POWAY -- The Poway Historical and Memorial Society will soon have a new tool to take people back in time.

A San Marcos-based company is making a video documenting life in Poway since the Kumeyaay Indians lived in the area 300 to 400 years ago.

Hired by the city in February, Copperpoint Communications recently sent a production crew to Poway to interview longtime residents about their memories of the city's early days and film footage of historical sites.

The results are being woven together into a video that will capsulize 150 years-worth of the city's background into a 7- to 10-minute presentation.

Hundreds of local students who visit Old Poway Park each year with their history classes are expected to be among the project's beneficiaries.

"We do a lot of touring in Old Poway that's done one-on-one with a docent, a volunteer or a member of the (Poway-Midland Railroad) train group," Assistant City Manager Penny Riley said. "And we felt that talking about current activities wasn't enough, that we wanted to bring out the history of the Old Poway area."

Historical Society member Ernie Briscoll said the nonprofit had long considered creating a video but the project got under way once the City Council earmarked $10,000 for it.

Copperpoint Communications won the job because city officials were pleased with other work the company did for Poway. That included videos created for the city's redevelopment department and one that highlights affordable housing projects in the county.

"This was really more of a labor of love cause we really are working with a lot of the people over at the historical society," Copperpoint executive producer Allison Ohman said of the history video.

The company began by asking the Historical Society for a list of interview recommendations. Briscoll, Delora Powers, whose family helped found Poway, and retired Poway school teacher Kay Prusinskas were among those suggested.

"We covered a lot of my personal history -- when did I come out, how long I've been here and what was my background," said Briscoll. "And a little something about what I experienced in Poway in the early days, that sort of thing."

The video briefly takes viewers back about 400 years ago, when Kumeyaay are believed to have occupied a village on the site of the interpretative center. The video then quickly moves up to the 1800s. From there, photographs borrowed from the historical society's archives help tell the rest of the story, said Kevin O'Hara, a producer, editor and videographer for Copperpoint.

Poway community services Director Robert Clark predicted the city will find all sorts of uses for the video once it is finished.

"This is one of those things that, once it's 'built,' people are going to find uses for it all over the place that we didn't even think of," Clark said.

Contact staff writer Andrea Moss at (760) 739-6654 or amoss@nctimes.com.