By DAVID ROSS
Part I of II parts
Those who miss the history tour bus are doomed to repeat it—And since the Historical Committee of the VC Library only holds them once a decade, I wanted to be sure I didn’t miss mine.
It was, after all, a ride into the past.
Last time I took the tour the bus beached itself in the mud of the Guejito Land grant and for all I know may still be there. So I was glad to learn that this time the Guejito owners had refused passage.
Good, I thought to myself, settling into the seat on the Valley View Casino bus, donated and converted for this weekend only into a magical history tour bus. We’re staying on dry land.
“Yesterday it was standing room only,” said Norm Silver, chairman of the museum committee, who rode in front of me, next to Bob Lerner, the volunteer whose voice runs as deep as his knowledge of VC history and who was our guide on this bus.
The other guide was Petei McHenry, author of the The History of Valley Center, California: The Homestead years, 1860-1900.
Each Valley View bus had a capacity for 20 passengers. They carrying not just Valleyites but folks from the four ends of the county, from places with exotic names like Fallbrook, Poway, La Costa, Rancho Santa Fe and fabled Carlsbad. Ages ranged from whipper-snappers in their 30s to mature adults in their 80s. And no, it’s not that kids aren’t interested in history, it’s that this was an all-adult tour.
A white-haired woman stuck her head in the bus.
“I’m looking for my husband," she said, not seeing him.
A couple of women spotted Lerner.
“Are you single?”
“Are you available?”
“I’m just a lonely tour guide," quipped Lerner.
Lee Sams, the genial, white-haired gent who piloted the bus, put her into gear.
The tour began at Valley View Casino, and followed a circuitous route, first east along Valley Center Road.
Lerner pointed out a ranch that once was owned in the 1930s by Fred Astaire. This was originally the Valley Stream Ranch of 130 acres, settled by the James family.
As Lerner describes it, some people apparently ride just so they can ask the tour guide how come he didn’t mention some particularly obscure item that fascinates them and no one else.
I for instance, asked Lerner why he didn’t mention that Betty Crocker once lived in an old brick house on Miller (more on this house later).
Instead of saying “Go ‘way kid, you bother me!” he patiently explained that there was no such person as Betty Crocker and that he couldn’t find evidence from the General Mills Company that she ever lived in Valley Center.
On a previous ride, a man had piped up, “Why don’t you talk about the Merle Oberon house?"
“I don’t know where it is,” Lerner told him.
“I do. My father built it.”
That’s how the Historical Committee gets a lot of its best historical tips. People from all walks of life make these contributions. They are open to everyone. Even you.
“Every time we’ve done this we collect pieces of history and if you have a piece of history, we’d like to hear from you,” said Lerner.
We passed what used to be the old VC Motel, and what is now a row of offices. It once had a swimmin'’ hole next to it, back when it was the old Fleischman (ahem) spread. Most settlers to VC came from the Midwest, but Fleischman was from the old country.
Not that Valley Center is any spring chicken. It has a recorded history going back to the 1840s.
For those who think that the Board of Supervisors has only been interested in roads for VC since Bill Horn was elected, here’s a fun fact: At the very first meeting of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors in 1850), Lilac Road in Valley Center was discussed.
Valley Center Road was then called Rincon Road, probably because the name Valley Center didn’t exist yet.
In the old days there were seven one room school houses in VC, explained Lerner. All but one burned down. The Lilac school exists, but it was moved years ago to a private location.
The bus turned onto Lilac and followed the road down into the heavily wooded are that in 1865 was settled by William Keyes near the creek that bears his name. Later his property was sold to Irving Salomon, UN ambassador, soldier, inventor of the folding chair and rubber of shoulders with dignitaries like Eleanor Roosevelt and the UN’s Ralph Bunche, (an earlier recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, for negotiating peace between Israel and her Arab neighbors, and who, for unknown reasons, wasn’t forced to give it back).
Rancho Lilac is today still in the hands of Salomon’s family.
If Rancho Lilac’s 1000 acres, which echoed to the sounds of all these famous people in the 1940 and 50s is famous for anything today, it’s because of an entry in the Guiness Book of World Records, which lists the smallest post office in the country. This tiny post office is still amazingly preserved, and will be part of the museum collection.
Next stop was the home of 1920s movie idol Ramon Navarro, who was the original film Ben-Hur. Republic Pictures made several cowboy movies on this property, which is 15 acres of citrus and trails. No one has inhabited this house since 1968.
Jack Haley (the Tin Woodsman of Wizard of Oz fame) also had a house along this road.
We don’t have room for every point of this trip, but here are some highlights:
Lerner estimates there are some 200 homes of historical significance. “Unfortunately most of these houses will probably disappear in the next few years. Valley Center has been discovered,” he said.
