Today the Carrizo (Carissa) Plain is known for it's wildflow displays
but prior to the late 1980s most of the plain was cultivated.

Carrisa Plain, Carrizo Plain, really what is the name? After looking at a number of newspaper and other published references I would have to conclude Carisa or Carissa is usually used, however the residents of California Valley, refer to the location as Carrisa Plains. For example consider the Carrisa Plains Elementary School. So where did Carizzo come from? I think the source may be the US Geological Survey's 1912 topographic map of the area. Ever since, every topographic map referred to the area as Carrizo Plain. A 1959 "History of the Carrisa" compiled students at the school states that "Carrizo is the original Spanish spelling for the grass reed from which the Plains received its name." This is correct, Carrizo is the Spanish spelling. But for the sake of the local residents - I will use Carrisa here.

I have not attempted to write a history of the settlement of the Carrisa Plain, I thought I would let others do it for me. The County Histories point to the website http://www.archive.org/ these are large documents, but they have been nicely scanned and have had OCR run on them - so they are searchable.

BLM Land Patent Information pertaining to Carissa Plain

All Patents (MS Excel File)

Terminated Patent Applications (MS Excel File)

Census Data

1900 - 1930 Census Information (This is my unfinished attempt to transcribe census data from microfilm - MS Excel File)

County Histories

Angel, Myron, 1883, History of San Luis Obispo County, California, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers (Thompson & West: Oakland) 391 pp. Entire Document (pdf)

Storke, Yda Addis, 1891, A memorial and biographical history of the counties of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura, California ... Containing a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future; with ... full-page steel portraits of its most eminent men, and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also of prominent citizens of to-day (The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago) 677pp. Entire Document (pdf) Excerpts pertaining to Carrisa Plain (Word Doc.)

Morrison, Annie L. Stringfellow and John H. Haydon, 1917, History of San Luis Obispo County and environs, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county and environs who have been identified with the growth and development of the section from the early days to the present (Historic Record Company, Los Angeles) 1038 pp. Entire Document (pdf)

Various References

Angel, Myron, 1911, La Piedra Pintada (Painted Rock)

Various Newspaper References to the Carrisa Plain 1885 - 1926 pdf

Excerpts from the San Luis Obispo County Tribune pertaining to the Carrisa Plain pdf

El Saucito pdf

Dennis Gardner, 1967, The old and new Carriza Plains, The California Traveler

Morrison, Annie, 1926, The Painted Rocks of the Carisa, National Motorist

A History of the Carrisa Plains, Compiled by Ted Fisher and students of the Carrisa Plains School, 1959 pdf

Biographies (MS Word & pdf)

Frank E. Fotheringham pdf
Manuel S. Gularte pdf
Niels Johnson pdf
Percy Jennings Margetts pdf
Frank Nunez pdf
Isaac S. Van Matre pdf
Patrick O'Donovan pdf
Michael W. Phelan pdf
Henry Sanford Willson pdf

Carrisa Genealogy

I have begun assembling the family history of the residents of the Carrisa Plain. Currently there are 1,140 people in this tree. Of course many folks strayed beyond the Carrisa to other places in the county or state. This information is available on my ancestry.com family tree. If you have a subscription to Ancestry.com my website is at: http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/28802917/recent This tree has a number of photos and documents attached to the individuals.

If you don't a subscription you will need to set up a guest account by going to this page:

http://ancestry.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/ancestry.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=577

The first line in the first paragraph says:

"To use any of the features on Ancestry, a user must have at least a Guest registration. To create a registered guest account, click here."

So click the "click here" and set up a guest account. Then let me know (my email address is below) that you have set up a guest account.. and send me the account name you created, then I will send you an invitation.

Here is another option. Though frozen in time (today, January 22, 2012) I exported my on-line family tree to a GEDCOM file. It would be best to import the file into a recent version of Family Tree Maker. HOWEVER, you can down load the free genealogy program Personal Ancestral File (PAF) from HERE and import my GEDCOM file (to download right-click link and select "save target as..") into a new family tree. (Expect LOTS of errors).

Comments, Questions? Write Me:

Larry Vredenburgh: vrede@bak.rr.com