In a recent issue of the Breeze, we featured the artists selected for the Moon Ditch Mural Project. Since then, many readers have asked about the origin of the name “Moon Ditch.”
The flood control channel is named after rancher Alphonse (sometimes spelled Alphonso) Moon, who moved to Ventura County from Syracuse, New York, around 1895 and settled in the Montalvo district. His land was located south of the Southern Pacific Railroad’s Santa Clara Valley line and west of present-day Johnson Drive.
The earliest known reference to the ditch dates back to 1898, when it was constructed to carry runoff from the southern edge of the Montalvo area to the Santa Clara River. The original ditch was likely located slightly north of its current path.
By the mid-1920s, Moon had left the area and moved with his family to Santa Paula, where he later died in 1939.
For more on the mural project, visit venturabreeze.com/local-artists-chosen-for-landmark-moon-ditch-mural.
