"From Farm Horse to Iron Horse." That is how the City of San Ramon describes the October 17 program at Forest Home Farms Historic Park. The listing promises the history of trains and the Iron Horse Trail in the San Ramon Valley, plus a craft to take home. Two Saturdays earlier the theme was "Farm Horse," built around a model horse named Ramon and the real horses that once lived on the property.
According to the Museum of the San Ramon Valley, Travis and Ruth Boone farmed walnuts and tomatoes on a ranch that ran from the western hills all the way to the Southern Pacific railroad. That railroad corridor is now the Iron Horse Trail. The farm on San Ramon Valley Boulevard and the paved path a few blocks east started out as two sides of one working landscape. This fall's calendar walks through that history one Saturday at a time, and both places are now waiting on their next round of public money.
The ranch ran right up to the tracks
Numa and Minnie Boone bought 200 acres and built a 22-room Dutch-style house in 1900. They grew grain, hay, tomatoes, pears and walnuts and raised livestock. The park preserves the 16 acres that served as the ranch headquarters. Ruth Quayle Boone left them to the city in her 1997 will in memory of her husband, Travis Moore Boone, and the property came to San Ramon later. The city's own history page says developers often approached her about buying the farm for a subdivision, and she chose to preserve it instead.
What survives is a working farmstead, and it reads as one. Oak Creek splits the site into two roughly equal halves, and the buildings sit on the northern half. They include the Boone House, a barn built between 1850 and 1860, a 7,000-square-foot building for farm equipment and automobiles, and a three-building walnut processing plant with a three-story hulling and drying structure. The Tractor Museum holds more than 50 antique tractors from the 1920s through the 1950s. Volunteers keep the collection running and still use it in parades and for farm upkeep. The city also lists a "newly installed" Railroad Depot Display among the exhibits on the grounds, which makes the October 17 theme easy to see in person.
Eight Saturdays, roughly in order
Fun on the Farm runs on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. It is a free program run by the city with the San Ramon Historic Foundation, though a few events require registration. Here is what is left this season, according to the city's Forest Home Farms events page. The city's calendar lists the October 24 trick-or-treat for 2026, and the weekdays on the page line up with this year.
| Date | Theme | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Sat., Oct. 17 | Iron Horse | History of trains and the Iron Horse Trail, with a take-home craft |
| Sat., Oct. 24 | Trick or Treat on the Farm | Come in costume and visit activity and treat stations around the farm |
| Sat., Oct. 31 | Pumpkins, Gourds & Squash | Uses for pumpkins and gourds, a winter squash recipe, and a craft |
| Sat., Nov. 7 | Quality Quilts | History of quilting and a paper quilt square to make |
| Sat., Nov. 14 | Bread & Jam | Thresh, grind and sift wheat into flour, then follow it into bread |
| Sat., Nov. 21 | Turkey Time | Where the local wild turkeys came from, plus a craft |
| Sat., Dec. 5 | Candle Making | How 1800s families made candles from beeswax, and a candle to take home |
| Sat., Dec. 12 | Holiday on the Farm | Santa visits, ornament making, a puppet show and refreshments |
The sequence follows the farm year. It moves from harvest to processing grain into flour, then to the winter jobs of quilting and making light. The November 21 session has a fact that changes how you look at the neighborhood. The city's listing says the wild turkeys you see around town were brought in from Oklahoma and Texas.
Friday night at the Glass House
One October program is not on a Saturday and is not meant for young children. On Friday, October 30, the city runs Victorian Mourning Tours of the Glass House in four staggered slots: 6:00, 6:30, 7:00 and 7:30 p.m. Admission is $10 for residents and $12 for nonresidents. The tours are open to ages 12 and up but geared toward adults, and children 15 and under must come with an adult. The tour covers the hazards behind untimely deaths in the Victorian era.
The house was not built on this site. David Glass built the two-story, nine-room Italianate home in 1877. The San Ramon Historic Foundation says it was moved to the park from Lora Nita Farm and opened as a house museum on May 15, 2010. So the park now holds homes from two families and two eras: the Glass House, which went up before the railroad arrived, and the Boone House, which went up while trains were running along the ranch's edge.
