San Diego County CA Archives History - Books .....The Northern Division 1888
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Book Title: The City And County Of San Diego

CHAPTER X.
THE NORTHERN DIVISION.

   THE San Luis River Valley is a long strip of the same gray granite alluvium
that forms the river bottoms generally with slopes of red land leading from the
mesas and rolling hills on either side. About twelve miles from the coast this
runs through the Rancho Montserrate, a fine tract of valley and mesa, containing
some six thousand acres of plow land from three hundred to seven hundred feet
above the sea, running on the north into the district of Fallbrook. Beyond
Montserrate the river wanders through the high, rugged hills for some &ve miles
to the old Mission of Pala, with valleys and low slopes among the adjoining
hills, embracing from the sea up to Pala (exclusive of Montserrate) about six
thousand acres of arable land.

   Returning to the coast we find on the north of the San Luis the great rancho
Santa Margarita, threaded by the Santa Margarita or Temecula River, and
containing some fifty thousand acres of arable land. This rancho runs from the
coast some fifteen miles back, reaching an elevation of about eight hundred feet
on the south side of the river and on the north some three thousand feet. On the
south it is nearly all high, rolling mesa; on the north of the river a long, low
strip of fine mesa reaching to the line of Los Angeles County, rising gently
from the sea for a mile or two, then swelling into high hills clad with
scattered oaks and abounding in little valleys and parks of rich land. Along the
river are some five thousand acres or more of rich bottom lands of granite
alluvium.

   South of the river the mesa continues beyond the line of the rancho and forms
the settlement of Fallbrook at a general level of eight hundred feet above the
sea and fifteen miles from it. Here are some five thousand acres of deep rolling
red land, not including Montserrate, which here joins it. Fallbrook affords a
good instance of the manner in which the average tourist and land hunter
examines San Diego County. The railroad passes some six hundred feet below
through a narrow, rocky canon. At Fallbrook the train stops twenty minutes for
meals at a little station on about three acres of ground at the mouth of a
narrow canon up which the road leads a mile or so to the highlands above. Ye
tourist alights, looks around the hills, and then contemptuously at the little
bit of land around the station, and sagely remarks, "So this is Fallbrook, eh ?
Well, I don't want any of it." The district of Fallbrook embraces some twenty
thousand acres of land lying some four hundred feet above the railroad and
unsuspected by the traveler. Its population is about four hundred. The town has
some three hundred people and is rapidly growing.

   Northeast of Fallbrook some rive miles lies a rich little valley of about one
thousand acres, called the Vallacito; but most of the land from Fallbrook to
Temecula on the northeast and Mount Palomaronthe east is a succession of ridges
and mountains, with but little arable land except a few little valleys and
parks, in each of which two or three settlers are, as usual, stowed away out of
sight.

   Northeast of the Santa Margarita line on the north side of the river the
lofty hills sink suddenly some twenty-five hundred feet to form a large
amphitheater known as Corral de Luz, containing some twelve hundred acres of
plow land on which are a dozen farms, but on the north these hills roll away in
rugged, brush-clad ranges to the Los Angeles County line.

  Northeast of de Luz the highlands of Santa Rosa Rancho suddenly mount to
nearly two thousand feet, rolling for several miles in a charming alternation of
grass-clad hills, slopes, and timber-filled valleys until the whole suddenly
tumbles several hundred feet into the Temecula Rancho. Santa Rosa averages about
twenty miles from the ocean and contains many thousand acres of arable land, the
amount of which it is impossible to estimate closely on account of its being
scattered into many small valleys and slopes, but probably five thousand in all.

   Northwest of Santa Rosa the land rises to thirty-five hundred feet and over
and continues on a dark jungle of chaparral mixed with bowlders and cut with
ravines, with a few little valleys and parks, away to the county line of Los
Angeles. But on the northeast the land suddenly sinks again and an open country
consisting mainly of broad plains and low mesas, interrupted occasionally by a
range of rocky or brushy hills, spreads away toward the great peak of San
Jacinto ten thousand five hundred feet high and fifty miles away.

   The Temecula Rancho, bounded on the west by the lofty slopes of Santa Rosa
and on the east by low, open mesas, reaches from the Santa Margarita River,
where it enters the canon through which the railroad runs, some ten miles along
the railroad. It contains about ten thousand acres of arable land, nearly all
granite alluvium or red mesa, at an elevation of eleven hundred to fifteen
hundred feet and about twenty-five miles from the sea. On the northern part of
this is the town of Murrieta.