On the site of what is now Hideaway Lakes Mobile Home park was once the largest turkey facility in the world, the Mizpah Ranch, which operated during the 1930s.
“Imagine hundred of thousands of turkeys where these mobile homes now stand,” he said.
Cool Valley Road was the site of the first airplane flights west of the Mississippi, conducted by aeronautic pioneer and recluse Donald Gordon. The field is still intact.
The VC Cemetery is the final resting place of Jennie Wimmer, who tested the first gold nugget found on the American River in California, and which triggered the largest Gold Rush in history.
It was a poignant moment when the bus stopped at Corral Liquor, once VC’s post office, and now the oldest commercial building in town. It will not be there when the tour is held again in ten years. The building is set to be demolished by the widening of VC Road.
The tour ended up on the eastern part of town and produced two very interesting things.
One was Melrose Ranch, once the home of British Lord Summerville, now owned by dairyman Arie DeJong.
This ranch was once the dallying place of the Prince of Wales and Wallace Simpson, his amour, before the future Edward VIII, “gave up his throne for the woman he loved.”
The last stop was at the Haskell property, where the 2,200 pound grizzly bear that gives Bear Valley its name met its match. The Indian who the bear ran up a tree killed it with a shotgun. The tree still stands. The bear doesn’t.
Bear Valley almost became Valley Center’s official name, but some other community had got there first. Whatever the merits of its claims, it certainly didn’t have a bear to match.
Lerner concluded by noting, “The population has mushroomed over the years but there’s still a lot of yesterday left-Not very many communities in San Diego county can say that.”
The water district is growing and may have to decide soon whether to stay at the existing district property at Vesper & VC Road or find a larger parcel.
Gen. Mgr. Gary Arant told the VC Municipal Water District board April 15 “We need to assess our future needs and how we are going to meet them if we are still here.
The first step in that process will be to evaluate if the existing site is adequate. If the bottom line is, we can’t stay here, then we’ll have to evaluate other properties,” said Arant.
This year’s draft budget contains a $35,000 expenditure to study the district’s “corporate facility.”
Properties that the district has cast its eyes at include land adjacent to the existing facilites at Vesper & VC roads, property on Miller Road and land at Lilac & Valley Center roads.
“This study will get us back t the task of looking at something that will serve our needs out into the 21st century,” said Arant.
If it stays, the district will have to build new facilities.
“We have employees in sub-standard work conditions,” Arant told directors. “We’re looking at new engineering employees. We’re growing and need the space.”
If they stay at the same spot, the existing board room would probably be converted in staff office space and a new conference room/board room would be built.
Renovating the existing property to fit new needs could cost from $225,000 to $475,000, said Arant.
“Yeah we could probably make this site work, but I’d like to have somebody tell us how much it would cost to do that,” said Arant.
The need for space is pressing.
“I need the space now! We’re growing. This district is growing and we need the space,” said Arant.
Firefighters are sniffing the air and already smell smoke—lots of smoke.
This year’s low rain fall has created conditions at the beginning of May that we normally find at the end of August, Fire Chief Kevin O’Leary told the VC Fire Protection District board at their April meeting.
Although we have had some rain in the last few days, that will probably be too late to make the incendiary brush, where most fires start, less flammable. Mainly because it’s hard to bring the dead back to life, even with water.
“We haven’t had a good grass crop, but the moisture that is normally in the grass is not there,” commented O’Leary. “We are in the same place that we are usually at in August. Normally grass is a bigger crop. It’s starting to turn right now.”
O’Leary told directors that he will begin interviewing prospective new reserves in mid-May.
Staffing for the reserves is down to 19, and the chief wants more than that to meet the new fire season. He wants to bring in another 15 reservists.
At the same meeting (reported in last week’s paper) the board voted to end the paid call fire program, which had shrunken to two members.
Renee Bierle, first runner-up in the Miss VC Pageant, is throwing her hat in the ring for Honorary Mayor.
She’s running on a campaign of “Youth, brains and beauty.”
“I missed the Kiwanis Club meeting and I was elected,” she told The Roadrunner when asked how she came to become interested in local politics.
Although it’s traditional for candidates to be a little bit flippant in their campaigns for honorary mayor, Miss Bierle is quite serious when she talks about how the profits from her electioneering will be used.
“All the profits will end up in the hands of the children in our community, because all the money from Kiwanis goes back to the schools. That’s what makes me happy. I just want to support children and the youth in their efforts.”
Rick Roberts, president of the Kiwanis Club, is her campaign manager.
Miss Bierle is a full-time student at Cal State San Marcos pursuing a degree in education, with the goal of eventually becoming a teacher.
The candidate has lived all her life in VC on an 11 acre orange grove.
