The One Where We Learn About San Pasqual Valley

So we are driving around Socal looking for the California Center for the Arts. We wanted to know if it was far from our hotel (Kevin thinks everything is far from our hotel). It was in fact about 20 minutes away. But as we drove down the main drag in and out of Escondido we passed this sign:

Vineyards?

Ok. You have my attention. So we kept driving. Next thing we knew, we were in the San Pasqual Agricultural Preserve. Which is mostly citrus trees cut into weird boxy shapes and grazing cattle for milk and meat, avocado orchards and gigantic nurseries (the plant kind). But there are vineyards. (But sadly not that I could see at the golf course) We also passed the San Pasqual Battlefield Historic Park (only open on weekends) and the San Diego Archeological Center (open Monday - Saturday).

But what about this region?

Originally there were indigenous people. The Kumeyaay or Diegueño people lived in the valley and had a village there. (you can find part of the cemetery from the village at the archeological center). Then the Europeans arrived. First were the missionaries. Mission San Diego de Alcalà "encouraged" the locals to work for the greater glory of God both at the Mission. But the Mission also served the community near the St. Francis Chapel in Warner Springs and the Asistencia de Santa Ysabel. (The asistencia was sub-missions that extended the mission's geographic reach.) The pathway between these locations ran through the San Pasqual Valley.

First, it was the missions. Then the first Mexican governor of Alta California secularized the missions and emancipated the indigenous people. But with this came more migrants into the area. American's who then decided that Manifest Destiny meant that the Mexican's needed to leave. And so the Mexican American war came to San Pasqual December 6th 1846. Said to be the bloodiest battle of the war, it led to a steady stream of settlers that moved the Diegueño off their lands beginning in 1878 and onto a reservation in 1910 (Don't worry, they were forced to give up that land too for the San Diego Wild Animal Park and a reservoir). Sigh.