The Sycamore Inn restaurant in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., predates Route 66. But it doesn’t predate the Mother Road by a few years, but by more than 150, according to this well-researched article from The Press-Enterprise.
The local Indians met at this spot where large sycamore, cottonwood and willow trees grew.
In March 1774, Spanish explorer Captain Juan Batista de Anza brought his exploration group to the lush, shady oasis with a creek and a view of the mountains. The Indians invited him to stay awhile. Because bears loved the gathering place too, the Spanish named the spot Arroyo Los Osos or Bear Gulch, a name that lingers today.
One of the Spanish soldiers decided to stay.
Felipe Santiago Tapia, and his grandson, Tiburcio Tapia received the land grant of more than 13,000 acres by then governor of California, Juan Alvarado. It became known as Rancho Cucamonga.
An adobe was built on the spot. It later became a stagecoach inn and tavern owned by Uncle Billy Rubottom, called Mountain View, as part of the Santa Fe Trail. That trail later became Foothill Boulevard, aka Route 66.
The structure now known as The Sycamore Inn was built by John Klusman in 1920 — six years before U.S. Highway 66 was certified. It had eight hotel rooms upstairs, but those were jettisoned when the Sycamore was bought by Dutch immigrant Irl Hinrichsen and remodeled in 1939.
In 2002, Chuck and Linda Keagle became part owners of the Sycamore, and they re-landscaped, repaired and updated the old building. Strangely, it is not on the National Register of Historic Places, even those it’s little-changed in 70 years.
This part of the story, from the 19th century, is probably the most fascinating:
Rubottom’s southern sympathies got him in trouble with the law in California and in Arkansas. While in Arkansas on a trip, he captured possums to bring back along with more settlers. The possums were to be served to his diners at his inn, but some escaped and spread rapidly through California.
To the relief of many (and the regret of a few), opossum is no longer on the Sycamore’s menu.