Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma
Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma
Sorted by date Results 1 - 10 of 10
We can learn a lot from reviewing the records kept at a nearby general store 155 years ago. In 1867, Louis Wolf was postmaster in Warner Springs and a partner with Thomas Brady in a general store there. Copies of the ledger from the Wolf and Brady store dated December 1867 through July 1868 give insight into the local economy. Viewing the daily accounts, it appears that customers were not just shopping, but many stopped by to smoke, chew, drink alcohol, and gamble on card game...
John Magee's general store on the Southern Emigrant Trail, also known as the Butterfield Trail, was the location of our first Temecula Post Office in 1859. It was south of the Temecula Creek and a little east of today's Vail Headquarters in a place no longer visible in a housing tract. Temecula's most famous artist, Ralph Love, sketched what was believed to be the Magee Store post office, but his drawing in fact shows John Magee's second store which was located farther along...
In the 1970s, Old Town Temecula was a rundown, has-been of a town bypassed by Interstate 15. It had started as "the new town of Temecula" in 1882 when the California Southern brought railroad tracks this way. It replaced the Temecula of old at today's Vail Headquarters. The fledgling town grew as businesses developed and homes were built along Pujol and Mercedes streets. By 1885, the Temecula post office that had formerly been in the Wolf Store had a new location on Main...
The house for sale on Pala Road just south of Whispering Oaks Terrace is not the former home of Erle Stanley Gardner, but it was the home of at least two notable residents. Gardner never lived there, and I don't believe he ever owned it, but it has a many storied past and does have a connection to the prolific Perry Mason author. Gardner's residence is located on the Pechanga Reservation in the hills near the casino and Journey Golf Course. The house for sale is recognizable...
Temecula's famous author of the Perry Mason series, Erle Stanley Gardner, was affectionately called "Uncle Erle" by his secretaries and younger friends. Gardner lived on a big ranch he called Rancho del Paisano which is now within the Pechanga Tribe's reservation boundaries southwest of the casino. The ranch with many outbuildings was a perfect compound for the many people who were part of his "Fiction Factory." Gardner, who was more complex and interesting than any of his...
From time immemorial, the Murrieta Hot Springs resort has beckoned visitors to its mineral-rich waters for recreation, relaxation, rejuvenation and reflection. Some of the world's least-known individuals have stopped to soak in the mud, washed laundry and cleaned baths there, while some of the world's most well-known musicians and comedians have performed at the special property. Going way back in time, Churúkunuknu $akiwuna, as the Luiseño people call the Murrieta Hot Springs...
It is no surprise that The Vail Cattle Company served beef to their cowboys. Every cookhouse meal featured platters of steak, beans and tortillas with full-bodied coffee and pie on the side. People said if you had business with the Vails, plan to arrive just before lunch so you would be invited to join them. Good food was a perk for working for the Vails. Cowhands had a comfortable place to sleep and enough food to fuel their exertions. Vail cooks prepared carne seca, beef jer...
In April 1879, a weary doctor delivered Ysabel Grace Gonzalez, the first non-Native female born in Temecula. Her new life and the blossoming of spring infused him with much needed hope. He had just passed through a worrisome winter recovering from tuberculosis and had just buried his precious 1-year-old daughter on a hillside overlooking Temecula. Attending the birth of the healthy baby Ysabel encouraged him. He wrote euphorically to relatives in New York State, saying he had...
There were four pioneers whose remarkable stories should not be forgotten: James Hamilton, Albert and Margaret Robinson, and Nate Harrison. They settled in Anza, Julian, and on Palomar Mountain. James Hamilton was born in Ohio. In the late 1840s, he and a brother came west with a Mormon group heading to Utah Territory. Hamilton arrived in San Bernardino in 1850 and then moved to San Diego where he operated a hotel for a while. James went to Rancho San Felipe, near Warner...
Ranches dominated almost all of the Temecula Valley in 1910. The Vail Ranch owned 87,500-acres spreading from south of today's Temecula Parkway to Clinton Keith Road, west to U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and east to past Vail Lake. The two small villages of Temecula and Murrieta were sandwiched between ranch lands of the Vails and other ranchers, including the Roripaughs and Barnetts. The entire area was known as a cattle-grazing empire. The Vail Company purchased...
