and a railroad station near what is now the intersection of Limonite Street and Van Buren Boulevard, and called it Pedley, apparently in honor of William Everard Pedley. Pedley, an Englishman, had come to Riverside as manager of the San Jacinto Land Company, developers of part of the Sobrante de San Jacinto land grant. The company had branched out and had bought a large piece of Jurupa Rancho. The Riverside Daily Press, June 14, 1898, carried a small article headed “West Riverside” (the name in use at that time and later for land across the river from Riverside) announcing the sale of the Jurupa land to the San Jacinto Land Company, saying, “The company has chosen this property as it is in the frostless belt of this section, and will set out several hundred acres to orange and lemon trees”. When the subdivision map for the project was recorded on the following December 15, it was called Jurupa Heights (RC Map Bk. 3 pp.1-4).

It probably should have been named Pedley from the beginning. The survey was made by Phillip Pedley and the map was filed by William Everard Pedley, the designer, builder, and highly touted irrigation engineer of the irrigation system that was installed. The development was beautiful. Winding streets were graded and lined with rosebushes. Eucalyptus trees were planted as windbreaks to protect the young citrus trees. All went well until 1913, the year of the great freeze. In spite of being in the “frostless belt”, the beginning of the end began for Pedley citrus. There was also a well-founded rumor that the roots of the citrus trees had reached hardpan. The San Jacinto Land Company dispensed with Pedley’s services in about 1915 and soon disposed of the land.

The Pedley railroad station burned down in about 1920 and was not replaced. In January, 1924, W.S. Sparr, who had acquired much of the property, filed his map of Sparrland Poultry Colony (RC Map Bk. 11 p. 63). This, too, was a failure and the land was eventually taken over by Tom Clay, Sparr’s lawyer.

Despite these failures, Pedley post office was established on October 13, 1929, with Oscar J. Beem as first postmaster. On October 15, 1937, it was changed to a rural station of the Riverside office, only to be discontinued on June 15, 1956. It was re-established on December 10, 1956, changed to a branch in 1957, and finally discontinued on April 5, 1975 (Salley 1977 p. 169). (Riverside County, California, Place Names. Jane Davies Gunther. )

Sunnyslope History

Originally spelled as two words, Sunny Slope, this was a favorite development name during the 1880’s. The first development to be so named in what is now Riverside County was advertised in January of 1888, as “Sunny Slope of West Riverside”, named for “the peculiar lay of the land towards the rising sun” by R.F. Cunningham. Cunningham had purchased part of the Jurupa Rancho, or what was called the “mesa land across the Santa Ana” from Riverside, in 1887.

With G.A. Fudicker in charge of the water system, he then put the land on the market (RP&H Jan. 21, 1888). The general area had been named West Riverside in 1887. A second Sunny Slope was put on the market about a year later on 320 acres northeast of Elsinore owned by W.H. Townsend. P.W. Minthorn, Elsinore surveyor who was much in demand in the early days of the development of the Elsinore area, was commissioned by Townsend in January, 1888, to subdivide the land into sixteen lots, each containing 19.69 acres, laid out in a long rectangle with Riverside Street running through the center. Townsend’s map of his Sunny Slope was filed on December 24, 1z889 (SDC Map 619).

Riverside Street is still shown on the Riverside County map just to the north of Wasson Canyon. (Riverside County, California, Place Names. Jane Davies Gunther)

Rubidoux History

On October 29, 1887, the Riverside Press & Horticulturist announced: “The program is now nearly completed for placing on the market a large tract of land on the west side of the Santa Ana River, west of Riverside, to be known as West Riverside. Some time since a water company was formed by F.C. Howes and Mr. [G.A.] Fudicker of Los Angeles, and others. This tract, when settled, will be tributary to Riverside, although a town will be started on the tract, and it is believed that the Southern Pacific will run their line to Riverside down the west side of the river through the new West Riverside, in which case a town there will be a necessity”. The Southern Pacific did not oblige. The West Riverside post office opened on June 8, 1893, with Jesse M. Packard as first postmaster. In 1958 the post office name was changed to Rubidoux. West Riverside was designated as one of the original 40 election precincts of Riverside County at the March 22, 1893, meeting of the Rvierside County Board of Commissioners. WEST RIVERSIDE SCHOOL DISTRICT was formed by action of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors on February 6, 1894, on petition of W.W. Carpenter and others.