Right now her only fund-raising event scheduled is Cruise Night, which will be held May 16, 5:30 p.m. at VC Community Hall.
A Valley Center high school math teacher was attacked Monday night as she returned to the classroom to get some papers.
The teacher, Peggy Sellers, was struck from behind after she entered the classroom and knocked down and suffered a concussion.
She apparently fought herself free and the attacker left the classroom. She never saw the assailant, but she said she thought it was not a student.
She then called home and Sheriff’s deputies were summoned.
Assistant Principal Mel Schuler was called and drove the teacher to Palomar Medical Center.
Sheriff’s deputies were contacted and are investigating the incident. They were on campus throughout Tuesday investigating the incident.
The classroom was off-limits during that time and the classes scheduled there met in the staff lounge.
“We’re cooperating with them,” Principal Ken Clark told The Roadrunner. “She is doing well. A couple of bumps and bruises. She intends to return to the classroom tomorrow.”
He added, “People are kind of shook up. I’ve told the staff that if you are going to be here late at night don’t be here by yourself. In the meantime, we’re going to beef up security for awhile and help people work a little smarter.”
In the evening one person patrols the gym area at VCHS. When there are adult education classes there’s an additional person patrolling.
The attack occurred after most of the adult education classes had been released, said the principal. The campus exterior lights were on.
Clark issued a statement Tuesday, part of which read: “We regret the incident and will continue to take steps to insure the safety of our employees and students.”
When Debra Scott was 3 years old her dad used to tease her: “There’s a pony in the back yard!”
But when she was 5 she insisted on having the real thing. She’s been riding and barrel racing ever since. “For as long as I can remember I’ve been horse crazy.”
Perhaps that’s natural since she grew up in Norco, the “Horse Capital of the World.”
This Rowland Heights rider is one of over 100 entered in the barrels events of the first annual Bulls & Barrels Rodeo which happens during two days of Western Days, May 24-25, 7 p.m. each evening at VC Community Center.
Debra Scott participates in one or two barrel race events a week, all over the West, from Reno to Arizona to California. “I go to as many as I can,” she says.
Locally she is entered in the 40 barrel 4D race. In this event the fastest horse wins the top prize. The horse that’s half a second off wins 2D and the horse that’s a second off that time wins the 3D.
“My goal is to always win the 1D,” says Scott.
The horse more than the rider is the main factor in a successful barrel ride, she says. “The horse has to like to do it and want to do it,” she says.
Her horse, Mister D Dudley, was a thoroughbred race horse saved from being slaughtered.
“I liked his size and build. I got to ride him a few times and I liked the way he handled himself,” she recalls.
She worked with Mister D Dudley for a year before he was ready. But she’s been riding him in barrel races for the last three years.
“I exercise basically all week and once or twice a week make a practice run. I have an arena here and haul to different arenas in the area and work them,” she says.
Her most recent prize was second place at Del Mar’s Bulls & Barrels Rodeo.
Although her dad is a team roper and her brother used to be, Scott is the only one in the family who still rides barrels.
Why does she enjoy it? “Just the thrill of knowing that my horse is doing well and that he can win when he does.”
She adds, “I think barrel racing is going to be a really big thing in the next few years.”
* * *
The co-chairmen of the Bulls & Barrels rodeo, Gina Rizzotto and Geraldine McHugh, note that it’s being funded by a donation of $10,000 from Harrah’s Rincon Casino & Resort.
Events
• Bull riders from all over the Western U.S. will compete for the prize of their entry fee plus $2000.
• Barrel racers from all over Southern California will compete for the prize of their entry fee plus $500, plus four silver belt buckles.
• Mutton busting will be held for children aged 7 and under. Only eight children each performance will compete in this event. There’s still slots open for little mutton busters.
• Co-Ed Calf Dressing will be limited to six adults, in teams of three, one of which must be a woman. The purpose of this competition is to put women’s underwear on a calf.
Tickets are on sale at Bear Valley Feed, The Trailer Center, and Gina’s Hair Salon.
Seating is limited and folks are encouraged to buy tickets in advance. Cost will be $10 at the gate and $8 in advance or $25 for VIP seating on Saturday.
For more information, call Gina Rizzotto at 749-2344.
For bull riding information and entry, call Dave Misner at 909-681-8722; calf dressing or bull riding information call Geraldine McHugh at 749-1857; for barrel racing entry and information, call Mary Weigman at 909-928-2558. For Mutton Busting information and entry call Gina Rizzotto at 749-2344.
The Valley Roadrunner
P.O.B. 1529, Valley Center, CA 92082
Tel. 760.749.1112 Fax 760.749.1688
Website: www.valleycenter.com
Email: editor@valleycenter.com
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