Ventura - Premier Visitors Guide 2007-2008 - (Page 16) Half-Day Tour Follow our Adobe Trail to discover 3,500 years of fascinating history firsthand! BEGIN YOUR TOUR in the historic downtown district at the 1857 Ortega Adobe (215 W. Main St., 658-4728). This was the birthplace of the famous Ortega Green Chilies and is the last remaining original adobe of many that once lined Main St. in the 1800s. Open daily 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.. Admission is free. The self-guided tour at Albinger Archeological Museum (113 E. Main St., 648-5823) begins at a cross-sectional display of items archaeologists unearthed (and are still finding) beneath layers of soil at the site. They found pottery from 1600 B.C. (Tutankhamen's era in Egypt) beneath Chumash shell trading beads, religious icons from the Mission period, toys and medicine bottles from early pioneers, an opium pipe and teacups from a Chinese laundry, and tools used in a 1920s automobile shop. Open Wednesday-Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the summer; 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekends the rest of the year. Mosey down the street to the historic, intricately painted Mission San Buenaventura (211 E. Main St., 6434318, www.sanbuenaventuramission.org), which dates back to 1782 and still houses a dedicated congregation. The Mission museum is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Donation is $2. Your tour continues at the Olivas Adobe Historical Park, one of Ventura’s most significant historic landmarks (4200 Olivas Park Drive, 658-4728, www.olivasadobe.org). To get there, drive south down Hwy. 101 to 16 VENTURA VISITORS GUIDE Telephone Rd. and turn left off the freeway, then right out Telephone Rd. Turn right again at Olivas Park Dr., and the park entrance will be on your left. Raymundo Olivas, recipient of a land-grant rancho from Mexican governor Juan Alvarado, built the adobe in 1847. Once a social hub of the Santa Clara River Valley, the restored two-story main house has its own chapel, a display of Olivas family photographs in the parlor, and period furnishings in the other rooms. Weddings are often held on the grounds, which include a rose garden, fuchsias and a grape arbor dating from the early California mission period. The grounds are open daily, with docentguided tours on Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.. Admission is free; donations are appreciated. Finally, head east on Hwy. 126 to Piru and the Rancho Camulos Museum (5164 E. Telegraph Rd., 521-1501, www.ranchocamulos.org, set amid the sprawling Camulos Ranch, established in 1853. A National Historic Landmark, the 40-acre complex includes 15 significant structures, including several adobes, a chapel, winery, fountain, schoolhouse, barn, gas station, bunk-house, and a gigantic California Black Walnut Tree planted in the 1860s. Museum open Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m.; tours by appointment. Although Rancho Camulos has a rich agricultural and political history, it is best known as the “home” of Ramona—the main character in the wildly popular best-selling novel Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson. Ramona was the first novel set in Southern California. Jackson wrote the novel to spotlight prejudice and the fate of mixed blood and Native American people. However, most readers focused instead on the romantic legend of Ramona, an orphan of mixed heritage, and the vivid Spanish setting. Readers traveled to Rancho Camulos to visit “Ramona’s world”—the beginnings of the Southern California tourist industry. MARK DOLYAK http://www.sanbuenaventuramission.org http://www.olivasadobe.org http://www.ranchocamulos.org
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