Finding aid for Charles F. Outland papers, 1861-1990 MVC018
Finding aid was prepared by Library staff.
This finding aid was made possible in part through funding from the County of Ventura and the Heritage Fund at the Ventura
County Community Foundation.
Museum of Ventura County
2011
Contributing Institution:
Museum of Ventura County
Title: Charles F. Outland papers
Creator:
Outland, Charles F.
Identifier/Call Number: MVC018
Physical Description:
11.55 Cubic Feet
(9 boxes)
Date (inclusive): circa 1861-1990
Abstract: Ventura County historian Charles F. Outland was born in Santa Paula on August 30, 1910. Due to his keen interest in local
history, Outland began collecting books and historical materials and later became actively involved in the Ventura County
Historical Society. He worked as editor of the Ventura County Historical Society Quarterly, oversaw the society's publications
and authored several articles and books. Outland's most well-known book
Man-Made Disaster (1963) remains one of the most respected historical works on the St. Francis Dam disaster of 1928. This collection comprises
materials and books collected by Outland, mainly on Ventura County history. Materials include photographs, negatives, audio
tapes, correspondence, research files and notes, photocopies of primary source materials, and ephemera.
Physical Location: Stored off-site and advance notice required for timely retrieval. Please contact the Research Library reference desk prior
to your visit at library@venturamuseum.org.
Language of Material:
English
.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE: Open for research. All requests to access materials must be made in advance by contacting the
Research Library staff at library@venturamuseum.org.
Property rights to the physical object belong to the Museum of Ventura County. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained
by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue
the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where the museum does not hold the copyright.
CONTAINS AUDIO-VISUAL MATERIALS: Advance notice required and digitization required to use materials. Researcher may be required
to bear the cost of digitization or creation of an access copy.
[Identification of item], Charles F. Outland papers, (Collection MVC018), Museum of Ventura County, Research Library, Ventura,
California.
Eleanor Taylor; gift; 1999.
Processed by Library staff, 2011. Additional boxes processed by Krystell Jimenez, 2022.
Our collections are being processed using MPLP so that we may prioritize access for users and identify potential priorities
for more detailed processing. If while using our collections you think there is something that should be added or amended
in the finding aid, we welcome your input. You can notify staff in the reading room or send us an email at library@venturamuseum.org.
Be sure to include the collection number and name and the box number you were working with in your email.
Ventura County historian Charles F. Outland was born in Santa Paula on August 30, 1910. He grew up in an agricultural family
in Santa Paula. He attended Whittier College and Boston University. He returned to Ventura County after college and married
Harriet Roberts in 1933.
Outland was a rancher in Santa Paula for some time after college. However, he had a keen interest in local history, and collected
books and historical materials. In the 1950s he became actively involved in the Ventura County Historical Society. Outland
served on the society's board of directors from 1955 to 1964 and again from 1968 to 1971. He was also the first editor of
the Ventura County Historical Society Quarterly and was very involved with the society's publications committee. Outland oversaw
the publication of the society's first book, The Letters of José Señan, O.F.M., Mission San Buenaventura: 1796-1823. He also
authored 12 articles in the Quarterly.
Outland authored five books on Ventura County history: Man-Made Disaster (1963), Ho for California: The Faulkner Letters,
1875-1876 (1964), Mines, Murders and Grizzlies: Tales of California's Ventura Back Country (1969), Stagecoaching on El Camino
Real: Los Angeles to San Francisco, 1861-1901 (1973), and An Old Shoebox (1975). His book
Man-Made Disaster is a detailed account of the St. Francis Dam disaster, which Outland personally experienced as a teenager in Santa Paula,
and remains one of the most respected historical works on the subject. Outland's book is still cited as the definitive work
on the disaster.
Outland was also a member of the Ventura County Cultural Heritage Board, and in 1984 he was named the county's official historian
by the Board of Supervisors. In 1980 the American Association for State and Local History honored him with a Certificate of
Commendation for his work on Ventura County history.
