San Pasqual Battlefield

June 22, 1993 San Diego County CA
Coming from Santa Ysabel, seventh of nine landmarks in the series and thinking maybe nine locations is too aggressive. The San Diego Wild Animal Park sits right next door.

Historical events often come wrapped neatly over time like this event at San Pasqual, but in truth the situation in this part of California was as clouded as the battlefield in those days before smokeless gunpowder. For instance, a U.S. citizen, Jonathon T. Warner (Warner’s ranch) had an 1844 land grant of over 40,000 acres in the area and little interest in conflict, and could and did thrive under Mexican or American rule. Other European born non American citizen landowners like my better half’s family got the shaft when the Americans prevailed and land grants were often not honored. American soldiers were often met with indifference, and it has been said that Pico’s army got a heads up that Kearny’s men were camped nearby. After this battle, the Americans along with Kit Carson and Edward Beale withdrew to a hill near Escondido taking heavy loses again…the ‘Mule Hill’ landmark, story, and song is down the line.

NO. 533 SAN PASQUAL BATTLEFIELD STATE HISTORIC PARK - While marching to the conquest and occupation of California during the Mexican War, a detachment of 1st U.S. Dragoons under the command of Brigadier General Stephen W. Kearny was met on this site by native California lancers under the command of General Andrés Pico. In this battle, fought on December 6, 1846, severe losses were incurred by the American forces. The native Californians withdrew after Kearny had rallied his men on the field. Gallant action on the part of both forces characterized the Battle of San Pasqual, one of the significant actions during the Mexican War of 1846-1848.
Location: San Pasqual Battlefield State Historic Park, State Hwy 78 (P.M. 25.1) at

Old Pasqual Rd

, 7 mi SE of Escondido

Asistencia de San Antonio de Pala

June 22, 1993 San Diego County, CA
Coming from San Pasqual, the eighth of nine landmarks visited that day. ‘Hey honey, stay in the car, this one will only take a minute.’ Little did we know then of John Wayne Bobbitt’s fate in Manassas, Virginia the next day.

This asistencia, or sub-mission of San Luis Rey was more often than not, simply called the Pala Mission and is on the res. Notes say: ‘Can't remember a thing about it, rural setting.’ It was a stop that got a smiley face in the old guidebook because there were the familiar ‘landmark ahead’ signs allowing a smooth approach. For some reason it was ranked with a square, which of course in skier’s terms meant intermediate difficulty. Let’s readjust that to a circle, or ‘easiest’  Hey, look at that $900 video camera! The week-old smart phone does a better job than that turkey ever did. Why the video camera was hauled around on that trip is a mystery, for those landmarks don’t move around much.  

Landmark inscription: NO. 243 ASISTENCIA DE SAN ANTONIO DE PALA - Notable for its bell tower, or campanile, the chapel vas built by Father Peyrí in 1816. Almost destroyed by earthquake and storm, it was later restored.
Location: Mission on

Pala Mission Rd

, plaque on State Hwy 76 (P.M. 23.6), Pala  
N 33° 21.938 W 117° 04.469

Mission San Luis Rey

Returning to the timeline - June 22, 1993
San Diego County, CA
Ninth of nine landmarks visited that day and comin from Pala

On a mission to the mission on

Mission Avenue

to see the California 4^th grader’s history-social science poster child of architectural excellence for obligatory mission model building. The standard procedure is have the students fabricate a mission and turn in the project as a major component of state history. A useless component for sure, but after performing on many school campuses, it has been interesting to see what they turn in. Some go for the Santa Fe look of simplicity; a baking soda box covered with bondo and spray paint. Others (often from Orange County) appear to hire architects, with the mission crafted to exact scale with landscaping and wee little figures at mass dressed in Nordstrom weave.

Don’t know if the DeSoto is going to make it out of ’93, she’s a burnin’ some oil and better mileage would be nice. It had been a hot day and the better half was saying the car cooler had bogged down in the sea air. With eight landmarks behind us that day, there was no time for the gift shop. We needed a room for the night….there was a balloon ride in the morning in Temecula and landmarks in the Corona region. On a mission.

