The Town of Locke - Walnut Grove, California

DATE:  July 12, 2015

HISTORICAL SITE:  The Town Of Locke

LOCATION:  13920 Main St., Walnut Grove, Sacramento Co., CA

MARKER #:  71000174

DEDICATED:  May 6, 1971

"Locke   Founded in 1912, by Tin Sin Chan, on this site. This unique Chinese community grew rapidly after a fire destroyed the Chinese section of Walnut Grove in 1915. At one time, the town had a population of 1,500, with a theater, hotel, school, church, nine grocery stores, six restaurants, a bakery, lodge and post office. The entire town is Chinese architecture and the original buildings are still standing. Locke residents contributed greatly to the development of levees in the Sacramento Delta"

MARKER PLACED BY:  Dedicated by the Sacramento County Historical Society

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS: 

樂居 or 乐居 = Locke

It is said that Locke is the only truly Chinese enclave left in the United States.

When we lived in the town of Hood, we were only 12 miles away from Locke, but go there and it's a total different world, almost a different era.

I took Dirk because Locke had always been a bit of a mysterious place. There were very few inhabitants and it seemed as though the ones there didn't really want to deal with "outsiders".

The few times I was there, I would often catch glimpses of some movement in alleyways between the buildings but when I would stop and really look, no one was there.

So I took Dirk thinking we wouldn't be there very long, but oh boy...Locke has changed!

Open for the public is a renovated lodging house with a museum. The schoolhouse and gambling house have been cleaned up and are open as they were in Locke's heyday.

 

Finally, money has come to the rescue of Locke!

The Swampland Reclamation Act of 1861 was designed to drain swamp areas, build levies and protect the Sacramento area from flooding. Mostly poor Chinese, being paid less than a dollar a day, stood in swampy water, risking malaria, and built hundreds of miles of levees and reclaimed 88,000 acres. Those acres were to become some of the most fertile land in California.

In 1912, three Chinese merchants asked the land owner, George Locke, if they could build on his land. They built a dry goods store/beer hall, a gambling establishment and a hotel/restaurant.

And we had the beginnings of a town. The town was called Lockeport after the owner.

These 3 merchants could have bought the land but this was the time of the "California Alien Land Law" and the Chinese weren't allowed to own any land.

A total of 7 buildings became the town of Lockeport, including a bordello. Although it had been hoped that Lockeport would become a riverboat and train destination, the discrimination against the Chinese was too much to overcome

In 1915, the Chinese area of nearby Walnut Grove burnt to the ground and a lot of the Chinese moved to Lockeport.

Finally, the Chinese found somewhere in the U.S. where they were more or less left alone and could find good steady, although seasonal, work.

The population ebbed and flowed based on the growing and harvest seasons. As many as 1,500 people lived in Locke when there was work in the fields...a migrant population. And the town welcomed them by providing all the lodging, stores and entertainment desired.

During the 1940's and 1950's, the Chinese community, becoming better educated, started moving out of these small towns and into the cities. It was the death to many of these communities, but Locke tried to hold on. Time moves on, the younger people move and the older people pass and Locke was disintegrating before their eyes.

In 1977, a Hong Kong business man bought the town from the heirs of George Locke. The idea was to build a few new houses in the area and to make Locke a tourist destination, of sorts.

They were stymied by the people. People wanted Locke back but not at the cost that was becoming clear. And they were stymied by the fact that the town was on the National Register of Historic Places, which really limits how things can be renovated or improved.

While they tried to get the Chinese to rebuild their buildings, very few were interested in sinking money into the buildings they owned on land that someone else did.

Locke was given the designation of a National Historic Landmark District in 1990.

Discouraged, the Hong Kong business man finally sold the land and town to the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency and in turn, the land was sold to the people who owned the buildings on top of it.

The modest changes we saw have been brought about by that Agency, along with the people in Locke. There is a small memorial section dedicated to "in the memory of the industrious Chinese pioneers of California whose strength and sacrifice helped build the transcontinental railroad, construct the levees of the Sacramento San Joaquin Delta, and developed agriculture in the Central Valley. With determination and perseverance the Chinese built the town of Locke and continue to shape California".

 

While there are signs of life now, there is plenty of decay left. When Dirk and I got to the end of Main Street, we turned down another area. The road was unpaved and although people still live there, most of the houses were in various stages of falling apart and the smell was unpleasant.

Currently, about 75 people live in Locke. Of those 75, only about 10 are Chinese.

Interesting article written in the 80's about Locke.

Foster's Bighorn - Rio Vista, California

DATE:  July 12, 2015

SITE:  Foster's Bighorn

LOCATION:  143 Main St., Rio Vista, Solano Co., California

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS: 

I have to say…I love this place! I’ve been here a handful of times and I’m blown away every time I walk in. The number of animals is amazing but memory tends to minimize the effect so when you walk in after not being here for some time, you get the same “whoa”!

Foster’sBighorn really is the story of Bill Foster. Sometimes I wonder if Foster’s biography is true to fact or gets embellished as time goes on, but it is a fascinating story all the same.