   Just south of the Santa Margarita Creek at this point lies tin- Little
remecula Rancho, a small grant .with some two thousand acres of plow land, at
about the same elevation and distance inland as the other.

   Northeast of this is the Pauba Rancho, about thirty miles from the coast and
eleven hundred to eighteen hundred feet high, with some ten thousand acres of
fine valley and low mesa, also nearly all granite soil.

   Northeast of the Temecula, at an elevation of about twelve hundred feet and
about twenty-five miles from the coast, is the Laguna Rancho, a long, narrow
grant reaching nearly to the Los Angeles County line and embracing the largest
lake in the county. Around this and southeast of it are some five thousand acres
of good plow land mostly red granite and very rich. The lake is fed by the San
Jacinto River. By this lake is the thriving town of Elsinore with nearly a
thousand people, with Wildomar near by well on the road to overtake it. North of
this river and between the railroad and the county line there is little but
rough, rolling hills and rugged mesas, with the exception of a small strip near
Perris. East of the railroad, however, sweeps a great plain of red granite soil,
mile after mile to the east and southeast broken by small mountain ranges and
rolling mesas. This is nearly all Government land with an average elevation of
sixteen hundred feet. The amount of its arable land it is impossible to estimate
closely; but including theCohuilla Valley, Bladen, and a few other spots that
appear before the land rises into the high range that bounds the desert, there
are at the very least calculation forty thousand acres of land fit for the plow.

   This tract is bounded on the north by the Rancho San Jacinto Nuevo, a grant
containing some ten thousand acres of plow land, nearly all a broad plain of red
granite soil about fourteen hundred and fifty feet high and some forty miles
from the coast.

   Joining this on the southeast lies the San Jacinto Viejo with about thirty
thousand acres of arable land divided into valley land and mesa fifteen to forty
feet above it. A large part of this mesa, like the bottom land, is alluvium, the
rest of it being red land. This rancho lies about fifteen hundred feet above the
sea level and nearly fifty miles from the coast, is threaded by the San Jacinto
River and bounded on the east by the high range of the San Jacinto Mountains. On
this valley land is the town of San Jacinto, with some sixteen hundred people.

   This chapter and the last one include about all the lowlands of the county
except a few tracts on each side of Mount Palomar better considered under the
mountain division. The classification thus adopted has been more according to
rainfall than to actual elvation; and even to this standard it is impossible to
remain consistent without skipping around too much. Thus Fallbrook, Santa
Margarita, and Santa Rosa have greater rainfall than most of the other sections
mentioned, while San Jacinto is farther from the coast than Bear Valley, which
has a much greater rainfall. Yet on the whole I have grouped together those
whose climate most approaches that of the lowlands in general.

   Between and around all the sections mentioned are small tracts of various
sizes and so numerous that special mention of them is out of the question;
though some of them, such as the country between Bernardo, Poway, and the
mountains west of the Santa Maria, contain considerable line land upon which are
many prosperous farms.

   The estimates thus made include only good plow land free from rocks, stumps,
or swamps, and not rough land that may in future be cultivated when all else is
taken up. It must not be supposed that all the other land which composes these
large ranchos is worthless. I have omitted notice of it for brevity, but most of
it is good stock range, nearly all of it is fair, and some of it excellent. The
proportion of this to the arable land is often large, as in Santa Margarita,
which has in all about one hundred and thirty thousand acres, of which not over
fifty thousand would at present be considered arable. In other cases the
proportion of arable land is in excess, as in Escondido, which out of twelve
thousand eight hundred and forty acres has some eleven thousand of plow land.

   There are also thousands of acres that will be considered good plow land in
less than five years that would hardly be considered so today. To be on the safe
side all such has been omitted. For instance, there are on Warner's Ranch
(described in next chapter) some fifteen thousand acres of low, rolling hills
free from rock, which can be plowed and which will in time make good fruit land.
This would bring up the arable land to thirty-five thousand acres. Yet as it
would scarcely be deemed good plow land to-day I leave it out. This plan will be
followed throughout.


Additional Comments:
From:

THE
CITY AND COUNTY
OF
SAN DIEGO.
ILLUSTRATED,
AND CONTAINING
BI0GRAPHICAL SKETCHES
OF
PROMINENT MEN AND PIONEERS.

SAN DIEGO, CAL.
LEBERTHON & TAYLOR
1888


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