September 20, 2014 —
Sign from the Southern Pacific Railroad's little Camulos depot. Displayed in the Del Valles' 1853 adobe home at Rancho Camulos Museum.
The depot was
built by the Southern Pacific Railroad sometime around the turn of the 20th Century on the Del Valles' Rancho Camulos property, just east of the
old ranch buildings and north of the highway (next to the train tracks).
Both the SPRR and the Del Valles capitalized on the tourist trade by promoting Camulos as the legendary "Home of Ramona" from Helen Hunt Jackson's
popular 1884 novel. The Del Valles sold oranges and walnuts with the Ramona label while the railroad added a whistle stop to attract passengers to its
1887 spur line from Saugus to Ventura.