Buttonwillow California

[Subdeacon Joe]

:: Buttonwillow ::
Originally called Buena Vista, Henry Miller chose here to build his ranch headquarters, company store, and corrals. Near the old buttonwillow tree that served as a rest stop and watering hole on the old Camino Viejo.

This is an aerial taken in 1928 that shows the town streets, post office, and warehouses. The old ranch headquarters are still there, as is the eternal tree. The electric substation of Kilowatt is just being built East of town with a row of housing.

 

 

[Clay Mosby]

I lived outside of Buttonwillow from '55 - '58, my Dad had a fairly large farm that backed up to the Elk Preserve, then my parents divorced and I moved with my Mom to Rosamond, CA.

Dad kept the farm until he sold out in the late 90's.

[Subdeacon Joe]

4 hours ago, Clay Mosby said:

I lived outside of Buttonwillow from '55 - '58, my Dad had a fairly large farm that backed up to the Elk Preserve, then my parents divorced and I moved with my Mom to Rosamond, CA.

Dad kept the farm until he sold out in the late 90's.

 

Pictures like this, or photos of Nebraska, or the Colorado planes, etc. from the late 1800s, and comments like yours, make me marvel at the vision and fortitude of the people who moved there, looked at the sun baked, baren, unforgiving landscape and say, "I can make a living here!"    

Even here in Sonoma County, I'll drive past a house built in 1890, surrounded by big trees, and force myself to try to see it without the trees, without the other houses close by, but just the bare flood plane.  Yes, very fertile, but dry for much of the year, no year round stream anywhere close, and I'll shake my head.  Those big trees were planted by the guy who built the house and it was his grandchildren who got the benefit of the shade from them. He and his children saw the heat of the summers, and had to drill for the water.  I posted this link on Sunday or Monday: https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=PRP18731122.2.15&srpos=25&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-------- a letter about Sonoma County farmers from 1873.  

 

And the families who went into dairy farming - never a day off, never any vacations, just the same grind every day.