Riverside County, California, Place Names
Their Origins and Their Stories
By Jane Davies Gunther
(Copyright 1984)
The following stories are collected from the above titled book and only the stories that are felt to be the most relevant to the local area were selected. The uses of these stories are for reference only.
Stories about Lakeview, Nuevo and Juniper Flats.
- Algooton (Book ref: page 14).
- Bernasconi Hills & Pass (Book ref: page 50, 51).
- Brownlands (Book ref: 72, 73).
- Colony Heights (Book ref: page 125, 126).
- Corral De Pilares (Book ref: 136)
- Juniper Flats (Book ref: page 258).
- Lakeview (Book ref: page 280, 281).
- Mount Rudolph (Book ref: 339).
- Mystic Lake / Brown Lake (Book ref. page 346-348).
- Nuevo (Book ref: 356).
- Olive School District (Book ref: page 360).
- San Jacinto Nuevy Y Portero Rancho (Book ref: page 466, 467).
- San Jacinto Plains (Book ref: page 467).
- San Jacinto Tunnel Book Ref: page 469, 470)
Stories about places around Lakeview, Nuevo and Juniper Flats that influenced the area.
- Camp Haan (Book ref: 95, 96).
- Casa Loma (Book ref: page 102, 103).
- Coyote “Coyote Pass” (Book ref: page 141-143).
- Double Butte (Book ref: page 163, 164).
- March Air Force Base (Book ref: page 309, 310).
- Perris Valley (Book ref: 386).
- San Jacinto Rancho (Book ref: page 467-469).
Page 14-15: Algooton. According to Indian legend, as told by George Wharton James (1903, 153-159, 244-253), Algooton, now known as Lakeview {see}, was the home of Algoot, hence the name. Algoot was a captain of great power and a leader of the Soboba peoples. One day Algoot’s son and two companions climbed Mount San Jacinto, the abode of the evil spirit known as Tauquitch (Tahquitz), to find Tauquitch and to prove that they were a match for the demon’s witchcraft, sorcery, and impersonation. When the three young men did not return, Algoot, fearing the worst, climbed the mountain in search of them. He found the two companions who told of the death of Algoot’s son at the hands of Tauquitch. “With one fierce sweep of his hand, in which he held a rawhide-covered battle-axe, he smote down the brave and fearless youth. With his skull crushed in he must have died instantly, but that was nothing to what followed. Picking the dead body up in his hands as if he were a merest nothing, he pulled an arm out of its socket, and slinging the body over his shoulder, marched back to his cave eating the still warm flesh of his victim,” crunching bones between his teeth. Algoot, whose anger was now terrible to behold, “called upon the gods silently…vowing to them that he would never rest until he had slain Tauquitch or been slain by him.” After training for many moons, Algoot climbed the mountain and challenged Tauquitch to a fight. Tauquitch agreed to fight, but said, “Go you away to the valley where the river of my mountain flows into the lake, and there I will meet and fight you, and in less time than it takes for me to talk to you, I will crunch the bones of your arms and legs between my teeth.” Algoot assented and “went down into the valley, where Algooton…now is. In those days the San Jacinto River emptied into a large lake here, and there was no passageway cut through to make the lake at Elsinore as it now is.” Soon Tauquitch appeared, and picking up huge granite boulders, threw them with great force at Algoot. Algoot, prepared for such a fight by his many months of training, retaliated in like manner “with accurate aim and awful force upon the monster.” So many boulders were thrown that now those who “wander about the San Jacinto and Moreno valleys will see the piled-up granite boulders there, all of which were thrown by the mountain monster during this terrific conflict.” When Algoot began to get the better of his foe, Tauquitch in despair, turned himself into a great sea serpent. Algoot rushed upon the monster and grappled with the long, slimy body, holding it so tightly Tauquitch writhed and wriggled and lashed the water and all the surrounding country with his tail. “In one of these lashings his tail cut through the rim that formed the shore of the lake, and made the deep cut through the hills through which the waters now flow to make Lake Elsinore. Speedily all the water was drained away, and thus Tauquitch gave help to Algoot to slay him.” Algoot and his people prepared a funeral pyre of great piles of wood brought down from the mountain; however, Algoot made the mistake of adding a great armful of green wood to the dry. The body of the sea serpent (Tauquitch) was consumed, but because of the use of green wood, those” who were watching saw the spirit of Tauquitch ascend to the sky in a dim wreath of smoke. Had only dry wood been used he would have been entirely destroyed. Hence, although Algoot slew Tauquitch, his spirit was not dead, and he soon returned to his cave in the San Jacinto Mountains. There he still makes the terrible noises, and never appears now except in disguise.” Kroeber, who spelled the word as Algootoon, said it was “perhaps Luiseno ‘raven’”(1916 p. 34, 1976 p.895).
