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Reproduced here
essentially verbatim.
Ed. Note: This is the first in a series of articles
about the Oak View area --- its history, personages, and places of
general interest.
By Martin
Etcheverry
and Laurent Aincy
as told to Chuck Hill
"In 1908, Oak View had several farm houses." These are the first
words spoken by Mr. Martin Etcheverry in an interview with him at
his home at 252 High Street in Oak View. Mr. Laurent Aincey of
Oxnard, a friend of Mr. Etcheverry, helped fill in some of th
historical data about the early history of the southern section of
the Ojai Valley.
Mr. Etcheverry has a remarkable memory for dates. He is
Basque, having been born in the town of Osses in the Pyrenees
mountains. He arrived in Los Angeles as an emigrant in 1907. In
1908, he traveled north to the Ojai valley and started working for
the Ed Canet ranch southeast of Oak View.
The only road from Ventura to the Ojai area was up the
San Antonio creek where it crossed the creek at man points. The
children on east side of the river went to school in a building
(still standing, nw a residence) on the Creek road near the Arnaz
ranch. The children on the other side of the river went to the Santa
Ana school.
In 1911-12, the first bridge across the creek at Arnaz
was built, but was washed away by heavy floods in 1914. What is now
Casitas Springs was a sheep camp. There were no houses, but the La
Cross station located there was the depot where wagon loads of oak
wood and hay from the Riva ranch on the Creek road was loaded on the
trains. There was also a vineyard on this ranch.
The Oak View station was located above the river bottom
on the tracks. Farther north, of course, was the Tico station,
serving that area.
Live Oak Acres was the most densely populated area in
Oak View.
The main road through Oak View was begun in 1917 and
was finished in 1919. It was 16 feet wide and was made wider from
time to time.
The Oak View community actually started growing in the
30's. Many houses were built in the few years before World War II. A
great deal of building has occurred since the war.
We asked Mr. Etcheverry if he remembered the exact
location of those seven houses he mentioned earlier. He remembered
the house on top of the hill north of Linda Vista Knolls. There was
also a house near the water tower of the Gardens Water Corporation,
but he could not recollect the exact location of the others. "Oak
View has changed so much since those days," he mused, half to
himself. |
