Lost Waters and History of San Diego
I love the obscure history of California, and particularly the San Diego area. We lose more of it every day, and some really special history is right under our noses, or behind the strip mall. I traveled down Chase Avenue in El Cajon today, thinking about how this area must have looked when Levi Chase, the man for whom the street was named, owned this land. It was a beautiful valley, which before cheap chockablock apartment buildings supported wheat farming, vineyards, and citrus, olives, and pecan orchards.
This was also a place of seasonal treks from the mountains to the east to the descending foothills through Mission Valley to the coast. Before Europeans came to San Diego this was the land of the Kumeyaay. Throughout the El Cajon valley, Indians would stop a while make camp, and drink from the many springs in the valley and hills.
One such spring was also mentioned by the friars at Mission San Diego de Alcala when El Cajon was part of the holdings of the San Diego mission. The forgotten history of the day concerns a spring that was the source of water for millennia for native Americans as they would make their nomadic treks from the mountains of the east to the shoreline of San Diego Bay and Point Loma. The spring was known to local Indian tribes, was noted and used by the Spanish explorers and settlers who named it El Granito, the granite one. It was marked on maps created by the De Anza expedition.
El Granito was located at the base of the boulder strewn south slopes bordering the valley, a stones throw from where Avocado Drive is today, just south of Chase Avenue on Lorna Avenue. There was a small adobe structure used for curing olives and bottling the waters which dated from the 1850's on the site. In 1892 the the ranch owner began to sell waters from the spring. From a book published by the U.S. Geological Survey from 1905, Springs of California, "this spring issues from a small tunnel issuing from the decomposed granite from the side of a ravine. The water is then piped about 50 yards to a bottling house. It has been on the market for several years, being marketed as a table water."
This long time source of water later was sold as a cure for baldness, dyspepsia, stress, and virtually any malady that could be remedied. A bottling house was built over the spring that lie at the base of the granite boulders and hills of Mount Helix. The water was later marketed as seltzer water due to its slightly saline, and secondarily alkaline composition.
In the 1920's the water was made into soda pop, until a large shipment on a rail car was lost to a hard freeze and the shipment was lost. Road construction on Avocado disrupted the flow of the spring a couple of decades ago, and two years ago, the ranch where the spring gave water for generations was subdivided by Shea Homes. A bronze plaque now marks the spot where all that history lies...right beneath our noses.
This was also a place of seasonal treks from the mountains to the east to the descending foothills through Mission Valley to the coast. Before Europeans came to San Diego this was the land of the Kumeyaay. Throughout the El Cajon valley, Indians would stop a while make camp, and drink from the many springs in the valley and hills.
One such spring was also mentioned by the friars at Mission San Diego de Alcala when El Cajon was part of the holdings of the San Diego mission. The forgotten history of the day concerns a spring that was the source of water for millennia for native Americans as they would make their nomadic treks from the mountains of the east to the shoreline of San Diego Bay and Point Loma. The spring was known to local Indian tribes, was noted and used by the Spanish explorers and settlers who named it El Granito, the granite one. It was marked on maps created by the De Anza expedition.
El Granito was located at the base of the boulder strewn south slopes bordering the valley, a stones throw from where Avocado Drive is today, just south of Chase Avenue on Lorna Avenue. There was a small adobe structure used for curing olives and bottling the waters which dated from the 1850's on the site. In 1892 the the ranch owner began to sell waters from the spring. From a book published by the U.S. Geological Survey from 1905, Springs of California, "this spring issues from a small tunnel issuing from the decomposed granite from the side of a ravine. The water is then piped about 50 yards to a bottling house. It has been on the market for several years, being marketed as a table water."
This long time source of water later was sold as a cure for baldness, dyspepsia, stress, and virtually any malady that could be remedied. A bottling house was built over the spring that lie at the base of the granite boulders and hills of Mount Helix. The water was later marketed as seltzer water due to its slightly saline, and secondarily alkaline composition.
In the 1920's the water was made into soda pop, until a large shipment on a rail car was lost to a hard freeze and the shipment was lost. Road construction on Avocado disrupted the flow of the spring a couple of decades ago, and two years ago, the ranch where the spring gave water for generations was subdivided by Shea Homes. A bronze plaque now marks the spot where all that history lies...right beneath our noses.
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| El Granito in 1935 |
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| The site of El Granito today, with suitable bronze plaque. |
I remember going "fishing" for crawdads there as a kid. Yeah the road messed that up about the time I was in High School. Some fun memories of having fun in the sun as a kid in SOCAL.
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