Page 50: Bernasconi Hills-Pass, Named for Bernardo Bernasconi, a native of Switzerland, who came around the horn to California in a windjammer in 1859, arriving in San Francisco at the age of twenty, Coming south, he lived at first with his brother at San Juan Capistrano, raising sheep. From the fathers at Mission San Juan Capistrano he learned of the old Corral de Pilares {see} on Mission San Luis Rey’s former cattle ranch of San Jacinto. He investigated the area and, finding it was good sheep-herding land, bought 284 acres from Joseph Wolfskill, including the old corral, along the west bank of the San Jacinto River in 1879. The ruins of an adobe house were still within the deteriorating walls of the corral, so there Bernasconi, a bachelor, set up his headquarters for what he called Sulphur Springs Ranch because of the hot sulfur springs at the side of the river. As time went on, he added more land by homestead and at onetime had sheep pastured all over the Perris Plains {Reynolds 1975}. In 1883 he went to San Francisco where he married Marcellini Orsi, also a Swiss and governess to the children of the Swiss Consul, and brought her home in a horse-drawn wagon. When his bride saw the old adobe house, she refused to live in it permanently. It was not long before a ten-room house, designed to her specifications, was built. The house became a landmark until it was razed during the depression years {Reynolds 1975, Evans 1971}. Although the hills and pass were not named officially until after the turn of the century, they became well-known as Bernasconi Hills and Pass. The road to Lakeview was routed through the pass as the most direct way in and out of San Jacinto Valley. The western end of Bernasconi Pass is now closed because of the construction of Lake Perris and consequent flooding of the road and west approach to the pass. A new pass through the Bernasconi Hills has been constructed to accommodate the Ramona Freeway. BERNASCONI HOT SPRINGS. Named for Marcellini Orsi Bernasconi, located on the west bank of the San Jacinto River near what is now Lakeview, the springs, long known to the Indians, were later known to the San Luis Rey Mission fathers as the Pilares, the Spanish word for “basin or bowl” {of a fountain} {see Corral de Pilares} In 1867, U.S. Deputy Surveyor Henry Hancock called them “swamp with springs” {RCRD Bk. 30 p.48}. Still later they were called Ramona Hot Springs. When Joseph Wolfskill became owner of the property, they were called by his name. The Bernasconi’s called the springs “the tules” and as their children grew they found that the tules were great fun to bounce on. They also found many Indian artifacts at the springs after periodic flooding of the river. At about the time Lakeview {see) was subdivided Mr. Wolfskill put down a well at the springs and was rewarded with hot Sulphur water. Mrs. Bernasconi a good business woman, “made a deal” with Wolfskill, put in six bathrooms, installed an old bathtub, and was in business as Bernasconi’s Hot Springs {Reynolds 1975}. Bernasconi’s venture was successful and by the spring of 1891, more boring for hot Sulphur water was in progress {RP&H May 16, 1891}. When Lakeview was put on the market, new residents whose houses had not yet been completed camped on their land. A news item reported, “One of the luxuries enjoyed by the campers is a spring of hot water with bath-houses erected near them. The bath-house is taxed to it’s utmost capacity every Sunday by bathers and amateur laundrymen” {RP&H Nov.25, 1893}. The hot springs continued to be popular for many years. Mrs. Bernasconi sold her interest and in the years that followed the springs were re-named Lakeview, Ginsberg, and Stewart as ownership changed, until the flow of water was cut off by the building of the Metropolitan Water District’s Colorado River Aqueduct through the vicinity in the 1930s.
Page 72-73: Brownlands. Named in 1913 for Frank E. Brown of Redlands, The energetic and charismatic developer of Alessandro, Moreno, and Lakeview in earlier years. Brownlands was situated on one thousand acres of dredged San Jacinto (now Mystic) Lake bottom in the San Jacinto Valley. Frank Brown was not the first sub-divider to put this particular acreage on the market. It had been subdivided into farm lots as “Map No. 1 of San Jacinto Reservoir” in May 1892 (SDC Map 715) and, a few years later, as “San Jacinto Lake Tract” (RC Map Bk. 6 p.83). Then, in 1911 and 1912, Raymond G. Tryon and Edward Judson Brown filed maps of the “Tryon-Brown Land Company’s Subdivision of a portion of … the San Jacinto Lake Tract” (RC Map Bk. 8 pp. 9, 61) with streets and avenues accepted by the Riverside County Board of Supervisors. The “Map of Brownlands, being a subdivision of … a portion of … the San Jacinto Lake Tract” was filed on April 15,1913at the request of Frank E. Brown (RC Map Bk. 9 p. 15) with not only streets and avenues, but also “Right of Way reserved for Street Cars.” Apparently, Edward Judson Brown was no longer connected with the development, but his last name, borne by flock of others, became inextricably associated with the land. Frank E. Brown and Jessie S. Brown, his wife, were the most prominent of the new owners of the acreage. In addition, others who signed documents pertaining to Brownlands were Anna L. Brown, who notarized the “Map of Brownlands,” and George H. Brown, Riverside County Auditor who certified that taxes on the property had been paid. It must be pointed out, also, that the land of Brownlands is very brown when dry and turned over.
Brownlands post office was established on January 5, 1914, with Halbert E. Bateman as the first postmaster, but was discontinued on March 31, 1915 (perhaps because of a wet winter), with service moved to Moreno (Records of Appointments), Moreno being only another rendering of “brown” in Spanish.
After a successful beginning, although street cars never became a reality, Brownlands reverted, in spite of dredging, to its previous state of being a sort of swamp and began to resemble once again its earlier name of “San Jacinto Lake Tract.” Irwin Farrar of Hemet recalled seeing Brownlands under water for seven months of the year in the years around 1917, with water after a flood covering the land right up to the nearby old Lakeview Hotel (Nov. 6, 1974).
Brownlands did have some unusual claims to fame. In an unpublished 1925 typescript, Ida C. Wood of Nuevo recalled: “There have been several wells in Brownlands that show oil on the water and a number of the people use the gas for lighting and cooking. In 1923 a Co. drilled a well in that locality, just 5 miles from Lakeview. They are down to 1900 ft. with every indication favorable to success; tools were lost in the well.” She called the site “the lake near Lakeview known as Brownlands.”
