Azusa Pacific University

The Two Temeculas: A Rejection of the “Three Temeculas” Model and Analysis of the City’s

History

By Charles Wolfe

HIST-497

29 November 2015

1

Any person doing even a preliminary amount of research on the history of Temecula,

California will no doubt encounter the popular “Three Temeculas” narrative. Popularized by the

man many consider to be Temecula’s first historian, Horace Parker,1 in the mid-1950’s and

throughout the 1960’s, Parker’s story purports that, throughout the course of history, three

distinct versions of the city have existed, each one contributing to the Temecula that exists today.

The “First Temecula,” Parker purports, was the Luiseno Native American tribal settlements in

the Temecula Valley. In Parker’s view, these settlements gave way to the 1800’s, what some call

Temecula’s “Crossroads” era, in which westward American settlers began to populate and

control the land, establishing business and government infrastructure. Finally, the “Third

Temecula” is the iteration known and seen by the public today, where housing tracts continue in

a seemingly endless expanse, middle-class families make up most of the city’s population, and

the city’s wine district is its defining quality.

There are certainly no arguments against Parker’s assertion of the Second Temecula, nor

the Third; one can plainly see how strongly they both play into Temecula’s history, and continue

to define much of the city’s character. The First Temecula, however, seems to be no kind of

Temecula at all. There are virtually no cultural connections between modern Temecula and the

native population from centuries ago—and how could there be, when, even in their age, the

Luiseno tribes were scattered and, in many ways, disconnected from one another? While Parker

and other historians seem so eager to afford the antecedent Native American tribes some title as

forerunners of the nation, there honestly does not seem to be much contribution to the modern

Temecula character from the Luiseno clans that occupied the territory before the Spanish arrived.

Truthfully, Temecula as anyone knows it did not begin until the Spanish secularized their

1 Emily Gerstbacher, Temecula History, Temecula, California: Friends of the Temecula Library, 1994.

2

mission network and began to divide the lands and territories amongst themselves, which would

be settled into the ranchos that eventually birthed the city. Parker’s model doesn’t even address

the eras of Spanish governance or Mexican control, which is likely more a deliberate fault of the

generalizations found in his philosophy than his grip on local history.

If Parker’s claim of a First, Second and Third Temecula, beginning with the Luiseno

people, is to be considered as truth, then there ought to be some amount of influence each phase

of the city contributed to the one that stands today. However, when put through honest analysis,

there just does not seem to be any tangible connection between the Luiseno people and the

modern city of Temecula beyond the fact that they both occupied the same small corner of

geographic space, and the Luiseno tribes occupied it first. According to Parker, the tribes may

have started settlements in Temecula as early as 8,000 B.C., having arrived in a glacial period by

crossing temporary ice bridges.2 It was not until the 1700’s A.D., when Spanish missionaries

arrived in the Temecula Valley, that another culture settled in the territory.3 When the Spanish

mission project began, it so effectively replaced the pre-existing Luiseno culture that the

aboriginal clans were never truly allowed to have a living connection to the current city, or even

to the mission settlements that immediately followed them.

No part of Luiseno culture could be called pervasive in the mission society established by

the Spanish during their time in California, or any civilization that was to come afterwards. No

Luiseno tribal or clan settlements eventually grew up to resemble anything one might think of as

“Temecula.” It is not proper, then, to attribute the Luiseno with settling the “First Temecula.”

This is not a statement made to discount the character of the Luiseno people, rather, to recognize

2 Horace Parker, The Historic Valley of Temecula, Temecula, California: Paisano Press, 1965. 3 Ibid, 1965

3

the uniqueness of their culture. Their beliefs, diets, and social systems were not the same of the

Spanish nor the Americans who would settle the area later. Frankly, it is not just to the Luiseno

people to say they founded the First Temecula. Their time in the valley is something so different

from any vision of Temecula, it ought to be recognized as its own aboriginal period, instead of

being a tab on the timeline of the city’s history. Instead of Parker’s “Three Temeculas,” one

ought to think of the city’s history this way:

