CUYAMA OAKS XP
NEW CUYAMA, CALIFORNIA
3-Day 155 Mile Pioneer
AERC
MARCH 21st-23rd, 2009
THIS IS THE 9th YEAR OF OUR POPULAR RIDE IN NEW CUYAMA,
LOCATED IN THE GRASSLANDS AND OAK COVERED FOOTHILLS BETWEEN SANTA
MARIA AND BAKERSFIELD. THE WILDFLOWERS AND SPRING GRASSES ARE
BLOOMING AND THIS RIDE WILL GIVE THE DUCK A REASON TO SPEND THE
WINTER IN THE PROMISED LAND WORKING ON THE RIDE. THIS RIDE
WILL DEFINITELY HAVE THE FLAVOR OF THE XP RIDES AND THOSE EXPECTING
A TYPICAL CALIFORNIA RIDE WILL BE VERY DISAPPOINTED AND SHOULD FIND
SOMETHING ELSE TO DO FOR THE WEEK THIS RIDE IS A WORK IN PROGRESS
AND YOU SHOULD CHECK WITH RIDE MANAGEMENT FOR LAST MINUTE UPDATES AS
WE GET CLOSER TO THE RIDE DATE.
BASE CAMP:
THE RIDE WILL START IN SCHOOLHOUSE CANYON ON PRIVATE LAND AT THE
2300 FOOT LEVEL. ALL THE DAYS ARE LOOP RIDES OUT OF THE SAME CAMP.
THE CAMP IS PRIMITIVE AND HAS NO FACILITIES OTHER
THAN
LIMITED HORSE WATER. PLEASE BRING AS MUCH WATER ON YOUR OWN AS YOU
CAN. ANNIE WILL PROVIDE EVENING MEALS FOR THOSE WHO RESERVE AND PAY
FOR THEM IN ADVANCE. NEW CUYAMA HAS A GAS STATION, MOTEL, RESTAURANT
AND STORE. THOSE COMING FROM THE EAST WILL GO 9.3 MILES WEST OF NEW
CUYAMA ON HWY 166 TO THE GREEN GATE ON THE SOUTH (LEFT) SIDE OF THE
ROAD. USE YOUR ODOMETER SINCE THERE ARE GATES WITHIN
1000
FEET
EITHER SIDE OF THE CORRECT GATE. THOSE COMING FROM PCH (101) WILL
HEAD EAST ON 166 TO THE GREEN GATE. ABOUT 16 MILES WEST OF NEW
CUYAMA YOU WILL CROSS THE CUYAMA RIVER AND THEN COTTONWOOD ROAD. RESET YOUR
ODOMETER HERE AT COTTONWOOD RD. THE GREEN GATE IS 3.4 MILES EAST
OF COTTONWOOD ROAD ON
THE SOUTH (RIGHT) SIDE OF THE HIGHWAY. CLOSE AND LOCK THE GREEN
GATE (COMBINATION WILL BE SENT IN AN EMAIL TO THE RIDERS)
AFTER YOU GO THROUGH IT AND THEN DRIVE 3 MILES SOUTH ON A DIRT ROAD
TO THE CAMP. ABOUT A MILE UP THE DIRT ROAD YOU WILL CROSS A DRY
CREEK (COULD BE WET). TAKE THE RIGHT FORK AFTER THE CREEK. GO
THROUGH THE YELLOW GATE AT 2.5 MILES. LEAVE THE GATE CLOSED UNLESS A
SIGN DIRECTS YOU TO DO OTHERWISE. FOR THOSE GPS WIZARDS, THE
GATE COORDINATES ARE: N35 00.082 W119 50.084
TRAIL: MOST OF THE RIDE WILL TAKE PLACE ON PRIVATE LANDS
THAT TRACE BACK TO THE OLD SPANISH LAND GRANTS. THE TRAIL IS MORE
DIFFICULT THAN MOST XP RIDES AND RANGES FROM A CRUDE SINGLE TRACK TO
DIRT ROADS. THERE WILL BE WIRE GATES TO OPEN AND CLOSE AS WE PASS
THROUGH PRIVATE CATTLE COUNTRY. THE RIDE TAKES PLACE IN THE
GRASSLANDS, OAK COVERED FOOTHILLS AND BRUSHY MOUNTAINS OF THE
CALIFORNIA COASTAL RANGE. THE TRAIL HAS SOME ROCKY PORTIONS THAT
SOME FEEL NECESSITATES THE USE OF HOOF PROTECTION. THE ELEVATION
RANGES BETWEEN 1600 AND 5600 FEET. THE AREA IS HOME TO MOUNTAIN
LION, BEAR, COYOTES AND AN OCCASIONAL FROZEN DUCK. THE TRAILS WIND
THROUGH THE SAME ROLLING PASTURE LAND THAT HAVE SUPPORTED CATTLE
SINCE THE DAYS OF THE CALIFORNIA VAQUEROS.
