Norconian Historic Trail Ride

Last Sunday I photographed the 299 participants who signed up for the Lake Norconian historic trail ride, as part of the Norco, California Founders Day celebration. It was hosted by the Norco Horsemans Association, The US Navy and the Lake Norconian Club Foundation. I think there were 299, most of whom were mounted and the rest in 3 nice horse and/or mule-drawn surreys. Norco is "Horsetown USA", with somewhere around 30,000 residents and just as many horses, with somewhere around 90 miles of riding trails in and around town.
Animal-keeping is bedrock here. I boarded my horses here for 14 years, and put on five endurance rides from the Hidden Valley Wildlife Reserve next door.

All these years, the Lake Norconian Club has been hidden away from sight, the property had become first a navy hospital in 1941, a navy base and a rehab center which morphed into a prison. After successfully adding it to the National Historic Register, the Foundation's aim is to get funding to preserve and restore this Art Deco era jewel. The founder of Norco, Rex Clark, had the bad luck to open his 700 acre resort not long before the stock market crash. It was famous in its day for the dignitaries and celebrities it attracted, the functions that were held as well as the films that were made there. Read more about it here at the Foundation's website, lots of vintage photos too. There's a book about the resort, and it was featured on California's Gold with Huell Howser.

So none of us civilians and non-inmates had seen anything but photos and barbed wire, as the Naval Surface Warfare Center and the medium security prison blocked all views. Despite "May Gray" weather, riders converged on the Riverside Community College Norco campus, which stood on the original Norconian golf course, and rode down to the resort and through the grounds. Everyone I've heard from really enjoyed the chance to see the resort, its abundant wildlife and image how it was back in its heyday. Hopefully it will become a nexus again for the area, with commercial and recreational options. Some of my proceeds from the ride photos will go to the Foundation. [pictured] Junior riders with the lake's pavilion, marina and the hotel complex behind it. Canadian goslings, I found the Canadian geese fascinating, and they let me get really close, didn't covet a birder's long lens quite as much as usual.