Ojai is a city in Ventura County, California. Located in the Ojai Valley, it is northwest of Los Angeles and east of Santa Barbara. The valley is part of the east–west trending Western Transverse Ranges and is about 10 miles (16 km) long by 3 miles (5 km) wide and divided into a lower and an upper valley, each of similar size, surrounded by hills and mountains. The population was 7,637 at the 2020 census, up from 7,461 at the 2010 census.
Gilroy Yamato Hot Springs, a California Historical Landmark and on the list of National Register of Historic Places, is a property near Gilroy, California famed for its mineral hot springs and historic development by early settlers and Japanese immigrants. The earliest extant Italianate–Victorian style structures date from the 1870s, and the earliest bathhouse dates from 1890. Other early structures are a Buddhist shrine from 1939 and a Japanese garden teahouse from that same year. The property is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The hot spring's temperature ranges from 99° to 111 °F. These springs are the site of occurrence of certain extremophile micro-organisms, that are capable of surviving in extremely hot environments.
Sespe Creek is a stream, some 61 miles (98 km) long, in Ventura County, southern California, in the Western United States. The creek starts at Potrero Seco in the eastern Sierra Madre Mountains, and is formed by more than thirty tributary streams of the Sierra Madre and Topatopa Mountains, before it empties into the Santa Clara River in Fillmore.
The Ventura River, in western Ventura County in southern California, United States, flows 16.2 miles (26.1 km) from its headwaters to the Pacific Ocean. The smallest of the three major rivers in Ventura County, it flows through the steeply sloped, narrow Ventura Valley, with its final 0.7 miles (1.1 km) through the broader Ventura River estuary, which extends from where it crosses under a 101 Freeway bridge through to the Pacific Ocean.
Mercey Hot Springs is an unincorporated community and historical hot springs resort in the Little Panoche Valley of Fresno County, central California, about 60 miles (97 km) west-southwest of Fresno.
Ventura County Council of the Boy Scouts of America was officially chartered as Council 57 on June 23, 1921, after a series of meetings that followed a proposal put forward at a County Chamber of Commerce meeting on March 28, 1921, in the Masonic Hall. Mr. C. H. Whipple, then of Moorpark and later Oxnard, became the president; and Col. J.L. Howland became commissioner. Harvey R. Cheesman, an assistant scout executive in the Los Angeles Council, became the first Scout Executive, assuming his duties on July 11.
Matilija Creek is a major stream in Ventura County in the U.S. state of California. It joins with North Fork Matilija Creek to form the Ventura River. Many tributaries feed the mostly free flowing, 17.3-mile (27.8 km) creek, which is largely contained in the Matilija Wilderness. Matilija was one of the Chumash rancherias under the jurisdiction of Mission San Buenaventura. The meaning of the Chumash name is unknown.
Camp Scheideck, California is an unincorporated community in Ventura County in Southern California within the Cuyama Valley about 37 miles (60 km) due north of Ojai and 30 miles (48 km) from Frazier Park in Kern County.
Howard Springs is a set of springs turned into a resort in the 1870s in Lake County, California. The resort catered primarily to people interested in the curative powers of the mineral waters. Guests were accommodated in cabins or tents. At one time it had an official post office. The resort changed hands many times over the years, with various changes to the lodge, accommodations and bathhouses, until closing in 1970. For a period it was leased for geothermal exploration. Today it has reopened as a health resort.
Seigler Springs is a set of springs in Lake County, California around which a resort developed in the 19th century. In the 1930s the resort was expanded, and in 1947 an airport opened nearby. The resort declined in the 1960s. Part of it was separated out and became a residential subdivision, while part became a religious retreat. The 2015 Valley Fire caused great damage.
Royce Gaylord Surdam was an American businessman, real estate agent and developer. He did a lot to build up Ventura County, California, and was the founder of the towns of Nordhoff, which was later renamed Ojai, and Bardsdale. Surdam never married, was a Royal Arch Mason and a staunch Republican.
Nordhoff High School (NHS), originally Nordhoff Union High School, is a public high school in Ojai, California that serves the Ojai Valley. The school, established in 1910, is part of the Ojai Unified School District.
Ojala is an unincorporated community in Ventura County, California, United States. Ojala is located along California State Route 33, 4.1 miles (6.6 km) northwest of Ojai. Ojala sits at the foot of Nordhoff Ridge in Los Padres National Forest. Ojala was once served by the smallest post office in the United States, which was the size of a phone booth. It can still be visited in neighboring Wheeler Springs, CA. Ojala was one of the first tourist attractions by Ojai Valley, primarily due to its natural hot springs.
The Sespe Wilderness is a 219,700-acre (88,900 ha) wilderness area in the eastern Topatopa Mountains and southern Sierra Pelona Mountains, within the Los Padres National Forest (LPNF), in Ventura County, Southern California. The wilderness area is primarily located within the Ojai and Mt. Pinos ranger districts of the LPNF.
Matilija Dam is a concrete arch dam in Ventura County, California, completed in 1947. Designed for water storage and flood control, it impounds Matilija Creek to create the Matilija Reservoir in the Los Padres National Forest, south of the Matilija Wilderness and north of Ojai.
Wheeler Springs is an unincorporated community that grew around a set of sulphurated hot springs in Ventura County, California. It is located 6 miles north of the Ojai Valley, within Los Padres National Forest. It is named for Wheeler Blumberg, who founded the town in 1891, and the many natural hot springs.
The Matilija Wilderness is a 29,207-acre (11,820 ha) wilderness area in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, Southern California. It is managed by the U.S. Forest Service, being situated within the Ojai Ranger District of the Los Padres National Forest. It is located adjacent to the Dick Smith Wilderness to the northwest and the Sespe Wilderness to the northeast, although it is much smaller than either one. The Matilija Wilderness was established in 1992 in part to protect California condor habitat.
The Ojai Valley Inn, or Ojai Valley Inn and Spa, is a 220-acre resort and golf course (89 ha) in Ojai, California. The golf course was developed in 1923, and the inn began in the 1930s. The property has undergone multiple renovations and expansions over the years, including the addition of the Spa Ojai in 1997.
Indian Hot Springs, also known as Holladay Hot Springs and Eden Hot Springs, is a geothermal spring system located near Eden, Arizona in the former settlement of Indian Hot Springs, Arizona. The springs have also been referred to as "Jewel in the Desert" and Indian Hot Springs at Eden.
Lyons Springs, sometimes Lyon Spring, originally Nogales Hot Springs, was a naturally occurring sulphur spring and associated resort in Matilija Creek Canyon, near Ojai, Ventura County, California. Located between Vickers Springs and Matilija Hot Springs, the Lyon Spring resort was established in the 1880s.
1889 map attached to application for a post office at Matilija, Ventura County, California
Matilija Hot Springs stagecoach crossing a bridge (Ventura Co. Museum gp196)
Matilija Hot Springs, California, 1905
Matilija Hot Springs, 1905
Matilija Hot Springs, 1905
Matilija Hot Springs, 1905