The Aboriginal Period (8,000 B.C.-A.D. 1821)

The years bookending the Aboriginal Period mark the timeframe when, theoretically,

whatever aboriginal peoples who most-originally occupied the Temecula territory first arrived, to

the point when they were officially designated “Luiseno” in 1821, after the land was put under

the authority of the Spanish mission San Luis Rey.4 The 8,000 B.C. mark comes directly from

Parker’s work, which can be trusted to figure the year accurately enough, though not the size of

aboriginal settlements. There is virtually no archeological evidence that suggests any number,

big or small, of aboriginal settlers in the Temecula territory, only that some amount of them were

there sometime around 8,000 B.C. Even Parker notes the amount of aboriginals is uncertain, and,

in stories he was told, fluctuates by several thousand, depending on who is doing the telling, with

estimates ranging between just a couple thousand people to an upwards of fifteen- or twenty-

thousand.5 Regardless of their number, the culture they produced was ruggedly individua listic,

resourceful and, as seems typical of Native American societies, deeply spiritual.

The Temecula Valley, much like it is today, was a harsh land even in the time of the

aboriginals. Not quite a green valley, though not quite a barren desert, the area proved difficult to

4 Gerstbacher, 1994. 5 Parker, 1965.

4

farm. Natives in the Temecula Valley did not have the luxury of long rainy seasons nor the

bumper crops that might have come with them. Instead, they subsisted on the smaller fruits of

their home: acorns, where they were plentiful, seeds and small game, including both rabbits and

coyotes.6 It is perhaps for this reason the aboriginal clans remained relatively small and

disconnected. Temecula’s natives did not live in large communities, or even consider themselves

to be part of a greater tribe,7 but lived instead in smaller groups, an in-group of just a few

families, not any bigger than twenty-five or thirty people,8 rather than large, powerful tribes.

“The whole concept of a tribe as popularly understood was unknown to the Luiseno,” writes

Temecula historian Phil Brigandi, “their loyalty was to their village and their clan.”9 Perhaps,

had the land been more productive and the harvest more plentiful, the early settlers of the

Temecula area might have joined together in greater community.

Despite being small and somewhat scattered across the valley, the various Luiseno

villages did have significant shared cultural traits and patterns. The clans and villages were

bonded together through a single religion and were known as prolific basket weavers from one

village to the next. The valley may have been a hard, unfruitful place to live, but it was on the

dry rolling hills of the Temecula Valley that the Luiseno people gathered to worship Kywish and

Atawish, who they believed to be the world’s first beings and the originators of all other life on

Earth. Over time, Kywish would eventually become Tukmit, literally “the night sky,” and

Atawish turned into Tomaiyowit, meaning, “the earth.”10 The two original beings produced a son,

Wiyot, who was responsible for the creation of all humankind and brought them to the Temecula

6 Phil Brigandi, Temecula: At the Crossroads of History, Carlsbad, CA: Heritage Media Corporation, 1999. 7 Ibid, 1999. 8 Ibid, 1999. 9 Ibid, 1999. 10 Du Bois, Constance Goddard, The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California, Glouchester, UK: Dodo

Press, 1908.

5

Valley. For the Luiseno people, their placement in the valley was as much an act of the divine as

the existence of the Earth itself.

It is from their religious worship the very name Temecula comes: Temet is an ancient

Luiseno word meaning “the sun,” while “-ngna” is a suffix of their language, simply meaning

“place.” Temecula, then, to the Luiseno, simply meant “the sun place,” or “place of the sun.”11 If

modern Temecula retains nothing else from its aboriginal forerunners, it at least has kept the

name, though the meaning has, several times over several years, been mistranslated. “Like name

native place names, Temecula has been given all sorts of fanciful translations over the years,”

writes Brigandi. Among them were “Land of the Rising Sun,” “Glare of the Rising Sun,” “Early

Sunrise,” “The Place Where the Sun Breaks Through and Shines on the White Mist,” “Sunshine

