Ramona Epic #11: Rancho Gaujome (Part 2)

In the last blog I noted that Cave Couts Jr. inherited the property. He is the one that claimed that Helen Hunt Jackson visited here over a period of weeks. He also reported that while she was here he was a partial invalid. Therefore, the adobe was not only the setting of the book, but Couts Jr. was the inspiration for Felipe in the novel. There is controversy over whether Ms. Jackson was actually here or not. However, this location has one advantage over the other rancho in making it fit as the setting in the book. I will mention this below.

From the carriage courtyard one can enter into the inner courtyard. The rooms surround the square-like courtyard. Like I stated in the last blog, the sewing room you see above was added on by Cave Couts Jr. for his wife. In the tour, they take you up there. Just imagine walking through the courtyard and into the room underneath it.This is the room under it. The stairway to the right was added on so one could get up there. The front door entrance they would have used is just past the stairway to the right.This is how it looks from up there looking down on the courtyard.Then looking over towards the chapel.Then turning around and looking out toward the field.Back down below. You can see where you can enter from the carriage courtyard toward the right side in the background.While the other rancho seems to fit the description of the book a little better, Rancho Gaujome does work too. The big advantage Rancho Gaujome has is it matches up better with the geography of the book. It makes more sense for it to be here near San Luis Rey than in Ventura due to the amount of time it would have taken to travel to the areas described in the novel. For example, to travel to Temecula to get the violin and then come back here a day later works. However, to travel from Ventura to Temecula and back in a day is a little more problematic when considering the horse travel for that time period on the routes they would have taken. There are other examples later on in the book like this.

Whether this is the rancho Ms. Jackson used, the other one, or a combination of both is not something I am too concerned with. It seems likely she took some ideas from some rancho and created her own for the book. In any case, this rancho does have a history for being considered a Ramona tourist spot and that is why I covered it.

In closing this one up let me mention a few things. When I went there I took a lot of pictures on that tour, but very little video. The reason being is that on the tour there were families with little kids and strollers. You can hear some of them in the video I did after the tour was over near the carriage courtyard. They were in the way a lot so it would not have worked out very well. Originally, because of this, the video was going to be a partial slide show. I decided against doing that.

Like the other rancho I covered, Rancho Guajome will be coming up again near the end of the series. At that point you will be seeing more of the rooms and other things I missed in this one. I did go back there again for a special occasion that was really fun.

Finally, the tour is good, and you get a lot more history about the place than what I explained here. The only thing I find odd at places like this is where they tell you that a $5 donation is needed to take the tour. It is not the money that bothers me, but the notion of a "forced donation". Just say "a fee" is needed for the tour and I would be okay with that . My guess is there is some loophole used by choosing the word "donation".

Ramona Epic #11: Rancho Guajome (Youtube Version)

Ramona Epic #11: Rancho Guajome (Vimeo Version)

A few other links about the rancho:

The County Of San Diego: Rancho Guajome Adobe

Rancho Guajome: A Legacy Preserved

Ramona Epic #11: Rancho Gaujome (Part 1)

(GPS: N33 14.000 W117 15.225)

It is time to talk about Rancho Guajome which, like the other rancho I covered, is considered to be the basis of the one used in Helen Hunt Jackson's book. I decided to split this one up into two parts as well. I will cover some of the real history in this one, and in the next blog will cover some of the fictional basis for why it too is considered the home of Ramona.

Originally, the land belonged to the San Luis Rey Mission. The mission is less than a few miles away. During the secularization of the missions in the Mexican period of California history, the land was granted to two indians: Jose and Andres Manuel. They sold their land to Don Abel Sterns. Sterns married into the Bandini family.

Cave Johnson Couts, born in Tennessee, a graduate of West Point, served in the frontier until after the Mexican War. He arrived in California during the years of 1849-1851. He married Ysidora Bandini. As a wedding gift he was given the land from his brother-in-law Sterns. Couts is the one who started building the adobe rancho you will see.

What you see above is the front of the adobe. You do not enter the adobe on this side though. The parking and gift shop the public enters on is on the other side. Much like the other rancho I visited, you have to take a docent led tour. I should note that the little room you see above was added on much later by the son of Cave Couts. It is the sewing room. It is nice in that you can see all around from above.
Much like the other rancho I visited, Couts built a chapel which he dedicated to his mother in 1868. What you see to the right is the dug out well and the cistern, which you can barely see, is right next to the chapel. Below, I am looking into the chapel. It was rebuilt in 1924. In the video I will be showing, I have a picture that shows that it looks much different than it is now.
This is the carriage courtyard. It is really the first area you encounter on the tour. What you see in the background is the where the blacksmith room is. The tree is supposedly from a seed or a part of the famous tree at the San Luis Rey Mission. I have covered that tree before when I talked about that mission. I link the relevant San Luis Rey Mission blogs below.
This is more from the carriage courtyard looking back to where you enter the rancho on the tour. The entrance to the right is where you enter the main courtyard. You can see the chapel in the background.
One thing Cave Couts was able to do was hire 300 of the local Indians to help build the 22 room adobe rancho. One of the problems Couts had was he had a fiery temper. He was indicted twice for whipping two Indians. One did die. He ended up killing two Hispanics and was charged for murder twice. Oddly enough, one of these murders took place at another Ramona site I will be covering eventually.

Much like the other rancho I covered, livestock was very important early on, but the drought issue of the 1860's forced the rancho to turn to agricultural products. When Couts died in 1874, Ysidora took over ownership of the rancho. When she died her 4th son Cave Couts Jr. took over.

I think I will stop with the historical points for this one. I will continue more with Rancho Guajome next time. The video will be coming, and I will come back and edit some of the wording like I normally do once I have the next blog up.

Ramona Epic #11: Rancho Guajome (Youtube Version)

Ramona Epic #11: Rancho Guajome (Vimeo Version)

This links to the San Luis Rey Mission blogs where the famous tree is covered:

San Luis Rey Mission Blogs