Just where the heck are the Thermalands anyway?

The Therma Lands, or Thermalands as it's now called, is a small community in Western Placer County, about 6 miles north of Lincoln on McCourtney Road. A heavily marketed, real-estate development by the Snow-Pomeroy & Company of Los Angeles in the late 1920s as "an ideal place to grow oranges" is what spurred most of the growth in this area for about five years. As early as 1890, the Therma Lands were known to have a "thermal" climate, allowing citrus to ripen as early as 6 weeks sooner than that of other areas in California. Some well-known orchards at that time were J.C. Crosby's 24 acre "Citrus Heights" on Big Ben Road, J.B. Forbes' 40 acres and Captain A.E. Thayers "Valle Vista" on North Kilaga Springs Road. Citrus was not the only well producing crop in the area. An article published in the Sacramento Bee on Sept. 28, 1929 states that "this season's (Therma Lands) tomato harvest will bring about 250 cars and $250,000 in returns." Citrus farmers, other crop growers and the "therma people," were experiencing great success in the Thermalands until 1932.Donald D. Sweatt, author of "Chapter in my Life called Thermalands" who lived in the area from 1932 to 1937, wrote, "We had a very dry fall in 1932. Then came a cold rain in early December, and the morning of December 10, we woke up to 17 degree weather. It stayed this cold for 3 days." Sweatt later wrote, "In the fall of 1936, we had a very dry season. The cold rain finally came in late December or early January. On the 17th of January, we had a very hard freeze. It was hard enough to kill all the orchard trees and what nursery trees I had left. All my years of hard work were destroyed in one night." Unfortunately, this was the case for many area farmers, who lost faith with the area and either moved or began other farming operations.Through these tough times and what still holds true today is the bond the community has with each other. Throughout Sweatts' book are stories of neighbors helping neighbors. In the heart of the Thermalands, at 7755 McCourtney Road, is the Thermalands Community Center, once known as the Valley View School. The Valley View Elementary School was established in 1871. It was called "Valley View" because the schoolhouse sat on the ridge overlooking the valley, some 300 yards west of its current location. The old schoolhouse burned in 1948 and was later re-built in 1950 (what is there now). The school remained in operation until 1991, when the Western Placer Unified School District closed it. It sat idle for 10 years, until 2001, when it was donated to the Thermalands Community Center, Inc. Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Thermalands Community Center story in next week's News Messenger. Special thanks to Wes Freeman for the photographs and references. Rick Hartmann is Thermalands Community Center chairman.