Plaque inscription for #239 Mission San Luis Rey De Francia: Founded June 12, 1798 by Father Lasuen, then president of the California missions, and administered by Father Peyri. Notable for its impressive architecture - a composite of Spanish, Moorish, Mexican.
Directions: Hwy 76 (4050 Mission Ave) at Rancho Del Oro, Oceanside; 2nd plaque located near lavanderia on Rancho Del Oro Rd. N 33° 13.929 W 117° 19.144
The plaque used to be on the exit road to the SW, but it was moved by the flag poles in front.

Rancho San Antonio

Jumping ahead again to the latest landmark August 1, 2010
Alameda County
Slipping out of San Francisco early on a Sunday morning with a day’s drive ahead, one must make prudent decisions about how many unseen landmarks to take on. This day there were six; four in San Francisco to complete all SF state landmarks, and three in Alameda County. It didn’t work, and three became two as the better half and daughter were restless and the GPS wasn’t helping.

A word about GPS; in the last few years of using one to go to these landmarks and elsewhere, it is without a doubt the greatest improvement in personal auto transportation since the headlight. That said, whoever programs these things has decided that an authoritative female voice works best and is something men will listen to. The girl in this unit (we’ll call her Nell) gives turn by turn directions with the warmth of a drill instructor with PMS. Shrill as a duck in a duck vise, Nell barks out commands, sucking the life out of music and conversation, but getting her captive audience to the church on time. It’s Nell’s fault that the better half decided to go on a landmark sabbatical and future trips will be solo.

Landmark inscription: NO. 246 RANCHO SAN ANTONIO (PERALTA GRANT) (S) - Governor Pablo de Sola, last Spanish governor of California, recognized the forty years' service of Don Luís María Peralta by awarding him the 43,000-acre San Antonio Grant on August 3, 1820. From this point northward, the grant embraced the sites of the cities of San Leandro, Oakland, Alameda, Emeryville, Piedmont, Berkeley, and Albany.
Location:  In city park 1033 E 14th, San Leandro 94577 (southern boundary of rancho) 37° 43.63′ N, 122° 9.475′ W

 Heading back to 1993.

The Hay Tree

Jumping to June 6^th, 2005
Los Angeles County CA

I’m 120 and fifty feet tall, I’m a camphor tree and that ain’t all
I’m the face of the place where they’d decide, the price of hay worldwide

Paramount California sits in the June morning mist like yesterday’s picnic salad bowl under wet cheesecloth. The same conditions when those who gathered here years ago in the township that was the birthplace of the Zamboni, and a good cow could put out 6000 gallons a year. Take that, Wisconsin.

Plaque inscription for #1038 The Hay Tree: The 120-year-old, 50-foot-tall camphor is one of the few remnants of the once-thriving dairy and hay industry that dominated Southeastern Los Angeles County and Northwestern Orange County from the 1920s through the 1950s. Each morning beneath the wide-spanning branches of the Hay Tree, the price of hay was set for the region’s diaries; that price was then quoted in hay markets around the world.
Location:

16475 Paramount Blvd., Paramount, CA

33.884100, -118.160111

Along with the Beach Boys monument, the nearby Hay Tree landmark was newly christened and not in any book or index, and visited on the way to a Happy Birthday America school assembly show. The song ‘Hay Tree’ was written earlier this year but no recording or video exists for it is waiting in a batch of LA County songs yet to be recorded. Sure is fun to be a talking tree though. The song was built out of childhood recollection and research into feeds and milk production from the hay tree’s heyday.

