Ripley (Kalifornien)

Vorlage:Infobox settlement Ripley is a rural unincorporated community in east Riverside County. It is located along State Route 78 (SR78) between Palo Verde and Blythe. The area is mostly agricultural lands irrigated by Colorado River water. Official U.S. Geological Survey NAD27 coordinates for the community are . It is within area code 760 and has its own ZIP Code: 92272.

The area is largely irrigated agriculture. Farms in the area include operations owned by David Brown and Sons, Lawrence Chaffin Farms, and Red River Farms. The Metropolitan Water District has made an agreement with the United States Bureau of Reclamation to fallow land in the area in order to conserve water. Farmers will be paid not to grow crops so that the water can be used for other purposes. The area is served by Palo Verde Irrigation District and the Arizona and California Railroad. The railroad's Blythe Division track ends just west of Ripley.

Local businesses

Ripley, in the middle of the valley, was the most thriving town in the Palo Verde Valley up until the construction of U.S. Highway 60 & 70 between Phoenix and Los Angeles in the early 1930s. The highway was routed through Blythe, and that was the beginning of the end for Ripley's business community. For lack of traffic, and the growth of Blythe's commercial establishment, some two dozen or more businesses folded during the Great Depression, so that Ripley became little more than a dusty community of several hundred people. By the 1960's, the only viable business left was Benefield's department store and food market, which served farm families in the southern part of the valley. Benefield's was burglarized and torched in the 1960s, and was never rebuilt.

Sources

• U.S. Geological Survey, National Geographic Names Database
• Map: "Ripley, California, 7.5-minute Quadrangle," U.S. Geological Survey, 1975.
• Map: "Road Map of California, 1958," (Sacramento, California: Department of Public Works, Division of Highways, 1958).

External links

• Ripley weather records from University of California Agricultural Extension.
• Wind and other data from Ripley.
• Ripley Fire Station.