Colony Heights
A descriptive name for a colony of Seventh Day Baptists, heralded in Los Angeles Times as early as July, 1894, and established on the eastern side of the Bernasconi Hills about two-a-half miles northwest of Lakeview in mid-1895 on 2,100 acres of former Rancho San Jacinto Nuevo land. Sheparded by the Rev. J.T. Davis, founder of the colony, some thirty families arrived from the east during that summer. Wells for domestic water were dug, deciduous fruit trees and alfalfa were planted, a church was erected, and residences were built. By January, 1896, a 100-foot wide levee along the San Jacinto River had been finished as a safeguard from inundation from both the river and the lake (later named Mystic). Colony Heights flourished. In February, 1897, with 27 children of school age residing in the colony, the Board of Supervisors was petitioned for the formation of a new school district. On March 2, 1897, the petition was granted for Colony Heights School District and a school building was immediately built by the men of the colony. Members of the settlement were persuaded to sink most of their funds in a cement irrigation system, but then it became apparent there wasn’t enough water to make the system work. The community lacked money to dig deeper for water. Along with the dwindling water supply it turned out that the title to the land wasn’t clear. The people of the colony moved one by one to Riverside during 1900 and 1901. Buildings were also moved to Riverside. The school house was moved by Miss Rosa Davis, the teacher, to 3202 Date Street, Riverside, where it still stands. The ruins of its old foundation can still be seen at the deserted site of Colony Heights along the old road leading to Moreno (RP&H Sept. 15, Oct. 27, Nov. 24, 1994, Feb, 2, Mar.9, July 6, 1895, Jan, 18, 1896, Feb. 6, Mar. 6, 1897, Wood 1925, Westbrook 1968).
Page 136: Corral De Pilares. In the early days of Rancho San Jacinto when it was a Mission San Luis Rey cattle ranch, the mission fathers, with the aid of Indian labor, constructed an adobe wall around a four-acre plot on the west side of the San Jacinto River, built an adobe house to one side, and gave it it’s Spanish name meaning “corral of the basin or bowl [OF A FOUNTAIN].” The nearby hot springs, later known as Bernasconi Hot Springs {see}, were the inspiration for the name. The corral was used by the mission fathers and their Indian helpers for branding cattle at round-up time {Guinn 1907 p. 1437}. Many years earlier, on December 30, 1775, Father Font noticed this particular place when he first crossed the San Jacinto Valley and wrote in his diary”… it seemed to me that on the other side of the … river there might be an excellent site…for the raising of horses, cattle, sheep and goats” {Bolton 1930 iv. P.165}. By May, 1853, the corral had fallen into disrepair and was called “the old ruin of the St. Louis Rey {sic} Mission” by U.S. Deputy Surveyor Henry Hancock {RCRD Bk. 29 p.46}. In November, 1876, U.S. Deputy Surveyor G. Howard Thomas mentioned the “ranch house at the “Corral de Pilares”” {RCRD Bk. P. 31}. Three years later, in 1879, Bernardo Bernasconi arrived with his flocks of sheep and found shelter in the old adobe house that was still standing adjacent to the ruins of the corral {Reynolds 1975} (see Bernasconi Hills}.
Page 258: Juniper Flats. A descriptive name for a more or less flat place in the rocky Lakeview Mountains, where, at one time, the predominant vegetation consisted of juniper. The name was first shown on the 1901 U.S. Geological Survey Elsinore Quadrangle. When U. S. Deputy Surveyor Cave J. Couts surveyed this particular area in December, 1892, he called it a “flat with juniper. The land embraced …lies on an isolated mountain (composed of granite principally) between the valleys of the San Jacinto and Perris. It is very mountainous, rocky and brushy. The brush is used by the settlers for fuel. It is very well watered and on that account it is so well settled. None of the settlers have more than 60 acres of arable land, most of them having less than 20, but all are under the impression that it will be a good locality for citrus fruits, and in that hope are clearing away the brush and what rocks they can move”(RCRD Bk.3pp.81, 91). Mining claims in the “juniper Flats country” were reported in the Riverside Press & Horticulturist, December 8, 1894, and in the August 28, 1899, edition of the Riverside Daily Press there was a small item concerning the finding in Juniper Flats of a “large amount of feldspar, which is used in the manufacture of translucent glass.” By 1919, General A. Waring said that Juniper Flats “contains small tracts of agricultural land, but this region is devoted chiefly to grazing and beekeeping.” JUNIPER SPRINGS, Named for their location in Juniper Flats. At one time the springs supported Juniper Springs Resort.