HAY TREE © Radio Flier Music

I’m 120 and fifty feet tall
I’m a camphor tree and that ain’t all
I’m the face of the place where they’d decide
The price of hay worldwide

In the morning, first light of day
Fields are rich, misty and grey
Under my watch they’d gather round 
Till the price of the day was to be found

(chorus) Hay tree, maybe, everybody come and visit me
Shady, and I guarantee, to keep you cool and dry
You’ll prefer the hay tree, to any other tree in history
Come see the hay tree, where the price they would decide, the world’s hay supply

Oats, alfalfa, and timothy
Quality clean certified weed-free
And when the season was light on rain
Rye straw and Sudan would be your strain

Farmers, truckers, and dairymen
Ranchers, reporters, notepads and pens
And as my leaves would gently sway
They’d figure out the future of hay
(chorus)
From here the price would be revealed
To the market of the New York mercantile
Where starch shirt men would spin and twirl
To the by-gosh official standard of the world

No one knows why it came about
The hay market center was in Paramount
This California town once called Hynes
The market price from this shade of mine
(chorus)

Pacheco Pass

June 16,1993
Merced County CA
The Los Banos campground was often an overnight stop on the road to and from gigs in the northwest, and thus the nearby Pacheco Pass landmark at the San Luis reservoir was short list fodder to a beginning landmark hunter Southbound from Oregon. Martin, the Brittany spaniel was at full tilt back then running through the open dry grass till his tank went empty. Martin is the little spec to the left of the tree. A great place to cool your heels just off the I-5 corridor. Most of the time, several to a dozen or more landmarks are covered in a day, testing the will and wit of those who ride, but like it was for Gabriel Moraga 188 years prior, this discovery gets the date to itself.  

NO. 829 PACHECO PASS
Plaque inscription: On June 21, 1805, on his first exploratory journey into the San Joaquin Valley, Lieutenant Gabriel Moraga traversed and recorded this pass. Since then it has been trail, toll road, stagecoach road, and freeway-the principal route between the coastal areas to the west and the great valley and mountains to the east.
Location: Romero Overlook, San Luis Reservoir, 31770 W Hwy 152 (P.M. 8.0), 15 mi W of Los Banos 
N 37° 04.820 W 121° 05.881

De Soto e de Anza

Both were Spanish explorers in America, but over 200 years apart. Hernando De Soto was the first European to cross the Mississippi and got a car named after him, and Juan Bautista de Anza successfully colonized a big chunk of the southwest…but no car namesake. The difficulties of the 1500’s guys like de Soto and de Alarcon can be traced to having to wear those hot and heavy tin hats, while de Anza (1770’s) wore outlandish fashion hats of the day with feathers hanging down, looking like Stevie Ray Vaughn with a dead-head following of 600 making every stop from Sonora to San Francisco.

April 15, 1993
Riverside County CA notes say it was a rough road though the local landmark isn’t far off of hwy 371.
Landmark inscription:
NO. 103 SITE OF DE ANZA CAMP; MARCH 1774
On March 16, 1774, Juan Bautista de Anza, explorer and colonizer, led the first non-Indian explorers to cross the mountains into California through this pass (named by him San Carlos) on their way from Tubac, Arizona to Monterey.  On December 27, 1775, on a second expedition into California, Anza led through this pass the party of Spaniards from Sonora who became the founders of San Francisco.
Location:  On Cary Ranch

60901 Coyote Canyon Rd.

7mi. SW of Anza.
USGS Quadrangle Sheet Name: IDYLLWILD

All fluid drive, floating power, full-floating ride….that’s the ’48 De Soto. This 106 horsepower, 3200 pound mush bucket would fully insulate passengers from the harsh experience of the depression and WWII….heater optional. Chrysler Corp. didn’t have an automatic then but figured out a system where you put in the clutch, put the column shift in low, and then took off. You shift up automatically by letting up a bit on the gas. Air conditioning is 4 X 60…four windows down and sixty miles an hour, but the wind buffets so loud in Chrysler cars you can lose an eardrum, soa Car Cooler was handier on a hot day. Oh yeah, and a ‘Desert’ water bag to hang off the front bumper for a cool swig while admiring de Anza’s path.

Not all landmarks visited get a song, but de Anza is addressed in ‘Yuha Well’, a story for a later dispatch on the Imperial Valley.

