About a dozen people on Saturday walked the same dirt path and up the same steps American author Helen Hunt Jackson used on Jan. 23, 1882, when she came to Rancho Camulos in the Santa Clara River Valley.
The ranch and stagecoach stop near Piru, between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, is said to be the inspiration for one of the settings in Jackson’s popular 1884 novel “Ramona.”
Rancho Camulos Museum offered an immersive experience of the 1882 Jackson visit on Saturday at the property, 10 miles west of Interstate 5 along State Route 126. As guests arrived, they freely toured the grounds and interacted with members of the del Valle family and others, portrayed by Rancho Camulos Museum docents in period attire. Then everyone was directed to the arriving stagecoach.
“A carriage is coming,” said Maria Christopher, a docent in character as the lady of the house, Susanna Avila del Valle. “A carriage is coming.”…