Page 280-281: Lakeview. So-named for its location just to the south of the ephemeral lake that is now known as Mystic Lake {see} The town and surrounding farm land of Lake View, as it was originally called, had their genesis in April, 1893, when Frank E. Brown of Redlands bought a large number of acres (accounts vary from 10,000 to 13,500) of the Wolfskill ranch, formerly a portion of Rancho San Jacinto Nuevo {see}, and organized the Lake View Water Company, a corporation with capital stock of $1,000,000. In addition to Brown, subscribers to the scheme were E.G. Judson and other well-known “capitalist” of Redlands, many of whom had been prominent in the Bear Valley enterprise {see Alessandro} when it was organized in about 1890 (Pacific Press Apr. 1, 1893, p. 288, RP&H Apr. 28, May 20, Oct, 14, 1893). The two-word name became one word when the Lakeview post office was established on September 15, 1894, with Walter E. Erwin as first postmaster, was discontinued on May 31, 1920, but was re-established on September 11 of that same year (Records of Appointments). The Indian name for what is now Lakeview is said to have been Algooton {see}. LAKEVIEW HOT SPRINGS, see BERNASCONI HOT SPRINGS. LAKEVIEW JUNCTION. As early as November 11, 1893, the Riverside Press & Horticulturist reported that an agreement had been made between the developers of Lakeview and the California Southern Railway (later Santa Fe) to extend the San Jacinto branch rail line from its terminus in San Jacinto to Lakeview by December 15, 1893, thus making Lakeview the terminus. It was not until December, 1898, however, that a line was constructed to Lakeview, going not by way of San Jacinto but by way of an eight-mile spur line from a point named Lakeview Junction, one mile north of Perris (RDP Dec. 24, 1898). Santa Fe Coast History 1940 p.782). The first train over this spur line arrived in Lakeview on January 5, 1899 (RDP Jan. 6, 1899). The Lakeview railroad station was completed on March 17, 1899, and daily rail service was anticipated (RDP Mar. 20, 1899). Because of lack of business, the spur line was removed in 1937, the railroad station at Lakeview having been removed long before (Hammerschmidt 1974). The railroad roadbed, looking in part very much like a dike (which it probably was) ended at what is now Ramona Expressway and can still be seen at the back of George Hammerschmidt’s ranch, where the station was located. LAKEVIEW MOUNTAINS. Shown only as “SYERA” in large block letters, a misspelling of the Spanish word sierra, meaning “saw-toothed mountain range,” on the 1842 diseno of Rancho San Jacinto (Expediente No. 319), the mountains were still unnamed as late as December, 1892. At that time U.S. Deputy Surveyor Cave J. Couts called them “an isolated mountain (composed of granite principally), between the valleys of San Jacinto and Perris” (RCRD Bk. 3 p.91). When the 1897-98 U.S. Geological Survey party arrived to map the area, Frank E. Brown, master salesman, developer of Lakeview, and a never-ending source of fresh ideas, undoubtedly was there to meet them to suggest a name for the small mountain range. When the 1901 U.S.G.S. Elsinore Quadrangle appeared, as a result of that survey, the range was shown as Lakeview Mountains, thus being named for the newest community in the vicinity. {See also Mount Rudolph.}
Page 339: Mount Rudolph. (elev. 2,649 ft.). Although Juan Bautista de Anza and his party of colonist are said to have camped at its base on December 30, 1775 (Bolton III. 1930 p. 76), this small peak in the Lakeview Mountains was not named officially until early 1898. Even then the name was misspelled, an error that has never been rectified. The naming came about in a way that can only be described as the epitome of a super salesman’s foresight, connections, and imagination. The story appeared in the Riverside Daily Press, February 3, 1898, under the heading of “Lakeview, Feb. 3-(Special Correspondence),” and read, “Lakeview has been pretty lively during the past week entertaining the F.E. Brown excursion party (from Chicago). Excursions have been made to different localities…During one of the trips in the mountains two of our highest peaks, formerly known as Tom and Jetty, were visited, and by a unanimous vote of the party were renamed Mount Rudolf and Mount Therise, in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Wosslick of Chicago, and a bottle of champagne was then and there broken to christen the event. These peaks will hereafter appear upon geographical maps by these names.” The salesman (most probably Frank E. Brown) who carried the bottle of champagne up the mountain knew that the U.S. Geological Survey mapping party was in the neighborhood; thus it was an easy matter to get in touch with the surveyors to inform them of the newly christened mountain peaks. Mount Rudolf duly appeared on the 1901 U.S. Geological Survey Elsinore Quadrangle, spelled Rudolph.
Page 346-348: Mystic Lake. An ephemeral body of water that formed by the San Jacinto River, rain, and run-off from higher surrounding ground and that appears during wet winters in the low-lying land encompassed by The Badlands, the Lakeview Mountains, the Bernasconi Hills, and Mt. Russell; during dry years it disappears and is usually called simply “lake bottom” (E. Farrar Feb. 15, 1974). The present official (and appropriate) name was given by members of the 1897-98 U.S. Geological Survey and was first shown on that agency’s 1901 San Jacinto Quadrangle, where it was portrayed as a small lake with no outlet. The lake has had a number of other names during the past several hundred years. It has attained different sizes; Sometimes, because of small natural dikes in the lake bed that separate lower-lying areas (I. Farrar Sept. 6, 1974), appearing as two or even three lakes, depending entirely on volume of winter precipitation. The Indians are said to have called it Algooton {see}. The earliest written records of the lake are in the diaries of Juan Bautista de Anza and those who