Custom Car, Motorcycle, Watercraft Appraisals in Piru

If you are like us, you love your car. You have spent countless hours and dollars making it everything you have always dreamed of. We enjoy being around car lovers, and more importantly cars themselves.

Although car people love to spend time and money on their cars, they all too often forget to properly value their car for insurance purposes. Dollar after dollar goes in, but never gets properly documented so that if a catastrophic event strikes, the real cost of putting the car back together gets paid by the insurance company. As collector car owners ourselves, we understand the importance of our product first hand. Fill out the form on the right to get started on your on-sit

Auto Appraisal Network of Ventura  does appraisals for all different types of vehicles including custom/collector cars and trucks, motorcycles, late-model vehicles, boats, antique boats, RV’s, personal watercraft, semi-tractors and car hauler trailers. 

If you’re in the Piru area and need an auto appraisal for insurance purposes, diminished value claims, pre purchase inspections, car collection appraisals, divorce settlements, estate planning, financing, bankruptcy or expert witness services, contact Auto Appraisal Network of Ventura.  

We are a locally owned and operated business and part of a nationwide network of certified auto appraisers.  We have many years of experience, so you can rest assured that an appraisal report from us is accurate and complete. Our full color reports are bound and delivered to you within days of completion and are accepted by all major insurance carriers, the legal system and financial institutions. 

We take pride in our work and are as passionate about cars as you are.  Protect your investment by having it appraised by Auto Appraisal Network of Ventura.

Serving Piru

Facts about Piru

Piru is a small unincorporated historic town located in eastern Ventura County, California, in the Santa Clara River Valley near the Santa Clara River and Highway 126, about seven miles east of Fillmore and about 13 miles west of Interstate 5. Lake Piru, in the Los Padres National Forest, is the main recreational attraction. The population was 2,063 at the 2010 census, up from 1,196 when the 2000 census was enumerated. For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defined a Piru census designated place (CDP) which does not precisely correspond to the historical community.

History

The area was originally inhabited by the Tataviam Indians. They left information about themselves chiseled into and painted on rocky overhangs and secreted caves throughout the local mountains. By all accounts a peaceful tribe, the Tataviam were Christianized under the San Fernando Mission. Later they worked on large Spanish ranchos such as Rancho Camulos.

The name Piru (originally pronounced "Pea-roo" by the Indians) comes from the Tataviam word for the tule reeds growing along Piru Creek that were used in making baskets.

The town was founded in 1887 by David C. Cook from Elgin, Illinois, a wealthy publisher of Sunday School tracts and supplies who bought the Rancho Temescal Mexican land grant from the sons of Ygnacio del Valle. Wanting to establish a "Second Garden of Eden" in this part of the Santa Clara River Valley, Cook specified, tradition says, that the acreage be planted with fruits identified with the Biblical garden—apricots, dates, figs, grapes, olives and pomegranates. That same year, he built his first home, a Colonial Revival structure, at the southwest corner of Main and Center Streets.

The coast rail line was built through the valley in 1887. Because a small depot was already going to be built in nearby Camulos, Charles Crocker of Southern Pacific Railroad refused to build a depot in Piru. This so annoyed David Cook that he built his own depot and hired a stationmaster. Cook laid out the town around the railroad in 1888.

The U.S. Post Office Department established the Piru Post Office on June 14, 1888. Legend has it that the change in pronunciation was brought about by conductors of Southern Pacific Railroad trains, who would shout out, "Pie-roo!" when pulling into town. Another story tells of a Piru restaurant known for good pies. The owner hung a sign proclaiming, "We Put The Pie In Piru."

In 1890, Cook built a lavish Queen Anne Style home a few blocks northwest of his original home, which came to be known as the Piru Mansion. A strict Methodist, he provided for construction of a church on the north side of Center Street, just west of Main. The church front is used in the movie J.W.Coop starring Cliff Robertson (1972). His home at Main and Center became the Piru Hotel. Cook sold out to the Piru Oil and Land Company in 1900 after being cured of his ailments and realizing a profit due to recent oil discoveries.

For her novel Ramona (1884), Helen Hunt Jackson had used nearby Rancho Camulos as one of the settings. Portions of the 1910 silent movie, Ramona, starring Mary Pickford were shot there. During the production, Pickford, D.W. Griffith and others of the cast and crew, stayed at the Piru Hotel. The hotel later became known as the Mountain View Hotel. The name was later changed to the Round Rock Hotel, because of a large, round boulder located in the northeast corner of the front yard.

Juan José Fustero (b. ca. 1836), who called himself "the last full-blooded Piru Indian," died on June 30, 1921. In 1961, a plaque to honor him was placed in Piru Canyon near the place where he lived most of his life.

On December 17, 1922, Jenks Harris, a would-be cowboy actor, and a gang of partners in crime, robbed the bank in Piru of $11,000. He said, when later caught in Los Angeles, that he conceived of the idea while on location at Piru with the film company Universal.

In the 1950s, the Round Rock Hotel became the Round Rock Rest Home for elderly tenants, which it remained until 1989.It then became the Heritage Valley Inn. It is no longer functioning as an inn.