AWARDS: COMPLETION AWARDS WILL BE GIVEN TO ALL
SUCCESSFUL HORSE AND RIDER TEAMS. HORSE AND RIDER TEAMS
THAT COMPLETE ALL XP RIDES IN A SINGLE YEAR WILL RECEIVE
THE SPECIAL EMBROIDERED XP JACKET AND BLANKET WHICH WILL BE READY BY
THE TIME OF THE AERC CONVENTION.
CUYAMA HISTORY: Local
Information The Cuyama Valley is
best known for its oil strike of the 40’s and 50’s. Richfield Oil Company
was instrumental in the establishment of the town site as it is
today. Yet Cuyama’s
history dates much farther back and is significantly woven into the
fabric of California history as a state and a territory.
There are many
pronunciations of the name “Cuyama”. Some of the more common
mispronunciations are “Cay-u-ma”, “Kee-ah-ma, and
“Koo-yah-mah”. The
Duck’s favorite is “Nuke-yor-mama”. The proper pronunciation is
“Kwee-ah-ma”, suspected to be Chumash for Valley of the Clams. There are, in fact,
considerable deposits of fossilized marine sediment containing clam
shells in and around the valley. The name can be documented
on paper as far back as 1843 when the name Arroyo Llamado de Cuyam
is mentioned and again in 1846 when the name Cuyama was given to two
land grants. Some
suggest it has its origins in the word Kuyam, meaning to rest,
repose, sit and wait. Extensive
deposits of fossilized marine sediment are found in the Cuyama
Valley. These beds
contain the fossilized remains of Ostrea titan, the huge
oyster, Argo pecten, an
early scallop, and Astrodapsis cuyamesis, an
early sand dollar. The
Astrodopsis cuyamesis
takes its species name from the Cuyama Valley as this is the only
place to date that fossilized remains can be found. These fossil beds can also
be accessed through guided tours as many are on private land.
In addition to
early architecture, Cuyama Valley has many points of pre-California
and prehistoric interest as well. The Chumash Indians were
some of the earliest documented inhabitants of the valley. Extensive anthropological
study of the valley estimates their population to have been as high
as 1000 and 30,000 in their entire range. The Chumash were centrally
based hunters and gatherers that traveled seasonally to resources,
such as pinion nuts and antelope, and did not take part in
agriculture. The Chumash inhabited the area for 13,000 years. The
evidence of their presence appears as cave and rock paintings
scattered throughout the Cuyama Valley and Carrizo Plains as well as
stone artifacts commonly found in this area. The natural erosion
process and vandalism have taken their toll and many of these sites
are now under the auspices of the Nature Conservancy and the
BLM. Guided tours are
available locally for their viewing. Many of the Chumash village
site artifacts collected from the Cuyama Valley are on display at
the Natural History Museum in Santa
Barbara. As you ride to
the top of the mountain on the last day, you will be able to see the
mountain ranges north of Santa Barbara where the mission was
located. The Chumash
Indians revolted many times under the repressive mission system and
escaped from their Spanish captors and made it to this area. Their
recapture in the San Joaquin Valley and arduous trip back thru
Cuyama to the mission is a little known California version of the
“trail of tears”. The
old trails to the east of Hog Pen Springs were the main route back
to the mission.
