The
Blackmore Family can certainly be counted
amongst the "old timers" in the
Temecula Valley area. James Blackmore moved
to French Valley around the turn of the
Century and married Edmee Nicolas in Elsinore
(c. 1914). Edmee was born in Temecula in
1887 on the Joe Nicolas Ranch and was the
daughter of French Valley pioneer Marius
A. Nicolas and step-daughter of Pierre Pourroy,
Sr. James & Edmee, with two of Jim's
brothers, operated the Old Lindenberger
Store on the SE corner of Simpson and Winchester
Road. The present store building was built
in 1927 and was a post office, variety store,
and ice cream parlor at that time. The photo
to the left is Jim operating a horse pulled
motor grader.
Harvey
Blackmore (who was born in French Valley
to James & Edmee in 1919) and his wife
Betty moved to Murrieta in 1949 and bought
a 1200-acre homestead in the area that would
become known as California Oaks.
The couple raised cattle and dry farmed
wheat and barley on the land that the locals
called Blackmore
Ranch.
Harvey
and Betty's two sons, Ken and Terry, were
born and raised in Murrieta. Both boys attended
the original Murrieta Grammar School - the
remains of that building can still be seen
in Old Town Murrieta. The two helped their
dad on the Ranch and earned extra money
in high school by using their family's farm
equipment to do custom grading job. In the
1960's, Terry Blackmore worked as a cowboy
for the Vail Company, running cattle all
over the valley, while Ken developed and
expanded his grading business in Temecula.
Most of the family's original ranch was
sold off by the mid 60's and has been developed
into homes for thousands of Murrieta residents.
By
the early 1970's, the brothers had formed
a grading operation called Blackmore Co.,
which has moved the earth on projects like
the first industrial park in this valley,
the original Tower Plaza, the Stater Bros.
Center and in areas like Bear Creek, La
Cresta and Alta Murrieta. Blackmore equipment
and projects can be seen around town to
this day.
Terry
Blackmore left the valley in 1989 to pursue
his love of cattle ranching in Arizona,
but Ken Blackmore lives on a ranch in old
Murrieta and remains active in developing
land in the area. One of the last remaining
pieces of the family's ranch property was
developed in the early 1990's by the Blackmore
Family and became the Blackmore
Ranch development off Clinton
Keith Road.
The
newest generation of the Blackmore Family
in the grading business is Ken's son, Jeff,
who started Blackmore Contracting in 1997.
Having worked with his father from a young
age, Jeff learned the business from the
ground up. Blackmore Contracting has done
the grading on projects that brought the
Valley shopping centers like Lowe's/Kohl's
and Target, commercial developments like
Village Walk I and Gateway Office Park in
Murrieta, a new High School and Middle School
in Lake Elsinore, as well as many residential
projects ranging from single-family custom
home sites to house pads in planned communities.