Blog timeline: Though the baseline for these stories will be chronological from 1993, it’ll skip around from 1952 to present periodically for absolutely no just cause or reason.

December 7th 1941

Thanks to those of my father’s generation who served.
A link to the Training Center Boogie video sample:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4B2-OHe3Lo

Desert Training Centers

'Get it out this minute, get it in in under ten.’ Imagine a 108 degree day, an angry drill Sgt., full uniform, pack, and rifle, and the command to run your chain smoking self the distance of a mile in under 10 minutes. Welcome to General Patton’s training center of WWII.

California State Historical Landmark No. 985
Desert Training Center California - Arizona Maneuver Area
Plaque inscription:  The D.T.C. was established by Major General George S. Patton, Jr., in response to a need to train American combat troops for battle in North Africa during World War II. The camp, which began operation in 1942, covered 18,000 square miles. It was the largest military training ground ever to exist. Over one million men were trained at the eleven sub-camps (seven in California).

Location:  General Patton Memorial Museum, Chiriaco Summit, from I-10 exit N at Chiriaco Summit, 28 miles E of Indio. Second plaque located 0.2 miles N of I-10 on Cottonwood Springs, then 7/8 mile E on dirt road. (from California Historical Landmarks)
GPS Coordinates:  33º39.697 N - 115º43.334 W

Yep, a little Bardhal helped pull the DeSoto up the grade out of the Coachella Valley just fine, all the way to Desert Center and the Stonehenge of dead palm trees to the Patton museum and the state landmark. The photo is from a second trip in 1995. Seven years later a song is coming together using the 85^th infantry division as a base. Later, when putting together material for the booklet, actual photos of the 85^th surfaced and the owner was kind enough to lend use. These were my characters, just as they were envisioned.

TRAINING CENTER BOOGIE   © Radio Flier Music                 
Well the sun’s gone down I got a minute to write
A letter to you mama here by candlelight      
No sheets on my cot in this tent we’re in
Somebody said today it was 110
No refrigerator no electricity
At Desert Training Center that’s the way it has to be

You know I joined this army to get into the war
Dancing the desert, June of 1944
Waltz with the cactus do the shuffle with the sand
Swing with the buzzards jitterbug when we can
But there’s a special one we do and it’s a goodie
A little jive dance we call the Training Center Boogie

Ch) Training Center boogie’s not a dance you see
A mile run in the sun when it’s 103
Full pack and a rifle here we go again
Get it out this minute, get it in under ten

We’re getting up tomorrow at a quarter to four
Marching to the boarder on the desert floor
Then it’s rations with a passion in the noonday sun
Can’t wait to get started it really sounds like fun
March back to camp in the afternoon
Thank you Mr. Sergeant for this lovely day in June

 It won’t be long we’re hearin’ when the order comes around
We’re going of to Europe, put old Hitler down
This 85^th division of the infantry
Gonna dance on Hitler’s grave for everyone to see
Cause there’s a special one we do and it’s a goodie
A little jive dance we call the Training Center Boogie



Database

This map should give the reader an idea of how it was done. Detective work at its core, imagine the brown suit, and fedora in a ’48 DeSoto business coupe, necking knob on the bakelite steering wheel for U-turns, and a pack of Camels with rolled change for the operator’s directions.   

Somewhere in the analog first days of landmark hunting, it was decided to keep a record of events, along with photo scrapbooks and notebooks filled with skewed directions. Remember, it was the ‘pre decent computer’ era and my Apple IIC wasn’t capable of much beyond ‘Lemonade Stand,’ so things were simply checked off in the California Historical Landmarks book. Landmarks there were divided by county with indexes at the end, so they’d get circled as things rolled along. The date entered, along with skier’s icons for degree of difficulty and a smiley face with varied degrees of satisfaction to an un-smiley face. Eyes glazed yet?

Dad gum, that system worked well. Today, everything is on an Excel database and there are 5 columns using letter symbols for ‘yes’ and ‘no’ and ‘excellent’ to ‘poor’ and  2 columns in some cipher from the cold war. Though the rest of the information like name, county, number, date, description, and coordinates remain, it sure would be nice to know what was meant.

