Event at Rancho Bernardo History Museum

Days of the Dons - Early California Ranchos
 
 
Robert Lerner speaker, is historian of the Valley Center Historical Society and the Valley Center History Museum.  The town is one of the oldest communities in San Diego County, having been settled by homesteaders in 1862.
 
The talk will focus on a romantic 30-year period in early California history when the Mexican governors of California gave away huge parcels of land to friends and patrons.  These lands became known as "ranchos".
 
Of the original 800 ranchos in California, only one still exists intact, originally as it was in 1845.  Known as Rancho Guejito, it located in the Bear Valley district of Valley Center, and the speaker will talk about life on the ranch over the past 169 years.