Vallecito, in San Diego County, California, is an oasis of cienegas and salt grass along Vallecito Creek and a former Kumeyaay settlement on the edge of the Colorado Desert in the Vallecito Valley. Its Spanish name is translated as "little valley". Vallecito was located at the apex of the gap in the Carrizo Badlands created by Carrizo Creek and its wash in its lower reach, to which Vallecito Creek is a tributary. The springs of Vallecito, like many in the vicinity, are a product of the faults that run along the base of the Peninsular Ranges to the west.
Once a seasonal village of the native Kumeyaay people, on a trail across the desert from the Colorado River, this oasis became a crucial stopping place for Spanish and then Mexican travelers to recover from the desert crossing between Sonora and New Mexico to California. Later it also served the same function for American soldiers, 49ers and their herds of animals being driven to the goldfields on the Southern Emigrant Trail.
The non native settlement of the site began in 1850 as a camp with a one-room sod warehouse as the U.S. Army Depot Vallecito for the supply of Fort Yuma. It was later increased in size and became a store, a stage station, and a ranch house. Eventually reduced to ruins, the Station house was restored in 1934 and is now the site of Vallecito Stage Station County Park.
Documented Native trails exist from Laguna Mountains to the Preserve area. Three important, extensive, and highly sensitive Kumeyaay village sites occur within the area. Important named location on Southern Overland Trail – travel corridor from the Colorado River to coastal California. Used from prehistoric times to present by indigenous Peoples, explorers, Mexicans, Europeans, early U.S. military, mail, pioneer settlers in wagons, stage coaches, gold-seekers, cattlemen, ranchers, and other pioneer travelers. Area is adjacent to Vallecito Butterfield Stage-Overland Mail Station in San Diego County Park. 19th century homestead of James E. Mason (Mason Valley). Olin-Bailey Earthen Structure (rammed earth) of early 20th century; protective shelter recently constructed (Prop 84 funds allocated for stabilization of the structure, interpretation, and fencing). Campbell Ranch Historic Complex of mid-20th century; eligible for National Register as an Historic District.
History
Hawi Oasis
Once a seasonal village of the native Kumeyaay people, called Hawi, Hawi was in the Vallecito Valley on a trail between the Quechan peoples on the Colorado River and the Kumeyaay of the coastal San Diego area. After crossing the desert from Hawi, the trail ran up Oriflamme Canyon to Cañada Verde, (or Green Valley as it came to be called by later American settlers) in the Cuyamaca Mountains. From there, it ran down the western slope to the coast following the Sweetwater River. Hawi was used by the Kumeyaay into the 19th century.
The waters of the Vallecito oasis were described by the geological report of the 1854-55 railroad survey expedition:
The first European to visit Vallecito was the Spanish Captain, Pedro Fages, in 1781. Subsequently named Vallecito, its abundance of water and green grass was an oasis for Spanish and later Mexican travelers from Sonora and New Mexico and their animals to recover after emerging from their travel across the dry, barren Colorado Desert. In 1846, Colonel Stephen Watts Kearny and his dragoons with their scout Kit Carson passed through Vallecito on their route from New Mexico to California. Soon afterward, Lt. Colonel Philip St. George Cooke and the Mormon Battalion followed Kearny, establishing the first wagon road across the Southwest into California. This wagon road passed through Vallecito to the northwest through Warner Pass, then to Santa Ysabel, and on to San Diego. It became known as Cooke's Wagon Road. Later during the California Gold Rush most of it became the route of the Southern Immigrant Trail.
The Southern Immigrant Trail became the highway for the Forty-Niners to California; it was also a major route for herds of cattle and sheep from Texas and New Mexico on their way to the goldfields. The water and grass of Vallecito saved herds desperate for water and grazing after their crossing of the desert. Large numbers of animals were driven on this route from 1849 to the late 1870s when the railroads came to Fort Yuma. However, herds were still driven on the route as late as 1919.