Lockwood’s Ranch.
The Weekend Farmgirl Ranch comes with some rich history that I am just now starting to explore. A trip to the Ridge Route Communities Museum yesterday unearthed a treasure trove of information for Pete and me. We actually headed there to see what we could dig up on Dalton Trumbo’s days at the ranch. Yes, that’s THE Dalton Trumbo who has been in the news lately. (You may have read that Trumbo the movie has just received several Academy Award nominations.) Trumbo purchased the ranch in the 30’s and it is believed he penned many of his acclaimed scripts here. You may recognize these movie titles – Roman Holiday, Exodus, Spartacus, and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. It was during his ownership era that several of the structures were added.
We had pre-arranged for a meeting with Bonnie Kane, the museum historian, but upon arrival, found that all of the Trumbo files were missing. But our disappointment turned into excitement when Bonnie presented us with files on homesteaders – Walter Brown and his son Rollin.
I was beyond ecstatic to sort through the original photos and sure enough! I found a perfect match!
A portion of the main house was the original cabin built in the 1880’s. (You will see it in on the left of the photo as the small room that juts out from the rest of the house.) It is believed that this cabin was THE Lockwood homestead cabin because maps in the 1880’s indicate this property as “Lockwood’s Ranch.” The addition to the original one-room cabin was made by the Brown Family in the early 1920’s. (There are actually photos of the addition with wood siding that we found that pre-date this photo.)
We’re still piecing together the history and I have lots more photos to share with you in future journal entries. Here’s to preserving the history and making new memories at Lockwood’s Ranch!
North of Paso Robles is a small town by the name of Lockwood