Somis

Somis is an unincorporated community in Ventura County, California. It was established in 1892 by Thomas Bard and D.T. Perkins on a portion of the Rancho Las Posas Mexican land grant. It is primarily an agricultural area, but is home to a hardware store, a market with a Mexican cafe, a post office, an elementary school, several shops, a small animal hospital, one main residential tract and numerous estates and ranches. Forbes Magazine ranked Somis the 108th most-expensive ZIP code in the United States in 2015. The Camarillo station is the nearest stop for Amtrak and Metrolink trains and is served by Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner from San Luis Obispo to San Diego. Somis has warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71 °F (22.6 °C). It has no formal local government, but it is serviced by the Ventura County Sheriff's Department and Ventura County Fire Department. The name of this townsite is derived from the Chumash term o mís, meaning water of the scrub oak. There was a Ranchería named Somes noted in records from 1795 and 1796. The Census Bureau definition of the area does not precisely correspond to the local understanding of the historical area of the community. The town's ZIP Code, 93066, includes a large area of surrounding agricultural lands bounded on the south by the edge of housing tracts.

Name

The name of this townsite is derived from the Chumash term o mís, meaning water of the scrub oak. There was a Ranchería named Somes noted in records from 1795 and 1796. The name of the town is now known as Somes, after the town's founder, Somes of Somes. The town is located on the banks of the Yucatán River, which flows through the town. The Yucatan River is a tributary of the San Francisco Bay, which runs through the townsite. The townsite was founded in 1795, and the town was named after Somes in 1796, when it was first recorded as a town.

History

Hueneme was founded in 1871 when a wharf was built on the Oxnard Plain. Agricultural products were able to be shipped by rail when the line from Los Angeles to San Francisco was routed through the valley. The current spelling of the name was established when the railroad came through. The community is located in the northern part of the Santa Catalina Mountains. The town has a population of about 2,000 people, with the majority of its residents living in the central part of town. It is located on the northern edge of the Ventura County, California, area. The city's name is derived from Hueneme, a Spanish word for "golden" or "crown" which means "hill" in Spanish. The word "hueneme" means "gold" in English, and means "town" in the Spanish language. It was named after the town of the same name, which was once called "Huenema" by the Spanish settlers. The name was changed to "HuENeme" in 1872. It means "Golden Valley" in Italian. It also means "Gold Coast" in Portuguese. It has been known as Huenemo since 1871, when the first wharf for shipping agricultural products was built in the area. It became known as the "Oxnard Plain" after the area's farming history. The village's name was first used in the 19th century by farmers who grew corn, wheat and barley on the land. It later became the name of the town.

Geography

Somis has no formal local government, but is home to a hardware store, a market with a Mexican cafe, a post office, an elementary school, several shops, a small animal hospital, one main residential tract and numerous estates and ranches. The ZIP Code, 93066, includes a large area of surrounding agricultural lands bounded on the south by the edge of housing tracts in Camarillo and on the north by the ridge line of South Mountain. Forbes Magazine ranked Somis the 108th most-expensive ZIP code in the United States in 2015. Somis had the highest median home prices in Ventura County in 1999. The town has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 °F (22.0 °C) The town is served by Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner from San Luis Obispo to San Diego and Metrolink's Ventura County Line from Los Angeles Union Station to east Ventura. Several structures have been designated County of Ventura Landmarks. The Somis school provides a sense of community for the town and the surrounding rural agricultural area that lies within the Somis Union School District boundary. The Census Bureau definition of the area does not precisely correspond to the local understanding of the historical area of the community. The main thoroughfare, Somis Road (SR 34), is lined with a few shops, businesses and a county fire station and intersects State Route 118 (Los Angeles Avenue) just north of town after crossing Fox Barranca. The railroad, which is parallel with Los Angeles Avenue between Somis and Moorpark, turns and becomes parallel with Somis road at the south end of town.