There was the foresight to begin entering GPS coordinates about 10 years ago and retroactively hunting down waymarking groups with accurate information to sights already visited. Hours, and in a few cases, days have been spent looking for a pesky marker in those pre navigation device days, and with over 90% covered with GPS, the old database is the mother lode.

The Blythe Intake

2/22/1993
The Blythe Intake
These markers I’m learning come in several varieties; state, local, missing, and none. They aren’t always where the book says, and often easy to miss when they are. This ‘going to every landmark’ thing is going to be a challenge. We cruise highway 95 and I begin looking for the Blythe Intake marker. With a 2 year old in diapers, it would be nice to see restrooms somewhere but aye, she’s a good traveler none the less.

“NO. 948 SITE OF BLYTHE INTAKE - On July 17, 1877, Thomas Blythe, a San Francisco financier, filed the first legal claim for Colorado River water rights. Oliver Callaway planned a diversion dam and canal which opened in 1877 to irrigate the Palo Verde Valley. This made possible the settlement and development of the valley.” Location: Intake Service, on US. Hwy 95, 4.5 mi N of Blythe at entrance to Palo Verde Diversion Dam

There ain’t a song in every landmark, but in this case in 2004 I did write about something similar in the ‘All American Canal’ in that it’s about water diversion from the Colorado River for desert irrigation.

ALL AMERICAN CANAL  ©2004
Water, precious water, across the sand it flows
From the mighty Colorado, to Cahuilla Lake it goes
The path they carved, to this desert locale
The Coachella branch, of the All American Canal

From Imperial dam it winds, over 100 miles
Bringing life to the valley, along it’s concrete aisle
The path they carved, to this desert locale
The Coachella branch, of the All American Canal

A 24-hour journey, since 1949
Nourishes the valley, with water so fine
The path they carved, to this desert locale
The Coachella branch, of the All American Canal

Water, precious water

Holy cow, from this photo I’ve certainly aged, and so have those Ray-Bans that I still use. Fortunately, they’re stuck in a glove compartment that won’t let me in. This is what I envision ‘landmarking’ to be; an easy drive on a highway, not too far from an interstate, with a free standing marker to stand next to. It’s not always the case.

Along the way on 95 there were some well kept older houses that showed landscaping of what I’d call Phoenix swamp coolers….’cause that’s where I first saw it. Essentially it’s big shade trees and a sunken lawn in front that you keep soaked on 110 degree days, while a big fan draws the cooled air through one side of the house while another blows air out the back. Then came air conditioning.

What's 'Landmark Adventures'?

11/22/2010

It’s 1992 and I’m on a gig in the northwest’s rainy downtime reading from a compilation of Ernie Pyle’s 1930’s travel dispatches called ‘Ernie’s America’. It’s like Mark Twain meets the Lincoln highway with a Ford V8…a great obscure Americana read. I come across a story of the earthy and humorous copy written for Montana’s landmarks and it gets me to thinkin’: “You’ve been going up and down the state of California for years passing those ‘landmark ahead’ signs for years and saying to yourself you’re gonna stop next time.” Right then I decide I’m going to see how many state landmarks there are go to all of them, no matter how long it takes. I figure it can’t be that hard, plus I’ll see California’s story first hand, take photos, and maybe get a song or two out of it someday. Who else would take such an eclectic task? (more about that later).  

With ‘California Historical Landmarks,’ a book from the state park system and a load of AAA maps, I start plotting trips in the those pre-GPS days and set forth from our La Quinta home base with my two year old daughter and head east on interstate 10 toward the Arizona border in search of five state landmarks. As of today, seventeen years later, I’ve been to 911 of the roughly 1100 California state landmarks that exist. This blog will be the stories of back roads and highways and trails of low degree, and the serendipitous collage of side trips that have sometimes led to what I think are some cool songs about California’s past.