After the Storm,” and “Valley of Diffused Sunlight.”12 The modern pronunciation of “Te-meh-q-

luh” comes from the Spanish’s failed attempts at pronouncing the aboriginal name for the

territory.13

The Spanish, of course, have their place in the aboriginal period, though there was little

to no significant European action in the Temecula valley until the 1800’s. Still, it is worth

mentioning European presence in the area—not just in Temecula, but, greater Riverside

County—stretches back as far as 1772.14 Spanish explorer and soldier Don Pedro Fages led an

expedition through the Temecula territory that year, after about two hundred years of Spanish

development further south, outside the region (the military expeditions of Hernan Cortes did not

make it so far inland as to breach Riverside County).15 Fages had been sent by Gaspar de Portola,

11 Ibid, 1908. 12 Brigandi, 1999. 13 Ibid, 1999. 14 Steve Lech, Along the Old Roads, Temecula, CA: Self-published by author, 2004. 15 Ibid, 2004.

6

a Spanish military leader, who had established outposts throughout Mexico and San Diego. De

Portola had two objectives: to establish military outposts, giving Spain a greater strategic

command of California, and to build missions, giving Spain a cultural and religious foothold in

the area, and allowing them to count the locals as Spanish subjects, making them part of the

colonial population and letting Spain appear to have a large, established presence in the mostly-

unsettled territory.16 After settling San Diego, he sent Fages north into the Temecula territory,

allowing him to be the first non-aboriginal to spend time there. The nearest mission, located

outside the Temecula territory, would not be built for about another twenty years, in 1798. It was

not until twenty-three years later that the Spanish would assume control of any part of Riverside

County and start a new era in Temecula history.

It is remarkable now, as the city is caught up in twenty years of rapid growth and

expansion, that for centuries the Temecula valley was so quiet and calm. The aboriginal clans

lived in relative obscurity from one another and what evidence has been unearthed thus far

suggests there was never a point of outward expansion, prolonged war, or even great cultural

exchange. The valley spent generations occupied by little more than small boroughs of bungalow

houses. In a place that has been growing and changing through every generation for the last two

hundred years, the relative stability in the valley of the aboriginal period may be its most

defining trait.

The Luiseno Period (1821-1848)

1821 marks the year the Temecula Valley fell under the authority of the Spanish mission

San Luis Rey de Francia17 (Mission of St. Louis, King of France), located in what is now

16 Ibid, 2004. 17 Gerstbacher, 1994.

7

Oceanside, California in San Diego County, less than an hour’s drive South from Temecula. The

Temecula natives became vassals of the mission, and the land they inhabited became its

property. Drawing from the Luis portion of the mission’s name, the natives were hence dubbed

the Luisenos, to acknowledge their relation to the mission.18 This, too, marks the beginning of

the Luiseno Period, a span of twenty-seven years that includes Spanish control of the territory,

the secularization of the missions and the establishment of Spanish land grants that would map

out the Valley’s first localities, the beginning and end of Mexican control of the territory, and

ends with the conclusion of the Mexican American War. The Luiseno period closes in 1848, with

the agreement of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War and

ceded the Temecula territory to the United States government. An equally appropriate name for

this time could be the “Upheaval Period,” as control of the territory changed hands several times

before it was finally conquered by the United States.

Though the mission itself was built nearly thirty miles away, the Spanish built a smaller

sort of quasi-mission much nearer to Temecula. San Antonio de Pala Asistencia (St. Antonio of

Pala Assistance), or the Pala Mission, for short, nearly straddles the San Diego/Riverside County

border.19 It was here that the Temecula Luisenos probably had most of their interaction with the

Spanish, receiving religious education and materials, eating meals, and generally being exposed

to the Spanish culture. The contemporary image of the California missions, that of a large,

oppressive Spanish presence imposing strict Catholic rule on the native population, doesn’t

necessarily bode true in the Temecula Valley; for better or worse, the Spanish seemed relatively

unimpressed with the territory, more interested in the fertile grounds and cooler seaside lifestyles

18 Parker, 1965. 19 Lech, 2004.

8

in San Diego to the south and Santa Barbara to the north than the unfruitful, hot Temecula

Valley. Temecula still boasts a sizable rattlesnake population, which, absent any human

development, was likely even larger during the Luiseno Period. Perhaps the Spanish simply

could not find a place to settle among the weeds and hillsides where they were not at risk of a

venomous bite.