accompanied him on his two expeditions through the area. In his short diary under date of March 19, 1774, Anza called it “a most beautiful lake several leagues in circumference. To its natural beauty is added another object of diversion, namely the numberless birds which live on it, especially white geese, in such a multitude that they look like great sand beaches” (Bolton 1930 II. P. 202). In his complete diary he described the lake as being “as full of white geese as of water, they being so numerous that it looked like a large, white grove” (Bolton 1930 II. P. 93). Despite his bucolic descriptions, he named it, as any proper politician would have done, “San Antonio Bucareli” in honor of Lieutenant-General Don Antonio Maria Bucareli” y Ursula, Viceroy, Governor, and Captain General of New Spain, who had commissioned Anza’s expedition to open an overland route between Tubac, Sonora, and California. Father Juan Diaz, who accompanied Anza in 1774, noticed that the water “forms in the middle of the valley some very large lakes” (Bolton 1930 II. P. 286), the multiple lake that is well known today. Father Pedro Font, who accompanied Anza on his second expedition during the winter of 1775-76, took a careful look around and remarked in his diary, “according to the signs, this lake rises very greatly during the rainy season” (Bolton 1930 IV. P. 164). In 1781, because of Indian troubles near the Colorado River, the overland route was closed and with that closure the name Anza had given the lake was forgotten. It was many years later, on September 26, 1821, that the lake was again mentioned. On that date Father Jose Sanchez, on a walking trip from San Diego Mission to San Gabriel Mission, made diary entry: “We left San Jacinto and crossed the canada going toward the west. After about two leagues and a half, we came upon a laguna (“lagoon, lake”) of moderate size. They say it runs dry in years when there is little rain” (Engelhardt 1921 p. 45). He did not mention the lake by name. In 1842, Jose Antonio Estudillo filed his petition for the grant of Rancho San Jacinto and showed the approximate position of the lake on the roughly drawn diseno he had prepared, labeling it only “Laguna” (Expediente No. 319). In May, 1853, U.S. Deputy Surveyor Henry Hancock called it “a small fresh water lake through which the Rio San Jacinto courses” (RCRD Bk. 29 p. 58). On his next survey in August, 1886, Hancock remarked, “the lake…is said to dry up some times,” but that summer apparently had been preceded by a wet winter as he also described it as a “lake of fresh water and tule” (RCRD Bk. 30 pp.13, 25). As the years wore on and more and more setters arrived, the lake must have been noticed and it may have been called something other than “laguna” or “lake.” As late as April, 1882,
However, U.S. Deputy Surveyor William Minto, charged with carrying out the survey of Rancho San Jacinto Nuevo y Potrero, mentioned it only as “the lagoon” and “the laguna” (RCRD Bk. 33 p.11), evidently taking his cue from the 1842 Estudillo diseno. He didn’t make any mention of the extent of the lake. On June 20, 1891, the lake’s name appeared grandly as “San Jacinto de Nuevo Lake” in the following years it shrank to the less cumbersome “San Jacinto Lake.” Gradually it acquired two other names, “Lake Moreno” and “Brown’s Lake”-Moreno because it could be seen in wet years from Moreno {see} and Brown’s because the southern part of the lake bed was subdivided during some dry years as Brownlands {see}, Frank E. Brown having been instrumental in both land development schemes, as well as that of Lakeview {see}, also on the lake. The original course of the San Jacinto River exited from the lake in a westerly direction. In 1895, the Colony Heights {see) Land and Water Co. altered the river’s course by construction of a 100-footwide channel leading from “the erratic laguna” dredged and diked between the Bernasconi Hills and Lakeview (RP&H Mar. 9 1895). The dredge, said to have been built on the lake, floated out as it dredged the channel (Marsh 1974). Still, during excessively wet winters the river and the lake reassert themselves and flood the northeastern parts of Lakeview to a depth of one foot, while the lower-lying ground to the north attains a depth of four feet. In 1974, long-time Hemet resident Irwin Farrar recalled having seen the lake after a flood when the water covered the land up to the old Lakeview Hotel. The lake, furthermore, has stayed full of water for periods of up to three years, according to George Hammerschmidt, who has farmed at Lakeview for many years and whose “back forty” has the river dike as a northwestern boundary (Nov. 27, 1974). The unofficial name that is given to the lake at flood periods has not been recorded, but is probably colorful depending on the tempers of those whose land is under water. Strangely enough, the official name of “Mystic” is not shown on the official Riverside County map or on the Automobile Club of Southern California maps, nor is any indication of the presence of a lake shown.
Page 356: Nuevo. The name of this rural community is the Spanish adjective meaning “new” and was selected when the Nuevo Land Company purchased and re-divided in 1913 the southwest portion of the Lake View Tract which had been sited on part of the Mexican land grant of San Jacinto Nuevo y Potrero, the name of the rancho being the ultimate source of the development name. A 1924 salesman’s manual for what was then called “Nuevo Ranch” and “Nuevo Gardens” stated that 6,500 acres were being subdivided. Nuevo post office was established on July 2, 1915, with Francis R. Canning as first postmaster.
Page 360; Olive School District. Formed by order of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors on February 6 and 7, 1894, at the request of John W. George and others (Minutes) to serve the children east and south of Lakeview and in the Lakeview Mountains. The many olive trees in the general vicinity may have prompted the name of the school district.
