Sparkman students get glimpse of area's past

| Sunday, February 17, 2002 10:00 PM PST ∞

Trip to Vail Ranch teaches kids what local life was like in 19th century

Mark M. Redfearn


For The Californian

TEMECULA - About 60 third-graders from Sparkman Elementary School walked through a time-warp portal Feb. 8 at historic Vail Ranch, where they got a taste of what life was like in the Temecula Valley in the 19th century and in even earlier times.

"The way to learn is to just forget about the year 2002 (and) pretend you're one of the people of that (earlier) time," Rebecca Farnbach told her group of 10 students who came for "Sparkman Days."

Students were given passports that allowed them to enter the portal into a different era and visit six educational stations on the four-acre parcel - all that is left of the sprawling Vail Ranch that once encompassed some 97,000 acres, including all of present-day Temecula and vast portions of the Santa Rosa Plateau.

"Hang on to that passport," Darell Farnbach warned the students. "If you lose it, you may get lost in time."

Farnbach, dressed as a forest ranger, told the students that in as little as 24 months, the little enclave just south of Red Hawk Drive will be totally surrounded by housing and commercial developments.

"You have the opportunity to be here ... when it's still wide open country," Farnbach said.

At one of the stations, Farnbach and a couple of his helpers taught the students how to make adobe bricks. He explained how the founding of the San Luis Rey Mission changed the lives of the local American Indians because of the introduction of Christianity and various European diseases.

John and Kelly Nussbaum said their daughter, Shelby, asked them to come with her on the outing, which lasted from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. They said they had driven by the ranch many times without even realizing it was there.

"They're keeping the kids' attention," Kelly Nussbaum said as she and her husband stopped to watch blacksmith Frank Matthies of Wildomar working at his forge and anvil.

"I was 50 years old when I started blacksmithing," Matthies told his young audience as he grasped a piece of red-hot iron and began hammering it into the shape of a nail. Matthies, now 58, said that the craft of shaping iron runs in his family. His grandfather also was a blacksmith in Germany.

Matthies said that blacksmiths have played an important role in history. "Columbus had a blacksmith with a fire right on the boat," he told the young crowd.

Students William Holland III and Charles Beard were pressed into service as bellows operators. They turned the crank on a mechanical bellows, forcing air into the forge, which caused a coal fire to blaze ferociously and turn a horseshoe lying in the coals bright crimson.

"That was fun," Charles said as he paused for a moment to catch his breath.

"My kids are really enjoying this," said teacher Dorothy Benson. She said her class is studying Temecula history and that visiting Vail Ranch is a great way for them to learn about the community they live in by catching a glimpse of its past.

Steve Clugston told students about the Mexican rancho period and events that happened in the area between 1822 and 1849.

Nearby, Pam Grender and Dick Diamond held court on the front porch of a general store and regaled their young listeners with tales of the Gold Rush, store-owner Louis Wolf and author Helen Hunt Jackson.

At one of the stations, eager students perched on straw bales learned about the Temecula Valley's first inhabitants, who hunted and feasted on the abundance of wild foods in the area.

"To them, nature was the supermarket - nature was the Home Depot," Rebecca Farnbach said.

Farnbach showed the students a matate - a large, flat grinding stone - and a mano - the hand-held stone used to grind grains and seeds into meal. She invited them to try their hand at grinding an acorn into flour, a staple for early American Indians.

Student Jake O'Brien, who was accompanied by his dad, Dennis, said that learning about what life was like for early American Indians in the Temecula Valley was his favorite part of the day. He said his own background is Apache and Irish.

"This is a lot like my family background," Dennis O'Brien said as he surveyed the ranch and its outbuildings. He mused on how difficult it is to keep older buildings in good repair. "Maybe (kids today) wouldn't be tagging the buildings if they had to paint them," he said.

Another group of 60 third-graders from Sparkman Elementary participated in the second installment of "Sparkman Days" on Feb. 15, learning some of the arts and skills that meant survival to bygone generations and hearing Dick Fox tell about the sale of the Vail Ranch and how Temecula became a city.

2/18/02