The Temecula Indians fell under the authority of mission San Luis Rey, but, with the

Spanish spending their time and resources settling elsewhere, life went relatively unchanged by

the mission project. There was no great Christianization of the Temecula Luisenos, as there was

in other places more centrally located near the missions. In fact, other Native American faiths

had greater penetration in the Temecula Valley than Spanish Catholicism. Beginning sometime

in the eighteenth century, the Temecula Luisenos replaced their worship of Atawish and

Tomaiyowit with worship of Chingichngish, a god preached in earlier centuries by other native

tribes in northern California.20 Unlike Atawish and Tomaiyowit, which had dominion over

specific times and parts of creation, Chingichngish was a universal deity, a god of all things at all

times, which could serve as the center for all spiritual activities.21 When the Spanish arrived, they

likely encountered belief in Chingichngish, Atawish, and Tomaiyowit, as the disconnected,

hunter-gatherer nature of the aboriginals does not inspire confidence that they adopted the new

religion in any universal sense. There are no records to indicate a push by the Spanish to

introduce Catholicism to the Temecula Luisenos, evidently as disinterested with the natives as

they were with the territory.

20 Brigandi, 1999. 21 Du Bois, 1908.

9

However, that’s not to say the Spanish missionary period had no influence in the

Temecula Valley. The Spanish institution of ranchos, large plots of land designated by a singular

title and sometimes gifted to Spanish officials, played a major role in mapping out modern

Temecula and its surrounding cities. Rancho Pauba, Rancho San Jacinto and Rancho Santa Rosa

all contained land considered part of the Temecula Valley, but Rancho Temecula, naturally,

outlined Temecula’s borders until the city started to grow in the twentieth century.22 Pauba, at

26,598 acres, sat just to the East, where, today, the state’s route 79-North passes through and the

city of Murrieta sits. Rancho San Jacinto, the largest of the Riverside County ranchos at over

130,000 acres, sat North of Temecula, and stretched far to the East, into the San Jacinto

mountains. Rancho Santa Rosa, West of Temecula, was mostly rough, rocky mountains, covered

in overgrowth, home to snakes, mountain lions and other wildlife that still wanders the Santa

Rosa Plateau today.23

The Temecula Rancho was used mostly as grazing territory for cattle. Some acreage was

devoted to growing corn and wheat, a first for the area as the aboriginal population left the land

largely unfarmed and had no access to those particular crops.24 Two structures were built in the

Temecula Rancho, one likely the rancho overseer’s home, and another, owing to its large size

and warehouse interior, probably a storage building for grain, hides and other agricultural

valuables.25 During the mission era, this was the extent of the Spanish presence in the Temecula

Valley: a storage outbuilding, a farm and some cattle—that is, at least, until the nature of their

22 Lech, 2004. 23 Ibid, 2004. 24 Ibid, 2004. 25 Ibid, 2004.

10

company in California completely changed, and other nations took an interest in the sleepy

Temecula territory.

Following seven years of debate, in 1834 the Spanish government secularized the

California missions, taking authority over them away from the Catholic church, and giving it to

their established state government.26 Most missions closed their doors and went dormant as a

team of secular leaders took command. Pio Pico, a first-generation Californio (Spanish citizen

born in California), grandson of one of the first Spanish soldiers to pass through the Temecula

territory, took over Mission San Luis Rey, which still maintained control of the Temecula

Valley.27

Jose Figueroa, the handpicked Spanish governor, was given charge over all the Spanish-

controlled territory in California, not for keeping, but, rather, to divide it up among Spanish

officials and wealthy businessmen. Figueroa performed a long series of land grants, giving away

swathes of the state to whomever qualified and completed a lengthy application process. In