Page 466, 467): San Jacinto Nuevy Y Potrero Rancho. On December 24, 1845, Miguel de Pedrorena, a native of Spain and at that time a merchant at San Diego, petitioned Governor Pio Pico for the surplus land of San Jacinto Rancho {see} under the name of San Jacinto Nuevo, or “New San Jacinto.” He also requested the Potrero de San Jacinto, or “Pasture of San Jacinto,” in the hills to the northeast. He submitted disenos showing both pieces of property, one showing San Jacinto Nuevo in relation to what he called San Jacinto Viejo, or “Old San Jacinto,” and the other showing the Potrero. Pedrorena’s father-in law, Jose Antonio Estudillo, grantee of San Jacinto Rancho, had no objections to his disposal of his surplus land. Therefore, on January 14, 1846, Pico granted Pedrorena the surplus land under the name of San Jacinto Nuevo y Potrero, no mention being made of the extent of the grant in square leagues, as was customary, only that it was “of the extent as shown by the map including the Potrero of San Jacinto” (Expediente No. 495). Pedrorena died in 1850. When the time came for a survey to be made of the land in order to have a U.S. patent issued, the boundaries, as shown on the diseno for the larger part of the rancho, were “Temecula” on the southwest, “Haupa” and “Jurupa” on the northwest, “San Bernardino” on the north, and “San Gorgonio” on the northeast. Somehow measurements were made. U.S. patent was issued to Thomas W. Sutherland, Guardian of Victoria, Isobel, Miguel, and Helena, minor children of Miguel de Pedrorena (deceased) and Maria Antonio Estudillo, his window, signed by President Chester A. Arthur on January 9, 1883. At that time San Jacinto Nuevo was found to contain 47,582.17 acres and Potrero 1,278.93 acres for a total of 48,861.10 acres (SDC Patent Bk. 7 p. 41)
Page 467: San Jacinto Plains. Named for Rancho San Jacinto because most of the land concerned was originally considered to be part of that rancho, dating from mission times. Included was all of the mesa or tableland lying between the Box Springs and San Jacinto Mountains and between The Badlands and Temecula Valley, a territory about thirty miles square. According to Judge Benjamin Hayes (1929 p. 141), “In one year [mayordomo] Lorenzo Soto took 20,000 hides from San Jacinto plain” for Mission San Luis Rey from the Temecula and San Jacinto ranchos. With the arrival of settlers beginning in the late 1870s and the 1880s, different names such as Antelope, Auld (or Los Alamos), Diamond, French, La Belle, Menifee, Moreno, Paloma, Perris, Pleasant, as well as San Jacinto and Temecula, began to be used, although most of the boundaries were purely imaginary. The new names reflected the extent of areas served by various rural post office and school districts or new town sites, as well as names given by settlers to describe their particular locations or ethnic groups.
Page 469-470: San Jacinto Tunnel. Part of the Colorado River Aqueduct that was built from Cabazon on the east to Potrero on the west for 13 miles through the heart of a shoulder of Mount San Jacinto, Southern California’s second tallest peak, for which the tunnel was named. Work began on May 12, 1933, on what was called the roughest stretch of tunneling along the aqueduct system. The contractor ran into severe trouble when a very active spring system was encountered within the mountain and the Metropolitan Water District ended up finishing the job with its own forces. At the worst time, 40,000 gallons per minute had to be pumped off at seven different headings. The project required sinking two deep vertical shafts (one of 800 feet), as well as driving three adits (access tunnels), from which crews worked toward each other. Thirteen months later, on November 19, 1938, the tunnel was finished. Final concrete was poured at the West Portal on October 14, 1939 (MWD n.d., p. 40, Aqueduct 1978/79 No. 1). The “very active spring system” that was encountered was the source of water for Lamb Canyon, Eden Hot Springs, Bernasconi Hot Springs, and other springs in the general neighborhood, all of which dried up from the pirating of their waters.
Page 95-96: Camp Haan. A World War II U.S. Army anti-aircraft artillery camp named in honor of Major General William G. Haan, U.S. Army (Ret.). A distinguished Field Artillery officer in the Philippines (1898) and in France (World War I), he was a member of the General Staff at retirement. The camp, located on 1,500 acres in the Perris Valley, stretched for three miles along Highway 395 (15-E) opposite what was then called March Field {see). The site encompassed part of the ill-fated Alessandro Tract {see} of the late 1880s. Construction of the camp began in October, 1940. Camp Haan post office, a classified branch of the Riverside post office, was in existence from January 15, 1941, until June 15, 1947 (Salley 1977 p. 31). In 1945, Camp Haan was made part of March Air Force Base {see} and for a time after World War ii, Camp Haan was known as West March, although it was not long until the camp buildings were sold or dismantled and a portion of land was used for Arnold Heights {see}, a housing development for Air Force families that was built in 1945. Part of the site is now Riverside National Cemetery {see}.
Page 102,103: Casa Loma. The historic, much modified and added-on-to structure standing on a small hill at the far northern end of the San Jacinto Valley was at one time headquarters for Mission San Luis Rey’s San Jacinto cattle ranch. It’s present name, casa meaning “house” and loma meaning “hill” in Spanish, has been shortened from La Casa De la Loma, meaning “the house on the hill.” Father Jose B. Sanchez’ diary tells of reaching “Jaguara, so called by the natives, but by our people San Jacinto” on September 24, 1821. “From this little elevation where the enramada is situated, north to south, there are springs. In front of the enramada, toward the northeast, is a spring of tepid water” {Engelhardt 1921 p. 52}. An enramada is a Spanish word for “arbor,” so it is not clear if the house was there at that early day or not. In a report dated December 22, 1827, however, Father Antonio Peyri stated that there was “a house of adobes for the mayordomo” at San Jacinto {Engelhardt p. 52}. Jose Antonio Estudillo called it “an indifferent house covered with earth, ten varas in length, and of a corresponding width, which is … in a ruinous condition” in his August 9, 1842, request for the grant of San Jacinto Rancho {Expediente No. 319}, and on the accompanying diseno the location of the house was shown, as well as locations of the springs. Benjamin Hayes, Judge of the Southern District of California from 1852 until January 1, 1864, traveled frequently between Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and San Diego in discharge of his duties and knew all of the area well. He described it: “On old San Jacinto {rancho} is a place called “Casa de la Loma,” a low hill with an old house upon it that belonged to the Mission of San Luis Rey. It is surrounded by springs” {1932 p. 22}. It was well enough known to be shown on the 1876 Mallory map as “San Jacinto Relic.” When U.S. Deputy Surveyor G. Howard Thompson began his survey of Rancho San Jacinto Viejo in November, 1876, he stood “on the Summit of a low hill in the Valley called `La Casa de la Loma’” and repeated this phrase the following year when he ran a re-survey {RCRD Bk. 33 p. 20, Bk. 47 p. 2}. In April, 1882, U.S. Deputy Surveyor William Minto, charged with surveying Rancho San Jacinto Nuevo y Potrero, noted “the ‘the Loma’ or the ‘Casa de la Loma,” as the old Rancho House was named” {RCRD Bk. 33 p. 11}. As acreage of both the San Jacinto Ranchos was sold off, the land around the old house became a smaller ranch {said to have had approximately 2,700 acres with an “enormous amount of water … known to be on it”} called Casa Loma Ranch {Pacific Rural Press Apr. 1, 1893}. When the ranch was finally sold in 1961, the acreage had been increased to 3,661 acres and it was known as Riverside County’s oldest ranch. Miss Ruth M. Pico, last owner, said in 1979 that there were several adobe structures on the little hill, all built by the Indians. One was a house for the vaqueros who were in charge of the mission cattle, another was a chapel, and a third one was perhaps for sheltering mission fathers when they visited. She said that in 1900, when the Picos built a ten-room frame addition to the former chapel, the chapel was used as their parlor {Kinucan and Haggland 1979 p. 4}.
