Jolon (;

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

: ''Jolón'';

Salinan The Salinan are a Native American tribe whose ancestral territory is in the southern Salinas Valley and the Santa Lucia Range in the Central Coast of California. Today, the Salinan governments are now working toward federal tribal recognition ...

: ''Xolon'') is a small unincorporated village in southern

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 ...

. Jolon is located on the

San Antonio River The San Antonio River is a major waterway that originates in central Texas in a cluster of springs in midtown San Antonio, about 4 miles north of downtown, and follows a roughly southeastern path through the state. It eventually feeds into the ...

Valley, west of

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 ...

and is entirely surrounded by Fort Hunter Liggett. The origins of Jolon date to 1771, when the Spanish established

Mission San Antonio de Padua Mission San Antonio de Padua is a Spanish missions in California, Spanish mission established by the Franciscan order in present-day Monterey County, California, Monterey County, California, near the present-day town of Jolon, California, Jolon. ...

, under the command of

Saint Junípero Serra In Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Anglican, Oriental Ortho ...

. The town was officially founded by

Californios Californios (singular Californio) are Californians of Spaniards, Spanish descent, especially those descended from settlers of the 17th through 19th centuries before California was annexed by the United States. California's Spanish language in C ...

in 1849, when Antonio Ramírez built an inn as a stop on El Camino Real.

History

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the area was inhabited by the

nation of Indigenous Californians.

Spanish period

The famed

Portolá expedition thumbnail, 250px, Point of San Francisco Bay Discovery The Portolá expedition was a Spanish voyage of exploration in 1769–1770 that was the first recorded European exploration of the interior of the present-day California. It was led by Gas ...

, led by

Gaspar de Portolá Captain Gaspar de Portolá y Rovira (January 1, 1716 – October 10, 1786) was a Spanish Army officer and colonial administrator who served as the first List of governors of California before 1850, governor of the Californias from 1767 to 1770 ...

, camped on the San Antonio River near modern-day Jolon on September 24, 1769, having crossed the

Santa Lucia Range The Santa Lucia Range (sæntə luˈsiːə) or Santa Lucia Mountains is a rugged mountain range in coastal Central California, running from Carmel southeast for to the Cuyama River in San Luis Obispo County. The range is never more than fro ...

from the coast. The party continued north through Jolon Valley.

was established two years later in 1771, under the direction of

Junípero Serra Saint Junípero Serra Ferrer (; ; November 24, 1713August 28, 1784), popularly known simply as Junipero Serra, was a Spanish Roman Catholic, Catholic priest and missionary of the Franciscan Order. He is credited with establishing the Francis ...

, head of the mission system in California. When the mission lands were

secularized In sociology, secularization () is a multilayered concept that generally denotes "a transition from a religious to a more worldly level." There are many types of secularization and most do not lead to atheism or irreligion, nor are they automatica ...

, the lands of the Mission San Antonio de Padua were by law intended to be granted to the indigenous people. In practice, that rarely occurred. The mission lands were divided into several land grants in the Jolon area: * Rancho Milpitas — (Little Gardens) * Rancho San Miguelito — (Little St. Michael) * Rancho El Piojo — (The Louse) * Rancho Posa de los Ositos — (Pool of the Little Bears) * Rancho San Miguelito de Trinidad — * Rancho Los Ojitos

Mexican period

The Mexican secularization act of 1833 was devastating to Mission San Antonio de Padua, reducing its population from 1,300 in 1805 to under 150 in 1834. Following the mass exodus of

Mission Indians Mission Indians was a term used to refer to the Indigenous peoples of California who lived or grew up in the Spanish mission system in California. Today the term is used to refer to their descendants and to specific, contemporary tribal nations ...

from the mission, the small community was practically deserted, making Mission San Antonio de Padua the only mission not to grow into a town during the Spanish or Mexican periods. In 1845, Governor

Pío Pico Don (honorific), Don Pío de Jesús Pico IV (May 5, 1801 – September 11, 1894) was a California politician, ranchero, and entrepreneur, famous for serving as the List of governors of California before 1850, last governor of Alta California und ...

declared all mission buildings in

Alta California Alta California (, ), also known as Nueva California () among other names, was a province of New Spain formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but was made a separat ...

for sale, but no one bid for Mission San Antonio.

American period

The town was founded by Antonio Ramírez, who built an inn at the place in 1850. The Jolon post office was founded in 1872. The inn later became a major Stagecoach Station on the route for travelers between

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. The hotel changed owners several times before 1876, when H.C. Dodge sold it to Lt. George Hough Dutton (1825–1905) for $1,000 and 100 acres. Dutton added a second adobe story, wood-frame structures at either end, called the Dutton Hotel, listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on October 14, 1971. In 1890, Captain Thomas Theodore Tidball, a friend of Dutton, established the Tidball Store, also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In the early 1920s

William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper publisher and politician who developed the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His extravagant methods of yellow jou ...

bought up thousands of acres in the rolling foothills of the Santa Lucia mountains east of Hearst Castle near San Simeon on California's Central Coast. He sent his architect, Julia Morgan, to the eastern side of the range, near Mission San Antonio, to design and oversee the building of a

hacienda A ''hacienda'' ( or ; or ) is an estate (or '' finca''), similar to a Roman '' latifundium'', in Spain and the former Spanish Empire. With origins in Andalusia, ''haciendas'' were variously plantations (perhaps including animals or orchards ...

-style headquarters for the expansion of his ranching operation. The building was called the Hacienda Milpitas Ranchhouse, or simply the Hacienda. Hearst sold his rancho to the U.S. Army in 1940. In preparation for World War II, the army established Fort Hunter Liggett as an important training center for the West Coast, still in operation today.

Geography

Jolon is located in the

Valley of southern

, inland on the

Central Coast of California The Central Coast is an area of California, roughly spanning the coastal region between Point Mugu and Monterey Bay. It lies northwest of Los Angeles and south of the San Francisco Bay Area, and includes the rugged, rural, and sparsely populat ...

Climate

This region experiences warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 74.4 °F. According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

system, Jolon has a

warm-summer Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

, abbreviated "Csb" on climate maps.Climate Summary for Jolon, California
/ref>

Popular culture

Jolon is mentioned in the folk ballad "South Coast," popularized by

the Kingston Trio The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to the late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, ...

on their 1959 album '' ...from the "Hungry i"''. It is imagined as a place where, back in the Spanish frontier days, one could gambl

Jolon is also the setting for

John Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck ( ; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social percep ...

's novel '' To a God Unknown''. The town is not mentioned in the book but is the basis for the fictional town in the book.

References

External links

* {{authority control Unincorporated communities in Monterey County, California Populated places established in 1850 1850 establishments in California Santa Lucia Range Unincorporated communities in California