Southern California, Figueroa chose to keep the Ranchos intact; in 1840, Pico, who had by then

grown his influence in the area and even served as governor of Alta California (the Spanish

name for their holdings in Southern California) for a single year in 1832, was given control of

Rancho Temecula.28 Pico’s ownership of the Rancho would be short-lived: in 1845, as Pio Pico

ascended to the California governorship (now part of Mexico), he ceded the Rancho to Mexican

Army officer Felix Valdes. A year later, a small piece of the Rancho, called Rancho Little

Temecula (and, later, Little Temecula Rancho), was granted to Pablo Apis, a Luiseno who was

26 Ibid, 2004. 27 A.A. Bynon, History and Directory of Riverside County, Riverside, CA: Historical Commission Press, 1992. 28 John Bidwell, Life in California Before the Gold Discovery, Los Angeles, CA: Ward Ritchie Press, 1948.

11

baptized Catholic at San Luis Rey.29 This sudden occurrence of rapid turnover became

something of a pattern in the following years, as Valdes, just two years after receiving his land

grant, sold it to his attorney, Luis Vignes, who was, perhaps, the first vintner to settle in an area

now known almost exclusively for wine production.30 Vignes would go on to purchase Rancho

Pauba, as well, in 1848.31 Such is the true legacy of the Spanish in the Temecula territory: not as

oppressive conquerors or Christianizing missionaries, but, simply as the men who gave the land

its first formal boundaries and divisions and put in place the first line of landowners who would

allow for real development to occur. While their more religious counterparts could not find value

in establishing a presence in the valley, secular Spanish leaders seemed to see it as a chance for

lucrative investment.

The latter years of the Luiseno period saw a sudden spike of interest in controlling the

Temecula Valley. While the Spanish debated secularizing the missions in California, they were

engaged in war with Mexico and seemingly losing territory and influence there by the day. In

1821, the Spanish issued a formal surrender of their colonies in Mexico when they agreed to the

Cordova Conventions.32 The newly-empowered Mexican government, perhaps feeling pressure

from the rapid growth the United States experienced following the Louisiana Purchase,

established a presence in the Alta California, installing government officials and initiating new

road-building projects through the territory, chiefly the Southern Emigrant Trail, which would

become a prominent highway linking San Diego and the Temecula Valley.33 The United States

was indeed moving West and, under the leadership of President James K. Polk, the nation moved

29 Bynon, 1992. 30 Ibid, 1992. 31 Ibid, 1992. 32 Brigandi, 1999. 33 Lech, 2004.

12

to control both of the continental coasts. The Mexican-American War kicked off in 1846;

military operations in Alta California ended just one year later with the signing of the Cahuenga

Capitulations. Mexico formally ceded the territory in 1848 with the signing of the Treaty of

Guadalupe Hidalgo; Pio Pico was Alta California’s last governor before it fell under the

authority of the United States.34 U.S. control of the Temecula Valley opened the door for rapid

growth in the area, as westward settlers opened the area’s first businesses and new roads brought

new people, new opportunities, and a new character to the territory.

The First Temecula (1849-1964)

Finally, the construction and character of modern Temecula begins to take shape. The

First Temecula era begins in 1849, with the opening of John Magee’s general store on Little

Rancho Temecula just a year after the conclusion of the Mexican-American War, and continues

in a stretch of 115 years of growth and development spurred by private landowners and

investors, until 1964, when Mahlon Vail’s Vail Ranch settlement is sold to a large corporate

conglomerate and re-named Rancho California with the explicit interest of establishing a large

residential community and several business parks. During this period, Temecula benefits from

the construction of several major roads passing through, bringing more business, more people

and further growth. While escaping the stereotypical trappings of other “wild west” areas,

several families in Temecula embraced the frontier lifestyle and became the forerunners of a

western, equestrian aesthetic that still defines the town’s image. The frontier closes along with

the First Temecula period, as, for the first time, a real plan for steady growth and development is

34 Brigandi, 1999.

13

laid and replaces the sense of openness and freedom that characterized the Valley for so many

generations previous.