Page 141, 143: Coyote “Coyote Pass” (Segment): was the old name for the pass between the Lakeview Mountains and Double Butte. In advertisements for George D. Compton’s Florida Hotel at Valle Vista in the April and Nay, 1890, issues of The Rural Californian the view from the pass on entering the San Jacinto Valley is called one “that can never be forgotten for wide extent or for its combination of mountain and plain … of azure over verdure below, gleaming snow above.” This name for the pass has been revived to some extent in late years.
Page 163, 164: Double Butte: (elev. 2,565 ft.). A common, descriptive name for pairs of geographical features. Located between Winchester and Homeland and clearly visible from Perris, the outline of the double summit has prompted a number of fanciful names; despite these, however, the prosaic name of Double Butte appeared on the 1901 U.S. Geological Survey Elsinore Quadrangle from surveys made in1897-1898 and has been official ever since. Local names have included: Twin Mountain, because of the identical appearance of the two peaks; The Face, because as viewed from the northwest, the face of a person lying on his back is suggested; Man Mountain, as seen from a certain angle the face and body of a recumbent man are suggested; George Washington Profile Mountain, a further refinement of The Face, because the profile of the Father of Our Country in a prone position can be seen clearly from some angles ( The Great Perris Valley 1891, Perris Valley Chamber of Commerce 1961); and Thomas, because the small bowl-like valley enclosed by two peaks was owned for many years by a couple named Thomas. Some of the early Winchester settlers used the name Old Man Mountain and even developed a legend concerning it. An article from the Winchester Recorder, reprinted in the Riverside Daily Press on June 23, 1898, related the “Legend of ‘Old Man’ Mountain,” which began, “Long ago before the advent of the pale face, when the Soboba and Pechango Indians roamed about in the lands, there arose a dispute between the two tribes, which resulted in a bitter, ceaseless warfare. For more than a year the braves wore their war paint and had their war and scalp dances,” The so-called legend went on to tell of a bottomless lake of agua caliente” that was supposed to exist in the base of the mountain. The basis for fabrication of the legend rested on “three crevices in the rocks on the north side of the peak, one of which extends into the mountain about forty feet, widening at the end enough to permit of sitting upright. The other two are smaller and not long.” That the 540-acre natural bowl created by Double Butte was well-known to the Indian of the area can still be seen. Petro-glyphs and pictographs are visible on many of the boulders, while other boulders are pocked with metate holes. Uses of double Butte since the 1880s have included farming, the growing of Christmas trees, pig rising, horse training, and since 1971, a county-owned sanitary landfill facility. On February 19, 1975, the 600-acre DOUBLE BUTTE COUNTY PARK was dedicated as an equestrian park to co-exist with Double Butte Sanitary Landfill Facility, the latter scheduled to be phased out gradually (RCPD).
Page 309, 310: March Air Force Base: Opened on March 1, 1918, as Alessandro Aviation Field {see}, an Army air facility. The name was officially changed on March 20, 1918, to March Field in horror of 21-year-old Lt. Peyton C. March Jr., who had been killed in a training plane crash at Ft. Worth, Texas, on February 13, 1918. His father, Gen. Peyton C. March, was Army Chief of Staff during World War I (Harley 1980). The name change was in keeping with a Signal Corps directive stating that newly opened fields should be named for men who had lost their lives during the infancy of military aviation (RP Nov. 13, 1975). On the following June 8, 1918, Lt. James G. Ray arrived at March Field and found that twelve hangers had been erected on the flight line. In each hanger he found eight crates, and in each of the 96 crates he found a disassembled Curtiss JN-4D “Jenny” aircraft. Shortly thereafter, Lt. Frederick I. Eglin reported and organized enlisted mechanics into crews to assemble the Jenny’s. Five cadet squadrons began full-bore flying training during the latter part of July (RP&DE Nov. 21, 1973). On June 20, 1941, March Field was re-designated March Army Air Field, although in common usage it was referred to as March Field. On March 9, 1942, March Army Air Field was re-designated March Army Air Base, although it was usually referred to by the shorter name of March Air Base. On September 18, 1947, March Air Base was re-designated, this time as March Air Force Base to reflect the establishment of the Air Force on an equal basis with the Army and Navy under the Department of Defense. Still many people continued to call it “March Air Base” or even “March Field” (Harley 1980), the latter being most common to non-military but long-term area residents.