Outland died on March 21, 1988, at the age 77. At the time of his death, he was finishing the book Sespe Gunsmoke, which was
published posthumously and jointly by the Arthur H. Clark Company and the Ventura County Historical Society in 1991.
This collection comprises materials and books collected by Charles F. Outland. While he mainly collected items pertinent to
Ventura County history, he also had an avid interest in Western Americana more generally. Outland also indexed Ventura County
newspapers for the years 1871-1915. His interests included equine culture, stage coaching, and railroads. The collection also
includes photographic slides and materials he used during history presentations and talks. His most well-known historical
work was on the St. Francis Dam disaster collapse, and much of his research on that is available in this collection. Materials
include photographs, photographic slides, negatives, audio tapes, correspondence, research files and notes, photocopies of
primary source materials such as court documents, coroners' inquests, and police reports, ephemera, programs, and various
papers and files maintained by Outland during the course of his historical work.
This collection has not been arranged into series. Original order has been maintained when possible. The photographic slides
were originally housed in either yellow Kodak boxes or slide boxes. They have been rehoused in archival slide boxes, but the
original order has been maintained and the original groupings have been maintained. In most cases, the folder labels in the
inventories match the labels on the original folders, which have been retained.
A more detailed inventory is available in this
Outland Inventory document. This inventory was created from scanned typed inventories created by Library staff and stored in boxes. They have
been checked against folder labels, but descriptions may not always be accurate.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
COLLECTION CONTAINS AUDIO MATERIALS: Special equipment or further processing may be required for viewing. Requests to use
audio materials must be made in advance. Please contact the Research Library at library@venturamuseum.org.
COLLECTION CONTAINS DIGITAL MATERIALS: Special equipment or further processing may be required for viewing. Requests to use
digital materials must be made in advance. Please contact the Research Library at library@venturamuseum.org.
COLLECTION CONTAINS AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS: Special equipment or further processing may be required for viewing. Requests to
access audio-visual materials in collections must be made in advance. Please contact the Research Library at library@venturamuseum.org.
The index cards in Box 8-9 are related to the
Outland Newspaper Indexes .
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Ventura County (Calif.) -- Photographs
Ventura County (Calif.) -- History, Local
California, Southern -- History, Local
Saint Francis Dam (Calif.)
Dam failures -- California -- Los Angeles County
Newspaper -- Indexes
Stagecoaches -- California, Southern
Murder -- California -- Ventura County
Audiotapes
Outland, Charles F. -- Records and correspondence
Outland, Charles F. -- Manuscripts
Box 1
St. Francis Dam and Saticoy oil field files circa 1950-1975
This box includes research, correspondence, reviews of Outland's books, photocopies of records, reports, interviews, books,
typed conference talks, notes, and maps and plats. Subjects include the St. Francis Dam disaster, including call logs and
reports for the night of the disaster, and the geology of oil fields in the Saticoy area.
Box 2
Background for published works circa 1960-1980
This box contains research notes, typescripts and proof pages for Outland's books, correspondence, charts, negatives, photographs,
pamphlets, and articles. Subjects include oil and gas product, Stagecoaching on El Camino Real, Man-Made Disaster, "An Old
Shoe Box", "The More Murder Case", "Em' God Dam Outland Boys", Simi Valley, Wells Fargo, Sespe Gunsmoke, "Joe Dye", ethnography
of the Ventureño Chumash, and the Beckman family murder.
Box 3
Research notes and files circa 1970-1980
This box contains research and notes, copies of official reports, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, land surveys, book reviews,
correspondence, and a handwritten timeline chart of the St. Francis Dam break. Subjects include the murder of Joe Dye, the
Beckman Death in Kern County, weather trends, wildlife in the county, Rainbow Ranch (Circle B Ranch), the Salton Sea, stage
coaching, water works in Saticoy, the Ojai Valley, and the More murder.