In 1841, the
Bartelson Party of wagon trains headed west from Missouri, using the
route many of us traversed on the summer XP 2001. Among them was eighteen year
old Nancy Kelsey and her husband Benjamin. They began their journey
with sixty nine men, women and children. On November 4, 1841, six
months after beginning their journey, Benjamin Kelsey and John
Bidwell led the remaining twenty-four emigrants across the Sierra
Nevada Range into California. During the Bear
Flag Revolt of 1846, Nancy Kelsey was chosen to create the flag for
the California Republic.
With designs of William Todd, a nephew of Abraham Lincoln,
she fashioned the flag from a piece of unbleached muslin and a strip
of red fabric from her petticoat. Her design is still flown
today as the state flag of
California. Throughout the
years, Nancy and her husband traveled extensively. When Benjamin
died in Los Angeles in 1888, Nancy, remembering the Cuyama Valley as
one of her favorite places, applied for and received a government
homestead of 160 acres in what is now Kelsey Canyon. She built a homestead
cabin and began raising poultry. At regular intervals, she
traveled by buckboard to Santa Maria to market fryers and setting
hens. When Nancy neared death she was cared for by the family living
nearby in Cottonwood Canyon. After her death a “real” coffin was
brought from Santa Maria by buckboard as per her request and she was
buried by the homestead she died at.
Bonnie
Goller now lives on that homestead and has graciously allowed us to
pass through her private property on the ride. We will pass by the Nancy
Kelsey grave site on the last day just before we enter Bates Canyon,
on the climb to the top of the Sierra
Madres. The Mexican land
grants in the valley are relatively recent and date to the period
just before California was taken over by the United States. After California was
admitted to the Union, many smaller homesteads were granted in the
area, including the one that you are camped on. The base camp is
located in Schoolhouse Canyon, named for the first school in Cuyama
Valley. That one room school was located in the north end of the
camp pasture near the yellow gate. Old stone ruins remain along
the fence line west of the gate. A second school was
built in the 1930’s and was later used as the ranch house for the
Spade ranch. Most of the later homesteads are in the brush covered
foothills, while the old Mexican land grant was located in the lower
country where the grazing would have been
better. The town of New
Cuyama is probably most famous, in current times for the Buckhorn
Bar and restaurant.
Established in 1953 by Richfield Oil, to service the new town
and to provide a meeting and recreation place for its employees, it
has come to be known in modern times for its great food and friendly
atmosphere. The banquet
room features “ Lamar’s Cabin”, named for Cuyama’s longest resident,
Lamar Johnson. A
mini museum, Lamars Cabin should be seen by anyone interested in the
colorful history of Cuyama. In the two years
following the initial oil strike, Cuyama’s oil fields boomed into
fifth place among California’s oil areas in average daily
production. Today,
Hallador production is still involved in gas and oil production on
the same location and is a major employer in the valley.
The
original land grant is now known as the Russell Ranch and runs from
the area north of New Cuyama down to Cottonwood Canyon. Most of the open lands in
the lower elevations are part of the ranch. It has been divided into
large pastures so that the cattle can be moved from one pasture to
another to make the best use of the feed. In most years, the cattle
will be able to remain here in the valley on a permanent basis, but
modern transportation now allows the flexibility to move them to
summer pastures and some distant location during drought years, such
as the present. The
wild pigs are a fairly recent addition and have moved into the
Schoolhouse and Deadman Canyon areas in the last few years. The pigs are not a native
species but are descendants of domestic pigs, Spanish escapees and
Russian pigs imported for hunting. The pigs can often be seen in the
brushy areas along the river and have been seen recently near the
windmill just north of the yellow gate.
Much of the
information in this paper was plagiarized from the menu at the
Buckhorn Cafe in New Cuyama.
| 
