California Morgage Prequalification Home Page
Father Junípero Serra founded Mission San Buenaventura in 1782, forming the basis of what would become the city. In 1841, Governor
Juan Bautista Alvarado
Morgage
granted the Rancho San Miguel to Raimundo Olivas, whose Olivas Adobe on the banks of the Santa Clara River was the most magnificent hacienda south of Monterey.
After the American Civil War,
Real Estate Home Values
settlers came to the area either as property owners, buying land from the Mexicans, or simply as squatters. Vast holdings were later acquired by Easterners, including the railroad magnate, Thomas Scott. He was impressed
Mortgage Refinance
by one of the young employees, Thomas R. Bard, who had been in charge of train supplies to Union troops, and Bard was sent west to handle Scott's property.
Bard is often regarded as the Father of Ventura and his descendants have been prominently identified with the growth of Ventura County. The Union Oil Company was organized with Bard as President in 1890, and has offices in Santa Paula. The main Ventura oil field was drilled in 1914 and at its peak
produced 90,000 barrels a day. The city is located between the Ventura River and the Santa Clara River, leading to soil so fertile that citrus grew better here than anywhere else in the state. The citrus farmers formed Sunkist Growers, Incorporated, the world's largest organization of citrus production.
Not easily accessible, Ventura was not a target of immigrants, and as such, remained quiet and rural. For most of the
century which followed the incorporation of Ventura in 1866, it remained isolated from the rest of the state.