Vail Ranch recalls Old West heritage

| Saturday, June 10, 2000 10:00 PM PDT ∞

PEGGY JACOBY
For The Californian

A little bit of Temecula's Old West history came to life yesterday on the Vail Ranch Preservation Site near the junction of Highway 79 South and Margarita Road. The one-day celebration, billed as a birthday party for the historical site, featured aspects of Old West life as it might have occurred approximately 150 years ago.

Under a cloudless sky with a blistering sun, visitors could walk around historic buildings from the mid-19th century Vail Ranch, many moved from nearby lots to their current location and all restored to their early working condition.

The centerpiece of the small community is the original Wolf Store, which dates from 1868 and served as a trading post, general store, courthouse, stagecoach stop, and post office in the early days of Temecula's development.

"What we have here is a window on the history not only of Temecula," said County Supervisor Bob Buster in his opening remarks. "We have a window on Southern Californian history as well. We want the youth to have a sense of what went into building Temecula and Southern California." Mr. Buster later said that the county is keen to help the Vail Ranch Restoration Association continue its efforts, especially to maintain the authenticity of the surroundings and develop the site "in a way that doesn't romanticize it or overcommercialize it."

Even after the center of the new city shifted northwest to the present

Old Town area in the 1880s, the Wolf Store became the headquarters for the 87,500-acre Vail Ranch until its sale, decline and eventual renovation in 1998.

"What we wanted to do," said Rick Busenkell, one of the nine-member VARRA board, "was to bring these buildings together and eventually build a County Historical Park."

Before their recent efforts to save the historical buildings, only one, the Wolf Store, was slated for preservation. "The developer was going to raze all the other buildings" Busenkell noted. "But we got the County to step in and help us secure the land and then get the buildings moved closer together."

He pointed out that this year's birthday event is the only day the grounds are open to the public "but we would like to turn it into a real tourist spot, have schools send groups here, that sort of thing." Plans for the future are in doubt, he explained, because the present 4.5-acre preservation site is located on unincorporated property that is privately owned but targeted for annexation by the city of Temecula. "I don't know how the county, the developers, and the city will interface on the question of keeping this preservation site," he said. "We hope to get public awareness of what we are doing here and turn it into a tourist park."

At yesterday's party, music was provided by the Wolf Valley Trio, the California Balladeer (Ken Graydon) and Los Concioneros, while visitors meandered between exhibits that highlighted skills used on the early ranchos: sheepshearing, rope making, blacksmithing, spinning and weaving, and lassoing. These were interspersed with a display featuring the 1847 Mormon Battalion, readings by cowboy poet Warren Salmon, and a Western gunfight and gun safety demonstration by the Temecula Gunfighters and Ramona Pageant Cowboys. Throughout the day, kids could visit the petting zoo, try their own hand at roping a dummy steer, listen to Indian storytelling by Gilbert Reyes and Billy Mesa, or take a ride in a replica of the original Butterfield Stage Coach that passed through Temecula en route from St. Louis to San Francisco. "We've pretty much settled on the second weekend of June to have our party in the future," Busenkell said. "We want to make it an annual event, bring more people out, but, of course, not compete with the other big celebration," referring to the concurrent Wine and Balloon Festival. "But we're entirely different."

6/11/00