1. 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
2. 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.
3. 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
4. 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 individualistic,
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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. 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.
14. 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.
15. 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.
16. 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.
17. 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.
18. 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.
19. 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.
20. 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
21. 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.
