History.

Pieces of History: Prehistory & History of Rancho Peñasquitos compiles the archaeological and historical reports based on more than 20 years of archaeological digs and investigations at Rancho Santa Maria de los Peñasquitos by three archaeologists (Steve Bouscaren, PhD; Susan Hector, PhD; and Lynne Christenson Newall, PhD.) and one historian (Steve Van Wormer, MS). Read the full flyer here or purchase on Amazon here.

Short History of Rancho Peñasquitos Canyon

Native Americans

The flat terrain and the water in Peñasquitos Creek made the canyon a natural passageway from the foothills to the coast. The Kumeyaay Indians and their ancestors used this route to move between the villages in Sorrento Valley, Ystagua, where the Spanish Padres met their first San Diego Indians and those in the Sabre Springs area.

Oak groves were a major attraction for Native Americans. Oaks provided acorns, a nutritious staple food for the Kumeyaay and other peoples of Southern California. The oaks are very productive, and acorns can be harvested in large quantities. They store well and were ground into a meal that was a major part of the diet. The acorns contain tannin, a bitter chemical that had to be removed to be removed by pouring hot water through the meal until the tannin was gone.

The stream and springs were critical to the Kumeyaay Indians and their ancestors, as they traveled in the canyon between the coast and the foothill villages. Water also drew the missionaries from the San Diego Mission to develop orchards, vineyards and keep sheep in the valley. Later, water was used to keep livestock and irrigate crops. Today, much of the water comes from irrigation runoff from developments along the canyon.

Rancho de los Peñasquitos land grant

The Rancho name means “the little cliffs” in reference to the rugged palisades that rim the long valley. In 1823 the first Mexican Governor of California, Luis Antonio Arguello, granted the first Mexican land grant within the present area of San Diego County to Captain Francisco Maria Ruíz, Commandant of the Presidio, on June 15, 1823. Ruíz was 68 at the time and had served 42 years in the calvary. The grant of the Rancho consisted.of one square leagues (4,243 acres) of land then claimed by the San Diego Mission. The Padres herded sheep there and planted an orchard and vineyard. It started where the current historic ranch house lies east to what is now Sabre Springs, north to include the current Rancho Peñasquitos, and included the southern flanks of Black Mountain.

Ranch expansion On June 4, 1859, Alvarado's daughter Estefana married George Alonzo Johnson. Johnson, an American, achieved fame and made a small fortune in the riverboat supply business on the lower Colorado River. Shortly after their wedding, Johnson bought the eastern half of the ranch from Diego Alvarado, including the single room adobe plus the ramada, the spring, orchard and vineyards. Diego kept the western half. It’s not known exactly when he built El Cuervo (the crow), the adobe whose ruins still occupy a small site at the west end of the Preserve, but it was certainly there in the 1850s. In 1862, Johnson began to expand the original adobe, adding on rooms and entire wings, incorporating three walls of Ruíz’s adobe into his bigger, newer adobe. He continued his riverboat business which allowed the Johnsons to live a lavish lifestyle, well documented in the San Diego Union. But the federal government defaulted on $90,000 they owed Johnson and the stock market tanked and the market for cattle hides collapsed. The Johnsons struggled to recover, but failed, and the sheriff sold the ranch, the entire ranch, east and west, in 1880, for back taxes.

Development opportunities

For the next 30 years the land passed through many hands, most interested in developing it in some fashion. One of the most prominent of these owners was Jacob Shell Taylor. He is best known as the original developer of the City of Del Mar and the builder of the Case del Mar hotel. He designed Del Mar as a tourist destination, which it remains to this day. In 1882, the year he arrived in San Diego, he bought the entire Rancho Peñasquitos. He and his partners planned a subdivision of ten acre parcels which would be sold to the public for $250. They advertised in the San Diego Union with ads which would qualify as “fake news” today, claiming many things about the ranch that just didn’t exist! During the land boom of the 1880s,Taylor proposed converting the homestead into a hotel and ran a direct phone line and stage between Peñasquitos and Del Mar, the popular seaside community he founded. With F. Weber Benton and two minor partners, Taylor attempted to subdivide the land grant, but the deal fell through in the crash of the late 1880s and Taylor sold his holdings in 1889 to early day land speculator Adolph Levi. In 1910, Levi sold the Peñasquitos as it was known to Charles F. Mohnike who paid $150,000 for 9,380 acres and another $35,000 for the stock. Mohnike lived in Chula Vista in a large house he had built based on his success with large orchards and real estate. He, his wife, and 9 children lived there, but moved to the ranch house for the summers. They were a wealthy family at the time. He had 800 horses and 1200 Hereford cattle, in addition to the orchards and lots of cowboys to care for the livestock. In 1912 Wing C of the ranch house, the kitchen, burned in a fire started by drunk cooks according to Evangeline Mohnike in an oral history she provided. Mohnike decided to move the family out and built the third adobe east of what is now Black Mtn. Rd. and the Equestrian Center. The original ranch house became a bunkhouse for the cowboys. Disaster struck again for the Mohnike family (and many others) in 1913 with killing freezes in the county that killed fruit trees all over, then a 110 º heat wave hit in the summer to finish off any live trees. After Mohnike, many others owned the land. Eventually, after much other land in Peñasquitos Canyon and adjacent lands had been bought by a large cattle group, the land was sold to George Sawday in 1937. He and his partner, Oliver Sexson, incorporated it into one of the biggest cattle ranch in Southern California. When Peñasquitos, Inc.,aka. Irving Kahn, a well known developer, purchased the whole ranch in 1966 for more than $10 million from Sawday-Sexson, the land spread over 14,000 acres.

Preservation

In 1974, the County of San Diego acquired land around the Johnson-Taylor Adobe Ranch House in a community effort to develop Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve. The County supported the restoration of the adobe buildings, and now the rancho's early days are interpreted through a variety of programs.