City of Temecula History - Term Paper Example

Download file to see previous pages... The rancheria [ranchos-missions] at Temecula housed a granary and a chapel, the granary making it the ‘most important dependency of the prosperous Mission San Luis Rey’” (Bibb para. 2).
It is accepted that the region included a coastal area, interior plains for planting all bounded by mountains. The exact location of the original town “pueblo” of Temecula as has been said is in dispute, however according to an 1860 census the town designated as Temecula was home to “300 inhabitants and forty adobes” (Bibb para. 6). The name is generally applied to a region adjacent to San Diego. Survey maps from 1860 place Temecula in the near vicinity of Vignes Rancho and Pendleton. (Bibb para. 15) According to Bibb, the Indians were formally evicted from [what is acknowledged to be] Temecula in the late 1800s, along with other tribes in the area, victims of economics and political strife between Californios (Mexicans) and the Americans. “The present-day town of Temecula lies three and one half miles northwest of the original indian village and is a product of the now defunct railroad built in the 1880s, which ran from San Bernardino to San Diego” (Bibb para. 7).
The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, by which the United States acquired the southwest territory from Mexico, was signed on February 2, 1848, ushering in the end of the golden era of the ranchos. Farris provides an accurate description of the fate of original inhabitants of the Temecula Valley pertinent to the Luisenos and others. By the early 1800s plans to dissolve the missions [secularization] as communities in favor of selling off land to private interests was well underway. “With the arrival in 1833 of the Mexican appointee, General Jose Figueroa, [Governor] the final implementation of a plan for the widespread secularization of the missions was completed. The process of emancipation of the Indians and dividing up the land ...Download file to see next pagesRead More