Like many other towns (or ghost towns, as history dictates) in California, Temecula owes

much of its early development to the Gold Rush of 1849. It is no coincidence that John Magee

opened Temecula’s first established business that year. Magee’s general store grew rapidly into a

large horse stop, offering lodging, food, drink and necessities for life in the Valley. Situated at

the crossroads of the Southern Emigrant Trail carved out by Mexico and another road that

followed to San Bernardino, Magee could not have picked a better location.35 Miners, settlers

and travelers passing through Temecula came to know Magee’s store as a valuable rest and

resupply point.

As Temecula finally started seeing some signs of real development, Magee’s store

became an integral part of it. John Butterfield’s Butterfield Overland Mail Company started

delivering mail from St. Louis to San Francisco in 1858. Butterfield mailmen were known to

frequently stop in at Magee’s store both on their way to St. Louis, and during the return trip to

San Francisco.36 When Temecula opened its first United States Post Office in 1859—the first

Post Office anywhere in inland Southern California—it operated out of Magee’s store.37

Unfortunately, the Civil War compromised the Postal Service’s western operations, and the

Temecula office closed in 1862, just three years later. When the Post Office closed, so, too, did

Magee’s store, as he left to open a second venture further South in Rainbow Canyon.38

35 Gerstbacher, 1994. 36 Ibid, 1994. 37 Bynon, 1992. 38 Ibid, 1992.

14

It took eight years for anyone to emulate Magee’s success, but, in 1857, Louis Wolf

opened Temecula’s second general store, just a quarter-mile north of John Magee’s.39 While the

gold rush had died down, Wolf’s store became a well-known stopping point between Los

Angeles and Yuma, Arizona.40 Like John Magee, Louis Wolf and his family also became

cornerstones of early Temecula growth. When the Office re-opened in 1870, it came to Wolf’s

store, with him serving as postmaster.41 Wolf came to own Rancho Temecula when, in 1872, he

purchased it from the widow of Pablo Apis, who had been granted the land twenty-seven years

earlier by Mexican Alta California governor Pio Pico.42 Within a year, Temecula’s first school

opened on Wolf’s land and he was installed as district clerk.43 Wolf was even part of the boom

on Front Street, where most of Temecula’s first hotels, banks and other businesses opened. He

and business partner Macedonia “Mac” Machado opened a second store at the corner of Main

and Front, where the recently-completed Southern California Railroad Line ended.44 Wolf’s

second store was among the first businesses installed in what remains one of Temecula’s busiest

and most lucrative districts, as Front Street (now the driveway of “Old Town Temecula”)

remains vibrant as ever. In 1887, Louis Wolf passed away, though his family kept his storefronts

operating for some time.45 His store was dedicated as a local historical site in 1950.

For the next several years, Temecula continued to see the opening of new schools, roads

and businesses, though listing their specific dates and locations is less an exercise in history and

more one in trivia. Riverside County was formally created in 1893, incorporating land from both

39 Gerstbacher, 1994. 40 Lech, 2004. 41 Gerstbacher, 1994. 42 Brigandi, 1999. 43 Ibid, 1999. 44 Lech, 2004. 45 Brigandi, 1999.

15

San Diego county and San Bernardino County, including Temecula.46 The United States

government made its first attempts at dealing with the remaining local Luiseno natives; in 1875,

a District Court in San Francisco authorized a posse to evict local Indians and, seven years later,

President Chester A. Arthur authorized their roughly four-thousand acre reservation (known now

as the Pechanga Indian Reservation, home to a massive resort and casino).47 Land was bought

and sold and growth continued at a sluggish pace, but, until the arrival of the Vail family, little

happened that would have real impact on the city’s history.

