Somis, California

Somis
Unincorporated community
Somis Location within the state of California
Coordinates: 34°15′26″N 118°59′43″W / 34.25722°N 118.99528°W / 34.25722; -118.99528Coordinates: 34°15′26″N 118°59′43″W / 34.25722°N 118.99528°W / 34.25722; -118.99528
Country	United States
State	California
County	Ventura
Established	1892
Time zone	Pacific (PST) (UTC-8)
• Summer (DST)	PDT (UTC-7)
ZIP codes	93066
Area code(s)	805
GNIS feature IDs	1661469[1]; 1670906[2]

Somis is an unincorporated community of Ventura County, California that was established in 1892 by Thomas Bard and D.T. Perkins on a portion of the Mexican land grant, Rancho Las Posas.^[3] The name of this townsite on the south bank of Fox Barranca,^[4] just west of Arroyo Las Posas,^[5] may have been derived from “water of the scrub oak,” a Chumash placename referring to the presence of water.^[6] Like many of the farms on the Oxnard Plain, the crops of corn, wheat and barley grown here were shipped through the wharf that had been constructed in Hueneme in 1871.^[3] The townsite only expanded slightly after World War II but the town school provides a sense of community for a larger rural, agricultural area that lies within the Somis school district boundary. Several structures have been designated County of Ventura Landmarks.^[7]

Shown as Central Avenue on the original map filed by Bard,^[8] Somis Road (State Route 34) runs in a north-south direction through the middle of the townsite. The parallel roads on either side are named West Street and East Street. Three streets are oriented in a east-west direction. The most northerly, named North Street, was extended northwesterly with maps filed in 1948 and 1953 that subdivided additional town lots.^[9][10] There have been no further subdivision of town lots in this agricultural community.

Somis Road, as the main thoroughfare, 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 and continues as such all the way to Camarillo Station and the intersection with US 101. The original name of Somis Road has been changed though to Lewis Road a little over 1 mile (1.6 km) south of town at the northern boundary of the City of Camarillo which is also generally the southerly boundary of Rancho Las Posas.

As of 2000, the total population was 2,946^[11] It is primarily an agricultural area, but is home to a hardware store, a market known as the Somis Market which is also a Mexican cafe, a post office, an elementary school, several shops including the Somis Nut House, a small animal hospital Somis Veterinary Hospital, one main residential tract and numerous estates and ranches. It has no formal local government, but it is serviced by the Ventura County Sheriff's Department and the Ventura County Fire Department.

The Somis 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,^[12] 6 miles (9.7 km) north of Los Angeles Ave. The Zip code encompasses an area some 11 miles (18 km) in width in the east-west direction.

References

v t e Municipalities and communities of Ventura County, California, United States County seat: Ventura Cities Camarillo Fillmore Moorpark Ojai Oxnard Port Hueneme Santa Paula Simi Valley Thousand Oaks Ventura CDPs Bell Canyon Casa Conejo Channel Islands Beach El Rio Lake Sherwood Meiners Oaks Mira Monte Oak Park Oak View Piru Santa Rosa Valley Santa Susana Saticoy Unincorporated communities Bardsdale Buckhorn Casitas Springs Cuddy Canyon Dulah Faria La Conchita Lockwood Valley Mussel Shoals Newbury Park Ojala Ortonville Point Mugu Scheideck Sea Cliff Somis Upper Ojai Wadstrom Weldons