Discovery of old, mystery structure on Camarillo hillside prompts search for answers

Cheri Carlson, Ventura County Star
·4 min read
15

Archeologist Colleen Delaney waded through waist-high grass recently returning to a spot at CSU Channel Islands that still holds mysteries she hopes to unravel.

A decade earlier, the Springs Fire burned through hillsides near the Camarillo campus, uncovering a foundation and partial walls likely hidden for years by thick chaparral. She and her students spotted the remnants of the structure while surveying the area.

"I didn't really know what to expect to find out there," said Delaney, chair of the college's anthropology department. “We definitely didn’t expect this little building on the side of the hill.”

With no records of the small structure, she and her students tried to piece together its past and learn about the history of the land itself — a property once part of a historic ranch, Delaney said. At first glance, she thought the small home might date back to the ranching era.

In May 2019, she and a group of students started to excavate the 9-foot-by-12-foot spot, uncovering artifacts that helped them add pieces to the puzzle. What they didn't find led them to believe it wasn't a home after all.

Part of a toy bus found in the remnants of an old structure on a hillside near CSU Channel Islands.
Part of a toy bus found in the remnants of an old structure on a hillside near CSU Channel Islands.

Toys, makeup and a piano pedal

On hands and knees, the group sifted through the rocky dirt with trowels and brushes a few inches at a time, said archeologist Brianna Rotella, a recent graduate at the time of the dig.

Some items the group uncovered were clearly store bought and others handmade. There was an old toy Tonka trunk and part of a Max Factor brush handle from the 1930s. They dated a Gillette razor and lipstick tubes to the 1950s. But there was little "domestic debris," Delaney said.

“There are a couple of forks and spoons," she said. "There’s no bowls. There are no cups — things that would suggest somebody lived there.”

Students found nails, screws, dozens of small jars and bottles partially filled with paints and plaster and a rusted oil can from the Hudson Motor Car Company, which went out of business in the 1950s. Other seemingly random items added to the list: A broken whiskey bottle, bullet casings and a piano pedal.

"The glass bottles were from the early 1900s to the '50s," said Rotella, who analyzed the historic period fragments. "We assumed that they were being repurposed and reused."

CSU Channel Islands professor Colleen Delaney said this Max Factor makeup brush holder found during an excavation likely dates to pre-1936.
CSU Channel Islands professor Colleen Delaney said this Max Factor makeup brush holder found during an excavation likely dates to pre-1936.

'Still an enigma'

It appeared that someone over the years had used the spot to paint, she said.

"Whenever I go to thrift stores, I'm always trying to look to see if there is any old pictures and paintings of the hills," she said.

Given the age of the artifacts, the bulk of the use of the structure likely happened in the 1950s, Delaney said.

But the foundation and walls didn’t fit the style of the old Camarillo State Hospital, which owned the land from the 1930s through the late 1990s. Based on aerial photographs, Delaney believes a small quarry was located nearby, and the structure may have been built to support work there.

Children of hospital employees could have left behind the toys and even the makeup. Other items may have come later, as people wandered in and out over the years.

“It is still an enigma,” Delaney said. “I’m hoping the structure is recent enough that I can still find some people who might know something about it. But so far, I haven’t had any luck.”

CSU Channel Islands professor Colleen Delaney looks at a rusted can found at a site she and her students excavated after the Springs Fire uncovered an old foundation near the Camarillo campus.
CSU Channel Islands professor Colleen Delaney looks at a rusted can found at a site she and her students excavated after the Springs Fire uncovered an old foundation near the Camarillo campus.

'The people you can't see'

The discovery led Delaney on a deep dive into the area's history. She dug through historical documents, aerial photographs, newspapers and oral history, learning about its early inhabitants from the Chumash people to Ysabel Yorba, the widow who ran the 1800s-era Rancho Guadalasca.

The historic ranch is the subject of an exhibit Delaney curated that is now on display at the university's John Spoor Broome Library. She also wrote a book released earlier this year. Her research and the discoveries represent groups not always included in historical documents — the workers and the children, she said.

“It’s all about the people you can’t see,” she said.

In addition to the old structure, she and her students found a series of artifacts scattered in the area after the fire. Someone had carved the date July 4, 1958, into wet cement on a boulder. Items with state hospital identification tags had been left behind. An old cup and saucer was seemingly forgotten on a random hill.

“You can imagine some dairy employee sitting there in the morning drinking his coffee watching the cattle,” she said.

To Delaney, each item holds a clue.

Cheri Carlson covers the environment and county government for the Ventura County Star. Reach her at cheri.carlson@vcstar.com or 805-437-0260.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Camarillo structure discovery prompts search for answers