Modern Temecula has seen incredible success as a planned community. Housing tracts

and business districts are all carefully drawn out and constructed to a specific end in a linear,

controlled process. This Temecula tradition began in 1904 with the arrival of Walter Vail. Vail,

in one sweeping grab, purchased all four of the original Spanish Ranchos, a land buy of over

85,500 acres.48 Walter consolidated the land and re-named it “Vail Ranch,” in a somewhat ironic

move since he ceased most ranching activity on the territory, as he felt they were stagnating local

growth. Within two years, Walter was killed in a Los Angeles trolley car,49 but, his son, Mahlon

Vail, carried on his father’s mission of growing Vail Ranch into a viable township. In 1909, the

Sanborn Map Company was contracted to draw out the Temecula townsite and noted only 150

residents, most of whom worked, in some capacity, for the Vail family.50 Mahlon took great

effort and attention to make sure this number would grow. The First National Bank of Temecula

opened, on Front Street, in 1914, financed solely by Vail. Saint Catherine’s Catholic Church

46 Gerstbacher, 1994. 47 Ibid, 1994. 48 Bynon, 1992. 49 Brigandi, 1999. 50 Ibid, 1999.

16

received most of its funding from charitable donations made by the Vail family, including both

cash and a steer sold during a charity auction to benefit the church’s construction.51

The Vail’s efforts were met with great success, as, throughout the early to mid-1900’s,

several other wealthy families settled in the Temecula Valley—Vail Ranch, remember—and

opened businesses. The Ramona Inn grew into a vibrant saloon and a popular retreat for visitors

from other, larger Southern California cities.52 Palomar Hotel opened in 1924 and the U.S.

Border Patrol established a checkpoint that same year.53 Charles Clogston opened Mother’s Café

on Front Street in 1927; it continues to operate today as the Swing Inn Café, a popular site for the

after-church breakfast rush every Sunday morning.54 Schools continued to open to keep up with

growth and, by 1952, Temecula Union School District finally brought a unified governing body

to the valley.55 As it had in past generations, Temecula also continued to benefit from new roads.

1933 saw the completion of U.S. Highway 395 (now “Old Highway 395”), connecting Temecula

to Fallbrook and Rainbow.56

As Vail Ranch grew and garnered attention from families and small business owners, it

also drew the attention of powerful investors. Eventually, the Vail family sold their land holdings

to a large corporate conglomerate. The corporate partnership, like the Vails, had a plan for

growth, but bigger. When the Vails sold their Ranch, they put an end to the First Temecula and

created the opportunity for modern Temecula to form. Their family name is ever present

throughout the city’s various businesses, schools and communities (certain local historians may

51 Brigandi, 1999. 52 Ibid, 1999. 53 Gerstbacher, 1994. 54 Ibid, 1994. 55 Ibid, 1994. 56 Ibid, 1994.

17

remember attending Vail Elementary School, swimming in Vail Lake and driving on Mahlon

Vail Road), a testament to their importance to the city’s development.

The Second Temecula (1964-Present)

On December Fourth, 1964, Vail Ranch was sold to a corporate partnership of Kaiser

Aluminum and Chemical and Macco Realty Company for something close to twenty-one million

dollars. The Vail name was stripped away, as the corporate team opted for “Rancho California,”

perhaps a nod to the settlement’s days of Spanish occupation.57

Temecula’s roots may have been laid in previous eras, but, much of the city’s modern

appearance and layout was born along with Rancho California. The city’s vast wine industry is

owed directly to a 1965 decision to fund the first grape stock, including fifty-seven grape

varieties, and plant them along Rancho California Road.58 Within a year of the Rancho

California purchase, Robert Unger, the new manager of the settlement’s development,

announced a sixty-year master plan including new roads, new homes, a new irrigation network

and projections for incredible population growth. 59

The 1960’s kicked off a boom period in Temecula that, it may be said, has not ended

since. The list of businesses and government organizations that opened in Rancho California is

extensive, including newspapers (Rancho News, which became the Press-Enterprise), radio

stations (KRTM, still broadcasting) and business parks (Rancho Town Center, now Temecula

Town Center). Over seventy-one new businesses arrived within Rancho California’s first ten

years.60 By 1970, just six years after the Second Temecula era began, a U.S. Census survey

57 Bynon, 1992. 58 Brigandi, 1999. 59 Ibid, 1999. 60 Bynon, 1992.

18

showed over 2,769 people had moved to Rancho California.61 The sixty-year expansion plan was

working beautifully.