March Air Force Base post office was established on May 1, 1918, as a classified branch of the Riverside post office, and was known as March. On November 8, 1921, it was up-graded to a classified station named March Field. It was down-graded to a classified branch on July 11, 1927. Finally, on January 1, 1949, it became March Air Force Base post office (Salley 1977) p. 132), commonly referred to as March AFB.
The Santa Fe Railway agency station of March Field was established in 1921 at what had been Alessandro Station. The old station building (originally the California Southern Railway Elsinore junction depot before being moved a short distance south to be more accessible for rail freight (Santa Fe Coast History 1940). On August 7, 1980, the historic old building was burned to the ground. Located on what had become Highway 395 between Edgemont Street and Van Buren Boulevard, the blaze, which took 30 firefighters and five engines an hour to control, was in full sight of hundreds of passing vehicles. Arson was suspected.
Page 386: Perris Valley: Although it had always been called San Jacinto Plains {see}, it was not long after the founding of the city of
Perris that people began speaking of the Perris Valley. The founding of the Perris Valley Leader in November, 1886, by H. Stephens Ehrman may have had a great deal to do with the early change of name. By 1891, the Perris New Era’s January 1 edition clamed almost all of the territory formerly included in the San Jacinto Plains with exception of San Jacinto Valley and Temecula Valley. In 1961, the Perris Valley Chamber of Commerce had as its “divisions” the Moreno Valley, the Nuevo-Lakeview Valley, Menifee Valley, and the Good Hope-Glen Valley area, all of the boundaries being purely imaginary but real to those concerned.
Page 467, 469: San Jacinto Rancho: The first use of this name is what is now Riverside County was for a San Luis Rey Mission cattle rancho that had been named for the Silesian-born Dominican Saint Hyacinth (Jacinto in Spanish) whose feast day is August16. There is no record of the year in which the mission fathers established the rancho. First mention of the name was in the diary of Father Jose Bernardo Sanchez under date of September 24, 1821, who wrote, “we stopped at Jaguara, so called by the natives, but by our people San Jacinto. This is the rancho for the cattle of San Luis Rey, distant from Temecula about eleven or twelve leagues.”
Even in those days of supposedly peaceful occupation of the land by the Spanish missions there was friction. On December 22, 1827, Fathers Jose Maria de Zalvidea and Josef Barona of Mission San Juan Capistrano wrote a letter of complaint to California Governor Jose M. Echeandia; “All of the land that is on the other side of … Cerro (hill) de Trabuco, toward the east, are (sic) the lands of Mission San Juan Capistrano. These all legitimately belong to it, because more than 500 Indians of said Mission have been born in those places. Notwithstanding the close proximity to the Mission of San Juan Capistrano, said Mission of San Luis Rey has taken possession … of that stretch of land and has placed there a rancho named San Jacinto” (Engelhardt 1922 p. 89). No action was taken by Echeandia and San Jacinto continued to be a possession of San Luis Rey Mission, being mentioned in the Padron as one of the Rancherias that was native homestead of Indians who “belonged” to that mission (Engelhardt 1921 p. 255).
As shown by Expediente No. 319, on August 9, 1842, Jose Antonio Estudillo, mayordomo from 1840 to 1843 of San Luis Rey Mission after secularization (Bancroft 1886 ii. P. 793), filed application for grant of four square leagues of the rancho “with the understanding that it is absolutely vacant, the Mayordomo of that Establishment, five manadas (herds) of mare which was all that was on said place, being fearful of the incursions of the Indians. The land petitioned for contains an indifferent house covered with earth, ten varas in length, and of a corresponding width, which is however in a ruinous condition, and also an old corral which is useless, all constructed by the Indians, who sometimes live there, at which times they also make some small gardens. And I, as a petitioner for this land, make a solemn promise not to prejudice these Indians, should this condition be exacted from me.” The “indifferent house” was the one now called Casa Loma {see} and the corral was Corral de Pilares {see}. Investigation of the status of the rancho was made by Mexican authorities who reported that the rancho was, indeed, vacant and had been so for some time. “There are only three Christian Indians living on said place, who are desirous that the petitioner should establish himself thereon; said Indians offering besides, that in case said lands be settled, they will collect the Indians that are dispersed, and that they will live contently in one place.” It was also mentioned that “Julian” (Isaac) Williams and Jesus Moreno had petitioned for the rancho earlier; however, Governor pro-tem Manuel Jimeno, apparently keeping in mind Estudillo’s work for the Mexican government as Mayordomo of San Luis Rey Mission, awarded the land to “the extent of eight square leagues, a little more or less,” to Estudillo on December 21, 1842, although only four square leagues had been petitioned for. One of the conditions to which the grant was subject was that Estudillo “shall not in any manner prejudice the
Indians that are established on said land, he being required to pay the value of the house and corral which is on said place.” During his lifetime, Estudillo was meticulous in his treatment of the Indians and in living up to the “condition” to which he was subject.
When Estudillo’s son-in-law, Miguel de Pedrorena, petitioned in 1845 for the grant of surplus land belonging to San Jacinto Rancho, he submitted a diseno showing San Jacinto cut more or less in half, the southeast portion labeled San Jacinto Viejo, or “Old San Jacinto,” and the portion for which he was petitioning labeled San Jacinto Nuevo {see}, or “New San Jacinto” (Expediente No. 495). Therefore, when the original San Jacinto Rancho was confirmed to the heirs of Jose Antonio Estudillo in November, 1876, it was said to consist of “four sitios de ganada Mayor” or 33,503.3 acres and was called San Jacinto Viejo in the U.S. Patent Bk. 2 p.313).
