[4] It was the home of Ygnacio del Valle, a Californio alcalde of the Pueblo de Los Angeles in the 19th century and later elected member of the California State Assembly.

The novel helped to raise awareness about the Californio lifestyle and romanticized "the mission and rancho era of California history.

In 1769, the Spanish Portola expedition, the first Europeans known to see inland areas of California, traveled downriver by boat and camped by the Santa Clara River on August 10.

Fray Juan Crespi, a Franciscan missionary traveling with the expedition, named the valley Cañada de Santa Clara.

The population of this relatively isolated area (only traversed by the El Camino Real), as recorded by William Edward Petty Hartnell during his inspection of the mission in 1839, was 416.

Del Valle bought back some of the other portions from his family, as well as the neighboring Rancho Temescal to the north, and began livestock operations on the expanded area.

The younger Del Valle and his family did not live on the ranch initially, instead settling in a house on what is now Olvera Street in Los Angeles.

[8] In 1908, the Del Valle Company was incorporated by Ygnacio's children, but by 1924, they had sold the property to August Rübel, a native of Zürich, Switzerland.

–Los Angeles Times, August 11, 1924[8]Rübel continued operating the ranch in the same manner as the Del Valles, employing many of same workers.

After his death, his widow Mary married a man named Edwin Burger, who was not as interested in maintaining the rancho.

The fruit from these trees was the first to be commercially grown in what is now Ventura County, although this was relatively small scale because the crops had to be taken by wagon to Los Angeles.

A Southern Pacific line opened in 1876 seventeen miles (27 km) to the east in Saugus, providing a more convenient form of transport.

Ninety acres (360,000 m²) of vineyards were planted in the 1860s and Camulos wines and brandies were known throughout Los Angeles and Santa Barbara.

In contrast to the natural desert-like conditions of the area, photographs of "citrus belts" were publicized that helped establish the image of Southern California for the nation as an idyllic farmland.

[13] After World War II, urban and suburban development displaced much of the Southern California citrus production,[14] with the notable exception of the Santa Clara River Valley.

[15] Ramona, published in 1884, was based in part on experiences that Helen Hunt Jackson had had during her visit to Rancho Camulos in 1882.

Jackson spent only two hours on the ranch and did not meet Ysabel del Valle, but she had a keen eye for details and used many of her observations in the novel.

[18] However, the location of the fictional Moreno Ranch, "midway in the valley [between lands] to the east and west, which had once belonged to the Missions of San Fernando and San Bonaventura [sic]"[19] corresponds to the location of Rancho Camulos, and the physical description of some of the buildings on the fictional ranch accurately describe buildings at Camulos.

Edward Roberts published an article entitled, "Ramona's Home: A Visit to the Camulos Ranch, and to the Scenes Described by 'H.H.'"

By October 1888, housing visitors was getting to be so expensive for the family that Reginaldo del Valle pressed his mother to stop being so hospitable.

[27] D. W. Griffith shot portions of his 1910 silent film adaptation at the rancho, using the chapel, the adobe and patio, and the nearby mountains as backdrops.

One Tataviam servant girl was said to make quite a bit of money by pretending to be the "real Ramona" and charging tourists for a photograph.

[29] Tourists continued to arrive even after the SP relocated its main line in 1903 through the Santa Susana Pass, bypassing Camulos.

Two daily trains made stops at Camulos until the service was discontinued in the 1940s, with tourism by automobile having become the preferred method of travel.

Fifteen buildings are open to the public as part of the Rancho Camulos Museum, all of which were built before 1930 and are still in their original locations.

Landscaping features, such as lawns, flower gardens, ornamental trees, and walkways, separate the residential areas from the working portions of the ranch.

When initially constructed in 1853, it was an L-shaped four-room house connected with an external corredor (as opposed to an interior hallway), as is typical of the Spanish Colonial style.

To the west of the main house is a large California Black Walnut (Juglans californica) tree that was most likely planted by Juventino del Valle in the 1860s.

[13] The exact dates of construction of the barn, gas station, and bunkhouse are unknown, but the American Craftsman style of architecture indicates it was between 1910 and 1916, when this was popular.