In 1918, Foster was an apprentice to a big game hunter who was bringing some of the first wildlife movies to the U.S., but he had other “interests”. It is said that he was involved in bootlegging during the 20’s and, on the run from the law, moved to Rio Vista, California.

Rio Vista is a little town on the Sacramento River. Little now so it must have been relatively unknown and distant from any big city back in the 20’s.

Foster loved traveling and starting in 1928, he made 8 trips to Africa and 10 to Canada and Alaska.

The results of those trips are all over the walls at the restaurant. There are over 250 “heads” from his kills in Africa and North America. This place is covered with his trophies. The elephant, with its truck soaring over the restaurant, is one of very few in existence. And the giraffe is extremely rare.

But he was also into photography, so where there isn’t a prized trophy, there are pictures hung. Pictures of "tribesmen", places he went and the kills he was involved in. AND each picture has a small typed description that was prepared by Foster himself.

Foster retired from hunting in 1953 and worked in the bar. He died in 1963 but his legacy lives on with the continuance of the bar/restaurant.

I had to laugh over some of the reviews I read about this place. One person wrote “place of murder and greed” and another said “stuffed dead animal heads”…oh  come on folks,…you didn’t know this before you went in? Would this be acceptable in today's world? No, but it was a different time in history and I try to be careful not to judge people from yesterday based on our values today. 

If you’re squeamish, don’t bother coming in. But I can tell you, everyone seems to love this place and you should see how kids react. I think Dirk was pretty impressed!

I don’t think I would normally do an entire blog on a bar/restaurant but this place is so interesting that I’d like to get the word out that if you are ever in the area; this is a place you should stop in at.

Indian Point Ostrich Ranch - Tehachapi, California

DATE:  July 11, 2015

SITE:  Indian Point Ostrich Ranch

LOCATION:  28101 Giraudo Rd., Tehachapi, Kern Co., California

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS: 

The Indian Point Ostrich Ranch had been on my “to do” list when Dana and I were driving to Missouri but because of timing, it didn’t work out. It's quite a ways off the freeway so I was planning on skipping it but Dirk knew it was high on my list and because he is pretty much game to do anything, off we went. Besides, I promised Dirk an ostrich burger when we were done.

Indian Point Ostrich ranch was started in 1992 on the site of a previous cattle ranch.  Our guide, a World of Warcraft aficionado we found out later, walked us around the ranch explaining how they are raised and what they are raised for.

We were first introduced to a male/female pair and were told the females mate for life while the males…well, not so much. Mating season goes from March/April to just before September.  The males spread their wing feathers and make a “Pahrump” sound, one of the very few sounds an ostrich makes.

Once they have mated, the hens lay 50 or more eggs a year. In the wild, the male will mate with several females but all the hens lay their eggs in a communal nest. The dominate female will lay her eggs first and once all females lay, the dominate female will remove the eggs from the “weak” females.

The eggs weight about 3 pounds each and equal 18 to 24 chicken eggs. Once the chicks are hatched, they are fawn in color and the sex isn't known for about a year. Chicks grow about 1 foot a month.

Females and young males are a greyish brown and white while full grown males have beautiful plumage in black and white. We're told that ostriches live to be over 50 years old, weigh up to 300 lbs., and can run 40 MPH.

They have the largest eyes of any land vertebrate which allows them to see predators from very far away. They can run from predators but will also lay with their heads and neck flat on the ground, appearing in the shimmering heat, to be a mound of dirt.

They are also the closest living relative to the dinosaur and drawings have been found on pottery and in petroglyphs.

Our guide tells us that ostriches are curious and friendly. Curious we saw...they came straight to the fence when we walked over.

A kid asked if they could touch the ostriches and she said she would only touch the young male as the female tends to bite harder. But of course, no one in that family would try so I figured, why not? When am I going to have another chance to let an ostrich bite my hand. The guide was right, it didn't hurt, but it did startle me the first time.

But friendly though they are, we are told they have a memory span of about 15 seconds. I'm reminded of the character Tom in 50 First Dates. He has a brain injury and can only remembers things for 10 seconds so he goes around introducing himself and then introducing himself and then introducing himself.

 

Next we are shown Ralph. This ostrich is a beautiful full grown male and has been in several commercials, movies and even one Megadeth music video.

They make no secret that some of the ostriches are raised for their meat, but it was how they determine who becomes steak and burgers and who stays on as breeding stock that is interesting.

There are 3 species of ostriches…The North African ostrich, also known as “red necked” – they are the largest and most aggressive. It is this species that gives the ostrich its bad reputation. Then comes the Southern ostrich and the Masai ostrich.

The goal is to raise very large yet gentle ostriches and they've come upon a way to determine that trait. Once chicks are a year old, they are separated by sex and then the "pecking order" starts. One ostrich will be the dominate and will peck the feathers off the others, the next dominate will do the same and on down the line until the poor docile one is without feathers.

But here is where being last to be picked for the team works out. The ranch sends the most aggressive, dominate ostriches to the hamburger making place. As Dirk said..."its good NOT to be King here".

P.S. The place to go to get the Ostrich burger is a little place called The Burger Spot. Dirk had one and said it was very good. No, I wasn't brave enough.