Visiting Locke California 2015

Gil and I went to Courtland California yesterday to visit their annual Pear Fair. I have wanted to go for a couple of years but never made it until this year. It was great fun. I wrote more about it on my Beehive Quilts blog because they had a quilt show there, too, which made it that much more attractive to me.

Here is one of the three antique cars they had on display there:

It is a Ford

After leaving Courtland, we drove south along the Sacramento River. We were going to cross the river and drive back up the west side and into West Sacramento and then home. Part way down to the bridge we saw a sign that said Locke CA 6 miles straight ahead past the bridge, so we went there.

Locke is a town that was developed in the early 1900s for Chinese families that had come into the Sacramento area to help with farming and railroad building. They used to live in nearby Walnut Grove. After a fire in 1915 that wiped out their homes and businesses there, they moved into Locke.

Locke's website http://locketown.com/ states it is not a ghost town nor is it a tourist town. There are no improvements to the town. In fact many of the Main Street buildings are leaning and look as though a good wind or a sharp earthquake would make them tumble. There are still a few residents of Locke. In its heyday there were 600 residents and as many as 1500 at harvest times. They had barracks set up with three tall beds to house the itinerant workers. They had a large gambling hall, which still stands today. There is an acupuncture/Chinese medicine place that is still functioning. Most of today's residents live over the old, unused store fronts or down walk ways from Main Street.

Locke is an interesting little town to stop in to see. It is located on the east side of the Sacramento River, right along side the river. Take a day and go see it if you are in the Sacramento valley.

Gil took a few pictures of Locke:

This is the Chinese Medicine location

Tea, anyone?

This is the gambling hall. Many of the tables are still let up to play.

This is Locke's Main Street. Only real street other than the highway that runs parallel to this. If the modern cars were not parked long its walkways, you would think you were back in the 1930s or 1940s.

We had a great visit.