Section of State Highway 371 to be named for fallen Special Deputy

Frank Hamilton, uncle to Chairman Joseph Hamilton and Vice Chairman Manuel Hamilton, was posthumously honored by Riverside County.

It was recently announced that a section of State Highway 371 in Anza will be named for Frank Hamilton, a Riverside County Special Deputy Sheriff believed to have been the first law enforcement officer in the county killed in the line of duty.

Senate Concurrent Resolution 51, authored by California State Senator Jeff Stone (R-Riverside County), passed the Legislature on January 27, 2016 and was enacted into law on February 1, 2016. The Resolution designates the portion of the highway between Howard Road and Tribal Road as “Special Deputy Frank Hamilton Memorial Highway.”

A Cahuilla tribal member from the Anza area, Hamilton served as a Special Deputy in the 1890s in the Riverside County Sheriff’s office, specifically in the areas surrounding the Cahuilla and Ramona Reservations and San Jacinto.

More information on Special Deputy Frank Hamilton can be found here.