Rapid growth continued into the 1980’s. The city opened its first high school, Temecula

Valley High School (where certain local historians may remember graduating), in 1986.62 The

city’s first Balloon and Wine Festival was celebrated in 1984,63 even the Olympic Torch passed

through town on its way to Los Angeles that year. Families flocked from all over Southern

California in search of cheap real estate, attracting a large, hardworking middle class population.

All signs pointed towards this small, sleepy town attaining cityhood.

A “City Committee” of dedicated locals formed in 1988 and campaigned for “Measure

‘R,’” a ballot measure in the 1989 general election that would determine Rancho California’s

cityhood. When the votes were counted on November 7th, 1989, Measure R passed with an

overwhelming majority of 87.6%.64 The name Temecula was chosen that same year; the city’s

first major road, which connects the west end of the city to the east, was dubbed Rancho

California, to note its significance in city history.65 In 1990, the U.S. Census Bureau ran another

survey of Temecula, this time counting 27,099 Temecula residents.66

Perhaps readers notice a pattern by this point. More growth, more businesses, more

people, more investment. Trying to keep up writing about the city’s expansion would be an

ongoing, seemingly infinite task. Even as recently as the mid-1990’s, the city boasted only a

single stoplight, and more roads were left unpaved than paved. Over time, the small, quiet town

61 Ibid, 1992. 62 Gerstbacher, 1994. 63 Ibid, 1994. 64 Bynon, 1992. 65 Gerstbacher, 1994. 66 Ibid, 1994.

19

has grown into a larger, though still mostly-quiet city, now home to, at last count, over 110,000

residents. Even Ronald Reagan took notice of Temecula in a 1983 speech:

“The folks of in a rather small town, Temecula. They got together and built

themselves a sports park, held fund-raising barbeques and dinners. And those that

didn’t have money volunteered the time and energy. And now the young people

of that community have baseball diamonds for Little League and other sports

events, just due to what’s traditional Americanism.”67

Naturally, that same sports park now bears Reagan’s name, dedicated following his death.

Rather than carry on with a continuing chronology of school and business openings, or

doubling back to include the groundbreaking of this hospital or that, it would be more

appropriate to simply say Temecula is continuing its long tradition of growth and development.

Such is the true value of Temecula’s history: while ownership and leadership in the Valley has

changed over the centuries, every major event from the secularization of the Spanish missions

onward has contributed to an idea that eventually blossomed and became Temecula. The Spanish

mapped it, the Mexicans built highways to it, the United States brought incredible development

and infrastructure and, ultimately, it has always been the private citizens—business owners,

pastors, teachers, workers, investors—who define the city’s future and live out its values.

67 Brigandi

20

Acknowledgements

John Bidwell, Life in California Before the Gold Discovery, Los Angeles, CA: Ward Ritchie

Press, 1948.

Phil Brigandi, Temecula: At the Crossroads of History, Carlsbad, CA: Heritage Media

Corporation, 1999.

A.A. Bynon, History and Directory of Riverside County, Riverside, CA: Historical Commission

Press, 1992.

Emily Gerstbacher, Temecula History, Temecula, CA: Friends of the Temecula Library, 1994.

Constance Goddard Du Bois, The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California,

Gloucester, UK: Dodo Press, 1908.

Steven Lech, Along the Old Roads, Temecula, CA: Self-published by the author, 2004.

Horace Parker, The Historic Valley of Temecula, Temecula, CA: Paisano Press, 1965.

The work in the preceding pages could not have been possible without the valuable

resources found at the Temecula Public Library, or the incredible patience of my

professors at Azusa Pacific University.

21

22