If the mourning tour is too dark for your group, the city lists free docent tours of the Glass House on Saturdays at noon and 1 p.m., and recommends calling ahead to check that a docent is available. The Victorian Christmas Tours on Saturday, December 19 are open to all ages for $12 resident or $15 nonresident. They end with carols on the walk to the Boone House and mulled apple cider.
What the rail line left behind
The October 17 craft table covers a timeline that runs from steam trains to bicycles. Pulling from the city's Branch Line history and the Museum of the San Ramon Valley:
- 1891. The Southern Pacific San Ramon Branch Line opens and runs about 20 miles from San Ramon to Avon.
- 1909. The line is extended south to Radum, near Pleasanton.
- 1934. Passenger service ends.
- 1978. Rail operations end after abandonment proceedings, and the tracks are gone by 1979.
- 1983 to 1989. Contra Costa County acquires the right-of-way. A citizen trail movement starts in 1984, and the trail is named the Iron Horse in 1986.
- 1986 to 2001. The Iron Horse Regional Trail is completed through the San Ramon Valley.
The Boone ranch outlasted passenger service by more than six decades. When Ruth Boone left the farm to the city in 1997, the corridor along her ranch's old edge had already been turned into a trail.
Both ends of the story are waiting on funding
Both the farm and the trail have a next chapter on paper, and neither has its full funding yet.
On the trail side, Danville San Ramon reported in July 2026 that Contra Costa County was designing a "dual-tracking" pilot in San Ramon that would give bicycles their own path, separate from people on foot. As of that report, design was about 65% complete, roughly $500,000 in park-impact fees had gone toward it, and the county still needed an estimated $2 million to $3 million. Supervisor Candace Andersen said the goal was to finish plans by the end of 2026 and, depending on funding and a request for proposals, build in 2027. Rep. Mark DeSaulnier's April 1, 2026 announcement moved forward a $1.5 million request for separated wheeled and pedestrian paths between Bollinger Canyon Road and Crow Canyon Road. That money still needs approval from the Appropriations Committee and both chambers of Congress. We have not seen a public update since July, so treat the 2027 date as a goal.
On the farm side, the city's Boone House Renovation page says FY27 funds are set aside to finish the design. Construction funding is expected to be requested in FY28. The plan covers structural repairs on both floors, a new roof, a reconfigured staircase, museum-grade lighting, updated heating and cooling, and a new exhibit area featuring Travis Boone's office. Once approved, the work is expected to take 12 to 18 months with minimal impact on the rest of the park. School tours would continue with minor changes. A 2021 city survey found that 75% of respondents considered expanded educational and interpretive space important or extremely important.
This fall comes before either project starts, so the farmhouse and the trail are both still in their current form.
Before you go
- Address and hours. 19953 San Ramon Valley Blvd., (925) 973-3284. The grounds are open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. On Historic Foundation event days the gates open at 11 a.m.
- Self-guided visits. Tour pamphlets are on the bulletin board at the parking lot entrance.
- Gift shop. Open Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Accessibility. The city notes that the park covers 16 acres, that most tours involve walking, and that not every area is universally accessible, so call ahead about accommodations.
- Same week, elsewhere in town. 3rd Thursday Arts & Eats runs Thursday, October 15, from 5 to 9 p.m. outside the Dougherty Station Community Arts Center, with local artists, food trucks and music. On the morning of the Iron Horse Saturday, October 17, the Parks Make Life Better Clean-up Day runs from 9 a.m. to noon at Bellingham Park. Fun on the Farm runs until 2 p.m., so there is still time for the farm after the clean-up ends.
Forest Home Farms shows how much a property's history, its setting and what's nearby add to how it's understood. If you are thinking about how your own home's history and setting would come across to buyers, Cindy Alaimo would be glad to sit down with you. Schedule a Complimentary Local Market & Home Presentation Plan.
