San Felipe Stage Station

June 22, 1993 San Diego County Fourth landmark of nine in the series of June 22^nd.

Left out of the last blog was a link to the song 'Julian', here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWog4VLaGU0


The San Felipe stage station lies seven miles from the Butterfield Mail Route landmark, when you ‘head ‘em off at the pass’, this is where you headed to.
In total, the landmarks seen on this day make a great tour. Weaving along county road S2 and highway 78, witnessing for real and for free (except for fuel) what folks wait in line at Disney California Adventures attempt, to sit in hanging chairs and watch a movie. Then again, does S2 need thousands of additional cars? Probably not, so let’s keep it a secret.

Records show a photo was taken of this piece-of-cake-to-get-to landmark but somehow was lost in the transition of print to digital scan. Film and developing costs to fuel the Canon AE-1 and its lenses were pricey in the day, so one did not go about randomly shooting extra photos. Composition was paramount and rare was the cell phone camera type shot of half arms and overexposed faces. Though not used in many years, that camera is still around with the counter at 14 and the question begs….’hmmm, wonder what’s on that roll’. At any rate, San Felipe Stage Station got a state plaque and the monument is of square-ish construction typical of its time of dedication, except they used whiter rock than usual.  

NO. 793 SAN FELIPE VALLEY AND STAGE STATION - Here the southern trail of explorers, trappers, soldiers, and emigrants crossed ancient trade routes of Kamia, Cahuilla, Diegueno, and Luiseño Indians. On the flat southwest across the creek, Warren F. Hall built and operated the San Felipe home station of the Butterfield Mail, which operated from 1858 to 1861. Later the station was used by Banning Stages and by the military during the Civil War.
Location: On County Hwy S2 (P.M. 15.9), 0.9 mi NW of intersection of State Hwy 78, near Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Coordinates: 33º06.112'N-116º29.038'W