Chihuahua Valley, a short history, BY PHIL BRIGANDI

 1920s photo of the Leland & Pearson families with their Angora goats. Left to right: Irving Stamness, Margaret Stamness, Andy Pearson, Bertha Leland, Marie Leland, Sylvia Pearson. Roughly 800 goats were herded in a two-week drive to the rail head in Temecula. M.V. Tobin & Andy Pearson helped with the drive. Photo Copyright© 2009

The area around Warner Ranch got a boost from the Julian gold rush of the 1870s. Farmers and ranchers now had a ready market for their crops and livestock, and more and more settlers began moving into the area.
It's around this time that we first hear of settlers in Chihuahua Valley. Undoubtedly, Luisefio people from Oak Grove, Puerta la Cruz, and other villages visited the valley in the past, to gather acorns, and hunt rabbits. Now ranchers and farmers would try their luck in this broad, chaparral-covered valley.
By the l 880s, the valley had a name. A Mexican herdsman from the State of Chihuahua had brought his flocks to the valley. Most people simply called him
"Chihuahua," and the name was soon attached to the valley.
California place names scholar Erwin Gudde said his real name was Jose Melandras, "a goatherd who loved solitude." But the land office records show a Louis Melendrez who received a patent ( deed) to 160 acres in the northwestern part of the valley in 1891. His home probably gave Adobe Springs its name.
"'Chihuahua" had a rough history. He was probably the husband of a Mexican woman who burned to death in 1882. The San Diego Union reported that she had been living in the mountains east of Oak Grove with her husband and daughter. where they kept goats and sheep. She died when their little "brush shanty" burned to the ground.
In 1887, "Chihuahua" was implicated in the murder of David Blair, a prospector who gave his name to Blair Valley on the Anza-Borrego Desert. Later that year, his step-daughter, Belita, was found dead, shot in the chest and hidden in the brush. At the time, the local justice of the peace refused to pursue the matter, since "it was only an Indian woman." Suspicions continued to rise, and in 1889 "Chihuahua" was brought before a judge in Julian, and questioned about Belita's murder, but the charges were soon dropped for lack of evidence.
Other settlers began to join "Chihuahua" in his valley in the 1880s and '90s. Some of them also left their names on the land. Charles Johnson received a government patent to 160 acres just south of Melendez's claim in 1891. He was presumably the namesake of Johnson Canyon. Beginning around 1895, William Boden homesteaded 160 acres on the east side of the valley, receiving his patent in 1900. Boden Field still bears his name.
But map makers don't always get things right. In the 'teens, a man named Walter F. Privette homesteaded in the canyon below Chihuahua Valley, where Chihuahua Valley Road now climbs up to the valley. He died before proving up his claim, but his heirs were able to obtain a patent for 99 acres in 1920. His name was later garbled into Previtt Canyon, and is misspelled on maps to this day.
Prospectors and Miners
The area around Chihuahua Valley had its own little gold rush back around 1900, as prospectors began staking claims north and west of the valley. By 1899, interest was focused around Beauty Mountain, and in 1900 a two-stamp mill was in operation there. But whatever gold they found was soon worked out. In the 1940s and '50s the area had a little revival with the filing of a number of tungsten claims.
One of the better known miners during the brief Beauty Mountain boom was Henry Combs. Combs came from an old San Diego County family; the name is sometimes spelled "Coombs" and was probably pronounced that way. Combs decided to stay in the area, and by 1903, Combs Camp is shown on the maps. Later his name also drifted up to the high point of Bucksnort Mountain.
Other prospectors continued to work the local hills and canyons over the years. In 1905, Bert Simmons staked a tourmaline claim in the hills northeast of the valley. Tourmaline was popular for jewelry in those days. The multi-sided gems are found in black, green, red, and blue. Simmons' fmd must have been blue, since he called his mine the Blue Bell. It was worked intermittently over the years. From the 1940s to the 1970s, Charles Fleischer of Poway picked away at the mine, and built a cabin there (destroyed in the Coyote Fire of2003). New claims were filed in 1983. and the mine was worked as recently as the l 990s.

Twentieth Century Homesteaders 

As late as the 1930s, folks were still filing homesteads in Southern California, and Chihuahua Valley was no exception.
The Jeffries family came to Chihuahua in the 191 Os, and by 1923 owned some 800 acres in the eastern end of the valley. For many years, Martin and Bertha Jeffries raised silver foxes on their ranch, before moving to Vista around 1946.

