Ventura County Landmark No. 51: Piru Methodist Church and Organ

“Piru is a census-designated small town situated near the base of the Piru Mountains, where Piru Creek empties into the Santa Clara River, at the upper end of the Santa Clara Valley. The Tataviam Indians originally inhabited this area, which they named for the tule reeds growing along Piru Creek that they used to weave baskets. Originally pronounced ‘Peeroo,’ the accent was changed by train conductors who would shout ‘Pieroo’ when coming into town. David Caleb Cook, a publisher of religious books from Illinois, was attracted to this area after reading Helen Jackson Hunt’s ‘Ramona’ and came to this valley with the idea of establishing a ‘Second Garden of Eden.’ Cook purchased Rancho Temescal from the Del Valle family in 1887, which was a 14,000-acre portion of Rancho Camulos, and proceeded to establish his idyllic town. He planted over 900 acres of fruits identified with the Biblical garden – apricots, dates, figs, grapes, olives and pomegranates. Prior to this, entrepreneurs in the region had begun extracting oil from the ground as early as the mid 1800s. This unrefined oil was a thick, sticky substance called asphaltum that was used to surface roads and seal roofs. By the 1880s, almost all of the State’s oil production came from this region. Cook eventually sold his property to the Piru Oil and Land Company and returned to his publishing business in Illinois. The town of Piru grew little by little, but unfortunately never became the ‘Second Garden of Eden’ Cook had hoped for. Adding insult to injury, on March 12, 1928, the St. Francis Dam broke, sending a torrent of water through the Santa Clara River Valley, causing the deaths of 400 people, many in Piru. As of the 2000 census, population was 1,196.” (Los Angeles Public Library, n. d.).