Loomis Legacy Loop

06/17/2025

This Saturday, June 21st, Heritage trail turns up at three great museums!

Loomis Basin Historical Society at the Loomis Library
10:00 am – 4:00 pm
6050 Library Dr., Loomis
www.loomisbasinhistory.org

View photos and exhibits on Loomis Basin pioneers, vintage clothing, household items, and life on the fruit ranch. Watch a video featuring historical footage of fruit packing in the 1930s. See a special display on Japanese American families, presented by the Still Standing Guard Committee. Find your own family’s history in the genealogy book collection with help from the Placer County Genealogical Society.

Griffith Quarry Museum
8:00 am – 12:00 pm
Corner of Taylor and Rock Springs Roads, Penryn
530-889-6500 www.placer.ca.gov/museums

Explore exhibits on granite quarrying, the Penryn Granite Works business, the history of Penryn, and the Griffith Family. Visitors can take a guided tour of the historic Quarry Park, offered at 8:30 am, or walk the grounds throughout the day by following provided maps and interpretive signs.

Rocklin History Museum
10:00 am – 4:00 pm
3895 Rocklin Road, Rocklin
916-624-3464 (leave a message, please.)

www.rocklinhistorical.org

Home of Rocks, Rails and Ranches. View exhibits featuring Rocklin’s pioneer families developing the local granite quarrying industry; building and working the Transcontinental Railroad; and dairy and orchard farming and ranching. Current temporary exhibit features Rocklin at Play: Sports and Recreation Through The Years - including the 17 years the 49ers summer training camp was at Sierra College Campus, Rocklin.

Experience a special granite splitting demonstration on Saturday, June 21st at 11:00 a.m.

06/13/2025

Loomis Legacy Loopf the Loomis Legacy Loop and one of the first murals the Valley of the Gods gets a facelift. Thank you Brenda Dominguez and Hillery Wallis

06/30/2023

Thank you Made by Sydney Rae for the beautiful mural.

02/19/2023

We are excited to see the newest Loomis Legacy Loop mural being painted on the side of the Loomis ACE Hardware! More info coming on the history of the Wil-Mar label. Follow the progress on Made by Sydney Rae Made by Sydney Rae

09/29/2022

The Loomis Historical Society has new Fruit Label Cups! Visit them at the Loomis Eggplant Festival this Saturday, October 1st. They are the first booth on Horseshoe Bar/Taylor. They also have lots of Loomis History including books, bookmarks, postcards and more!!!

03/05/2021

There is another Penryn Fruit Co label located in tiles along the sidewalks on Taylor Road downtown- Can you find it?

*Westside Brand-California Mountain Pears
*Keystone Ranch-Persimmons and Asian pears
* Penryn Fruit Co.- Fancy California Fruits
*Blue Goose -Pears
*Penryn Fruit Co.- Fancy California Fruits
*Summit-Pears
*Milo Brant -Cherries
*Blue X Brand Fruit
*Covered Wagon Mountain Bartletts
*Placer Brand –Cherries
* Malaga Grapes – Mountain Grown Grapes
*Herbert & Taylor Choice- Mountain Fruit
*Colfax Fruit Growers Association - Bartlett Pears
*Yellow Hammer Brand -Early Bird Yellow Navel Oranges
*Woodpecker Brand - Sunkist
*PET – Fancy Mountain Pears
*Mont` Elisa Beauty - Grapes
*Roseville Belle Brand – Grapes
* Auburn Brand – California Mountain Fruit
*Lincoln- Oranges
*Camel Brand – Mountain Pears
*Auburn Brand- California Persimmons

LOOMIS BASIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY’S THROWBACK THURSDAY: Harry E. Butler

Harry Everett Butler, long-time manager of the Penryn Fruit Company, was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1871. The youngest of eight children of Phineas W. and Caroline Butler, he came to California with his parents when he was nine years old.

Harry’s father, P.W. Butler, had a grocery business in Oakland and orchard property in Penryn. He was an early promoter of the fruit industry, being vice president of the Placer County Citrus Colony and founding president of the Penryn Fruit Company.

Harry attended school in Oakland and spent vacations in Penryn working in his father’s orchards. In 1892, he became a partner in the Browning-Butler Nursery Company of Paso Robles. He sold out his interest after two years and returned to Penryn where he farmed while living among the English settlers of the Citrus Colony. He became manager and treasurer of Penryn Fruit Company in April 1894.

Harry Butler was well-known in the fruit industry as both a grower and a shipper. In 1902, he helped organize the California Fruit Distributors, serving as president in 1920-1921. He became president of the Standard Fruit Company in 1910. And he was president of the California Deciduous Fruit Companies, an association of California fresh fruit shippers. He devoted much of his time to securing standardization of fruit packs and to the adoption of standardization laws.

In 1914, Harry diversified into rice growing. This led to an incident in 1917. He was involved in a railroad accident near Biggs where he had large rice holdings. He was driving over a railroad crossing when a backing freight train ran into him. He saved himself by jumping. His auto, a new one, was completely demolished.

During WWI, Harry Butler served on the Placer County Draft Board. He was a director of the Placer County Bank, and he was member of Penryn Masonic Lodge, the Penryn Camp of the Woodmen of the World, and the Placer County Country Club of Auburn.

With the drop in fruit prices during the Great Depression, Harry Butler was caught in the crash. After the closure of the Penryn Fruit Company in 1941, he retired to Oakland where he resided the remainder of his life. During his retirement years, he enjoyed writing and was a frequent contributor to “The Knave,” a Sunday column in the Oakland Tribune newspaper, where he often recounted stories of early life in Penryn. He died in 1965 at the age of 94.

A photo of Harry Butler is shown here with one of the beautiful Penryn Fruit Company labels. Penryn’s Butler Road is his namesake.

10/17/2018

Text 56512 for mobile and audio tour of all Historic Murals.
www.LoomisLegacyLoop.com