Treasure Jeffries married Sylvester Biles, a local cattleman who had come to Chihuahua around 1917 and owned another 520 acres at the east end of the valley. "Sal" Biles was an orphan who had a pretty rough childhood. It left him tough, self­reliant, and profane. But despite his almost constant cursing, he was widely respected - even iflocal parents warned their children not to 'talk like Mr. Biles.' In later years, Sal and Treasure Biles lived down in Sunshine Summit.
Michael V. Tobin came from Los Angeles with his family in 1919, in part to get out of the big city after the influenza epidemic at the end of World War I. He homesteaded 120 acres southwest of Boden Field, and in 1925 received a patent for an additional 320 acres near the center of the valley. His family remained in the valley for many, many years, though their old home was destroyed by fire in 1948. A road had been built up "Previtt" Canyon before 1920, allowing automobiles to reach the valley. The county took over the maintenance of the road in 1928, but only as tar as today's Mitchell road. From there, dirt roads ran back to the various homesteads and ranches. The county did not extend the road any further until 1951. The Puerta la Cruz and Lost Valley truck trails were completed in the 1930s. A number of the local ranchers took advantage of the increased access to start hunting camps on their land. Andrew Pearson, who homesteaded southeast of Boden Field, ran a camp during the hunting season, as did Lloyd Mitchell, who had proved up a 160-acre homestead east of Adobe Springs in 1921. Pearson's Camp and Mitchell's Camp are still shown on maps in the 1950s.
In those days, Combs Camp was sometimes known as Chimney Camp. and was also popular with hunters. Bucksnort Mountain, northeast of the valley, was probably named by one of those early hunters.

School Days

Chihuahua Valley was in the Oak Grove School District, which had been fonned around 1892, and built a substantial schoolhouse near today's Oak Grove Community Club building in 1893.
Ellen Holmes, who later drove the school bus for Cottonwood Elementary for many years, lived in Chihuahua Valley in the early 1930s, and attended the Oak Grove School. In the 1970s, she wrote out some of her memories for the Cottonwood Country Council.

In 1930, she said, there were more students in Chihuahua Valley than in Oak Grove -nine in Chihuahua and just two in Oak Grove. so the trustees decided to move classes to an empty house in Chihuahua Valley for the 1930-31 school year. A Mrs. Vincent was the teacher.
In 1931-32, and 32-33, classes were back in Oak Grove. The teacher, Alice Clevenger, lived in Chihuahua Valley, so she drove the local children up and down the hill every day.
In 1933-34 and 34-35, Mrs. Holmes recalled, there were enough students to hold classes in both Oak Grove and Chihuahua Valley. Alice Dellmann taught in Chihuahua in 1933-34. Two years later, she married Mike Tobin's son, Arthur. In 1934-35, Leona Mendenhall taught in Chihuahua Valley.
In 1937, the Oak Grove District was unified with Warner Springs, San Felipe, and Volcan and the old Oak Grove School was closed. Students were now bused to Warner Springs, and-until recent years-all the way to Julian Union High School. In the early 1930s, Chihuahua Valley residents also held their own weekly Sunday School classes.

Disasters

Fire has always been a danger in the brush country, and Chihuahua Valley has been scorched several times over the years. But for the old timers, ''the big fire" was always 1928.
Actually there were several fires in the area that year. One of the biggest burned over  50.000 acres in Riverside and San Diego counties. According to the San Jacinto Register the fire swept the south end of the Cahuilla Valley, then across Beauty Mountain into Chihuahua Valley, spreading down to Oak Grove, and east towards Lost Valley and ''the neighborhood around Warner's Hot Springs," where it turned west again and burned across to the base of Palomar Mountain.
There have also been several plane crashes in the local hills. In 1941, a Navy bomber crashed on "French Pete Mountain," east of Chihuahua Valley, near Sal Biles' place. Two of the fliers were killed, and a third parachuted to safety.

Modern Times

Chihuahua Valley Road was originally dirt, then graveled. It was not paved until 1971. and didn't even have a center line until 1979.
It was around the 1970s that some parts of the valley were subdivided, including the large lots along Cruces and Palmas drives. Vacation homes, country estates, and horse ranches began to appear. A 1985 count found 85 mail boxes along Chihuahua Valley Road. At three people per box, that would suggest a population of about 250 then. In 1987, the Los Angeles Times estimated the population of Oak Grove, Chihuahua Valley, and Sunshine Summit at about 500.
East of the valley, at the top of Agua Caliente Creek, is the Orange County Council Boy Scout camp at Lost Valley. Purchased from the Bergman family in 1959, the camp has been open every summer since 1964, with thousands of boys attending camp each year.
Along the road to Lost Valley, San Diego State University operates the Sky Oaks Field Station. Established in 1980, the station is a center for biological research in the chaparral country. Badly damaged in the Coyote Fire in 2003, new facilities have been added, with more planned for the future.
Another Chihuahua Valley landmark is the Lieu Quan Meditation Center. Begun in 1981 by Nguyen Dat, the complex has been quite visible since 1998, when large statues of the Buddha and other Oriental religious figures began to appear.
Today, Chihuahua Valley remains sparsely populated. There have been a few local businesses over the years (including a bed and breakfast), but never even a store. Change may come some day, but the history of the valley will always remain.