The Story

What The Ruins Is Today

The Ruins is the cultural and entertainment heart of Watson Ranch, a 309-acre master-planned community in American Canyon, southern Napa County. The ruins themselves are the remnants of a 20th-century cement and aggregate factory—concrete shells, walls, silos, tunnels, and quarry ponds—now transformed into a venue, gallery, playground, and cultural hub.

Before Industry

Before anyone imagined a cement plant, this land was part of the indigenous landscape used by Native peoples in the Napa Valley region. In the 1840s, under Mexican rule, the area became part of Rancho Suscol, an 84,000-acre land grant given to General Mariano Vallejo.

The Watson Family & Napa Junction

In the 1850s, the Watson family homesteaded this land, giving rise to the names 'Watson Ranch' and 'Napa Junction.' Augustus Watson recognized the value of the limestone and clay deposits on his property. Around 1900, he formed the Napa Junction Company to extract and crush rock.

The Ruins Today

Today, The Ruins hosts global artists like Kaskade, Zhu, Francis Mercier, and Sub Focus alongside community events, nonprofit fundraisers, and educational programming.

"Don't ruin The Ruins."