Fort Romie, commonly known simply as Romie, is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Monterey County Monterey County ( ), officially the County of Monterey, is a county located on the Pacific coast in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 439,035. The county's largest city and county seat is ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. It is located in the

Salinas Valley The Salinas Valley (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Valle de Salinas'') is one of the major valleys and most productive Agriculture, agricultural regions in California. It is located west of the San Joaquin Valley and south of San Francisco Bay and ...

, at an elevation of 187 feet (57 m).

History

It was one of three Salvation Army Colonies established in America. The name honors Charles Romie, a landowner who sold the land, originally part of Rancho Ex-Mission Soledad, to the

Salvation Army The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestantism, Protestant Christian church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. It is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The organisation reports a worldwide m ...

. The Salvation Army goal was to take poor families from the cities and bring them back to nature so that their lives would be improved. The Salvation Army sought people who had some knowledge of farming. Each family had 10 acres. A family with two children had a two-room house, those with three or more children had a four-room house. Everything was furnished to the settlers without charge: seed, sheds, tools equipment were provided by the Salvation Army for all to use. In return they contracted to make yearly payments of $100 for 10 years, after which they would own the land. A post office operated at Romie from 1898 to 1900. The name honors Charles Romie, a landowner who sold the land to the

to establish an agricultural community at the site in 1898.

References

Unincorporated communities in Monterey County, California Salinas Valley Unincorporated communities in California {{MontereyCountyCA-geo-stub