Palomar Mountain News

The very beautiful sky caught my eye Tuesday night.  Took the first pic from my desk but when I saw the ‘waves crashing on the mountain’, I had to run outside for more.  (Double click on each photo to enlarge, if you’d like).

Lots to be thankful for on this mountain.  We even have a tease of our first dusting of snow  over the next couple days – time will tell.  Meanwhile, thank you for all the joy you bring to my life; neighbors, friends, family, and clients who come up for a peek of what some of us are blessed with living a mile nearer heaven.

Happy Thanksgiving to All and may God Bless you Everyone!

Bonnie and Don

Curt Waite, Chairman FFLA sent this our way,  Lotsa perks being a volunteer at a fire lookout!

From: Craig and Joyce Childs, High Point Lookout Hosts 11-22-15

Unremarkable, cool, clear, crisp day at high point. Several groups of visitors from bikes to jeeps to suvs including three older gentleman on BMW motorcycles with Alaska plates on an extended road trip. We gave them some info about anza-borrego. Later on two folks from the Observatory hiked up to observe setting sun, we passed them walking back on the way out. Also saw a doe with two fawns running across road and a two point buck before Cal tech houses. The highlight of our day was in the morning at about 7:10 on Canfield Rd right before the campgrounds. A mama cougar with two cubs bolted across the road right in front of us! They ran from our right up the hill. The second cub we actually cut off from the group and was running next to our car for a moment and then darted back into the forest in the direction they came from. Unmistakable long tails with black tips. The cubs were like the size of medium to large dogs and very fast. In all our time hiking, camping and living here in Pauma Valley, we have seen tracks but NEVER cougars in the wild before. Now I want to see a UFO when we OVN at High Point….

Craig and Joyce

Seeking work: Looking to help out around your ranch, farm, house or cabin.  Have construction background experience, from landscaping and tending, to farm animal needs. Glad to roll up my sleeves and get some work done around your property. Had to close my company and have a few months before starting school again in February. Live at the Cuca Ranch area at base of the mountain.

How may I help YOU? Quick learner, honest, reliable, hard worker. Available 6 days a week, have car will travel.

Thank you,

Matthew Bakthasekaran

Phone or text:  858-6O2-8421

“All around Palomar, I see daffodils that don’t need to be tended.  They just pop up every year from bulbs.  They are everywhere on the mountain – bright, yellow, and as the story mentions – they remind me of sunshine and laughter! Year after year, they come back – beautiful and as strong as ever! 

Leah Stevens, was here on Palomar, with her daughter Sydney, sitting in front of our fire, sharing with me how her book came to be.

“I sing with Ella’s mom in church and witnessed their family’s battle with pediatric cancer firsthand.  I imagined what it would feel like as a young girl to lose all of your hair to this illness.  She began to grow it back, but then as her treatment progressed, she lost it again.  Even through her battle, she was shining!  She always had a sweet smile on her tiny face.  I wanted to write a story, just for Ella.

One morning I woke up with the whole story outlined in my mind.  But, I needed a artist!  A couple weeks later, I was at my best friend’s home to pick up her children for a play date with my kids.  I saw a painting on her wall that was beautiful, colorful, and painted with such loving detail.  It was exactly the style I wanted for the book.  I asked, “Who painted this?”  It was her mother-in-law!  Her mother-in-law was the artist! 

I sent off my story to Kathy Peterson who got back to me immediately after reading the book – saying, “It would be my honor to illustrate your book for free.”  What an amazing gift. 

Though the story was written for Ella, the book started to touch many more people.  When I asked Ella’s family if they could recommend an organization to benefit with the proceeds of my book, I was so impressed with their choice of KICKcancER. Since we saw they were short on funding for dispersing their KICKstart kits, Kathy and I thought it would be a wonderful thing to donate all our profits to eliminating the waiting list for these nurturing kits.”

Leah and her illustrator Kathy are donating books for KICKcancER to add to their kits, plus 100% of the profits of the book to KICKcancER Kits through December 15 of this year.  They hope that people will be generous this Christmas season, and will partner with this project to eliminate the list for all of the children waiting for these amazing kits!

The author with daughter Sydney, above left, who she home-schools, and her niece, Avery who also is growing up at the Christian Conference Center on Palomar Mountain.  “Again, read it again!”

See also:

The Littlest Daffodil press release

Books Blooming on Palomar

Author’s website, Grafted Shoot for more info and How to Order!

Another book Leah wrote with stories of Palomar woven through: https://palomarmountainnews.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/palomar-author-publishes-lunarium/

Until just recently most of Palomar was shown on title records as “landlocked, with physical access only”.  With the combined work of many over the last decade or so, research has uncovered and the County offices have confirmed most of our little dirt roads as “public roads, privately maintained”.  Most important for the land owners is that my title company, is able to add the information to your title report and plot the roads on paper, from Crestline to your cabin.