Box 4
Research notes and personal correspondence 1956-1984
This box contains research files and notes, newspaper clippings, correspondence, including personal correspondence, cards,
note cards, negatives, photographs, and booklets. Subjects include Juan Jose Fustero, Outland's family history, California
history and wildlife, railroad history, working notes for Outland's newspaper index, Piru geography and history, Saugus and
Newhall history, churches in Santa Paula, and Chumash placenames.
Box 5
Research files, notes, and historical items 1861-1983
This box contains research files and notes, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, brochures, typed articles, magazines, programs,
correspondence, copies of coroner's inquest, Southern California Edison Company inventories of Santa Paula, Fillmore, and
Piru, Confederate currency, articles by local authors, and photographs. Subjects include the Saticoy Regulators, Juan Fustero
of Piru, Ventura County history, the United Water Company, Candelaria and Chumash vocabulary, Rancho Santa Paula y Saticoy,
William Mutau/Mutah, oil production in the Santa Clara River Valley, Del Valle family of Piru, geology and petroleum in Ventura
County, and Briggs school.
Box 6
Photographs, negatives, and audio tapes circa 1930-1990
This box contains negatives, photographs, photographic slides, 1/4-inch open reel audio tapes, compact cassette tapes, and
an envelope of correspondence regarding Man-Made Disaster. Images are of the Faulkner house, San Francisquito Creek and Canyon
before and after St. Francis Dam collapsed (including an image of a powerhouse station), Sespe creek, the Edwards Adobe ruins,
Santa Paula Canyon, Antelope Valley, the 1978 flood, the Grapevine, and Old Stage Road. The audio tapes include interviews
and/or talks regarding Rodolfo Reyes and the Cuyama Valley, Santa Paula Creek, the Federation of Women, and the Chumash language.
The correspondence regarding Man-Made Disaster includes letters in which Outland defends his historical research and addresses
critiques of the accuracy of his account, including a letter in which he addresses So Cal Edison's critique of his book.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
BOX CONTAINS AUDIO MATERIALS: Special equipment or further processing may be required for viewing. Requests to use audio materials
must be made in advance. Please contact the Research Library at library@venturamuseum.org.
BOX CONTAINS DIGITAL MATERIALS: Special equipment or further processing may be required for viewing. Requests to use digital
materials must be made in advance. Please contact the Research Library at library@venturamuseum.org.
BOX CONTAINS AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS: Special equipment or further processing may be required for viewing. Requests to access
audio-visual materials in collections must be made in advance. Please contact the Research Library at library@venturamuseum.org.
Box 7
Audio tapes and photographic slides 1959-1978
This box contains 1/4-inch open reel audio tapes, a compact cassette, and several boxes of photographic slides. Topics and
speakers on the tapes include automobiles, floods, the St. Francis Dam, John Rousselot, Charles F. Outland, postcard history,
disarmament, and agriculture in Ventura County. The photographic slides include images of the St. Francis Dam before and after
the collapse, images of San Francisquito Canyon, image of damages from the Santa Clara River Valley after the dam break, Harry
Carey Ranch, Walnut Bend, Castaic, the 1978 flood, and various landscapes. Additional materials include a microfilm reel of
a talk on the St. Francis Dam given by Outland.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
BOX CONTAINS AUDIO MATERIALS: Special equipment or further processing may be required for viewing. Requests to use audio materials
must be made in advance. Please contact the Research Library at library@venturamuseum.org.
Box 8
Outland newspaper index cards undated
This box contains hard copies of the index cards Outland used to compile an index of Ventura County newspapers. The indexes
catalog references by subjects and name. The completed indexes can be searched through the
Research Library's book catalog on the library's webpage.
Box 9
Index cards and Antiquitates Chriftianae undated
This box includes two smaller boxes of index cards. It is unclear if they are related to Outland's newspaper indexes or another
index. Entries are alphabetized by titles, followed by cards alphabetized by subject. The metal box includes handwritten notes
and lists. This box also contains a reproduction copy of
Antiquitates Chriftianae: or The History of the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus: as also the Lives, Acts and Martyrdoms of
his Apostles…
, which may be dated 1971 or 1978.