This has added so much value to your property in these areas.  If your property is between the purple brackets (from the County Park to the Lodge), or the area in orange brackets behind the Lodge, or if you access your property through those areas (Doctor’s Pond or others), we should be able to now secure a loan for your property and/or you should be able to re-finance if you would like to pull some equity out.

We are still working on other areas and I’ll keep you posted.  Double click on the photo above to enlarge.  The yellow road is Crestline.

Questions?  Thinking about selling?  This is a huge advantage for you!  Please email me and I’m glad to get them answered for you.

Bobby Askari – Loans for Palomar

History in the making!  Thanks to all who have contributed!

Bonnie Phelps

Thanks to all who responded to the request for info! about the Ocean View Store and Edgewood Tavern.   Thought many of you would like to see the old photos and links.  Have a great weekend!  Bonnie

Here is more about the Tavern/Lodge

From: Diana Serry

Edgewood Tavern AKA Skyline Lodge, Palomar Mountain Lodge + other names.

Click for UT story Sage of Palomar

“Soon after securing a water supply, community members raised funds to build a clubhouse. Tillinghast provided materials, labor and supervision for construction of the clubhouse, which Beckler’s book described as an evening gathering place for the community. Residents “walked from their cabins with lanterns which they placed about for light. They visited about the big fireplace, or they danced, and they sat out on the porch with its view of all the vast country and cities below.”

Starting in the 1940s, the clubhouse came under a succession of private owners who expanded the building to develop it as a resort, first as the Edgewood Tavern, then the Skyline Lodge, and finally the Palomar Mountain Lodge.”

Click to see Brad Bailey’s book Images of America Palomar Mountain, page 123

Click to read the complete book, ‘Palomar Mountain Past & Present’

http://www.peterbrueggeman.com/palomarhistory/beckler.pdf

From Cliff Kellogg

The Ocean View Store was located where the fire department is now. There is a photo of it at the fire station with a sign “Ocean View Store” clearly visible and a wood structure in the foreground that was the actual store. In the background is a car at a gas pump and a “Shell” gas sign also visible. The caption states that it was replaced in 1936. Apparently it burned around that time and the current house was constructed soon after. I was never sure why they called it the Ocean View Store since you couldn’t see the ocean until the Poomacha Fire burned through in 2007. Now you can clearly see the ocean from the fire department property.

I had Shirley Thompson come down to the fire station a few years ago to meet with an archaeologist who was doing some work for the department. She indicated to us that when her family owned the property with the Bergman’s in the early ’50’s the remnants were still visible. She said the pumps were situated between the side of the house and the side of the existing fire station building. The store was located about where the front of the station is now.

The archaeologist submitted a report for the department that has some good info. The old concrete steps from the store is still on the property, shoved up against some rocks under the oaks in front of the property. A buried concrete structure on the north side of the house in front of the cellar access appears to have been a possible oil changing/car repair pit. An extensive can dump with old bottles and ABC beer cans was excavated. Many relics were collected by the archaeologist and are now stored at the San Diego Archaeological Center on San Pasqual Valley Road.

The Edgewood Tavern is what we know today as the Palomar Mountain Lodge, at the end of Crestline.

It was a renaming of the Reid Wallace Campsites clubhouse on Birch Hill, when the clubhouse was leased out to F. W. Shupe starting in 1927. Shupe added a dining hall and kitchen to the clubhouse. Since then there have been other hands in-between like the Koenigs/Skyline Lodge, etc.

Anthony Swanson is Reid Wallace’s granddaughter as you’ll recall.

Peter

Palomar History Fans

Anthony Swanson – White Bloomers and Land for County Park

From: Peter Brueggeman

Ocean View Camp appears in a photo on age 91, and on the map in Catherine Wood’s 1937 Palomar history book and is mentioned briefly in a San Diego Union travel piece in 1939. There’s no other mentions of it in the San Diego Union or San Diego Tribune from that era. The dearth of newspaper mentions is noteworthy I think, … I bet it didn’t last too many years. I don’t know the Palomar fire history without research into it, but maybe it got burned out (?) I would peg Ocean View Camp as existing at minimum from before Wood’s book was published in 1937, and through 1939. The map is not specific as to its location but it seems right around the firestation there.

Ocean View Camp sold Shell gas and had a store and a campground. Any gas pumping remnants left around the fire station? A tank? The Ocean View Camp store had a peaked roof as you can see in the photo of it on page 91 of Wood’s book. I would guess the group camp there at the junction is what was the campground of the Ocean View Camp. I would guess the fire station is located where the store was. Just guessing.

I’ve long been curious about Ocean View Camp, so let me know if you develop some additional information.

Peter

See also Peter, our Palomar Historian