Vail Ranch
Restoration Association
announces
Over 350 at Special Event
The Encampment and Celebration
of the 1847 Mormon Battalion Trek event was held Saturday,
January 24,
2009 at the Little Temecula History Center,
we had over 350
visitors. Great day!
Since July 2008, Kevin & Denny Henson, and others have
followed the trail and the schedule of the original Mormon Battalion
from Council Bluffs, Iowa, and arrived in Temecula for a public
visitation encampment on Saturday, January 24, 2009. A full day
was completed in the evening with a presentation by Dr. Anne Miller
about the original Mormon Battalion, followed by Kevin Henson sharing
the experience of re-enacting the Trek. His presentation included many
"Google Earth" views of the trail/route. Visit their web site at
www.battaliontrek.com
Co-sponsored by VaRRA, Temecula Valley Historical Society,
Pechanga Cultural Resources Department, Temecula LDS Stake, and the Temecula
Valley Genealogical Society
___
Ranch Restoration Update -- work to begin 2009
Check out the developers web site at
www.vailranchheadquarters.com
to see what is planned.
____
Local History Books Available . . .
The latest area history book from Arcadia
Publishing,
"Images of America - Murrieta Hot Springs"
like others in the series, has many previously unpublished photos.
This new book will complement the very successful
"Images of America - Temecula",
"Images of America - Murrieta" and "Images of
America - Fallbrook".
Place your order today from VaRRA at $21.99 per
book. E-mail and other contact options noted below. Include
name, address, and phone number. To have a single book delivered by mail add
$3.20 S&H.
Our
Goals
The
Vail Ranch Restoration Association, Inc. (VaRRA), a non-profit
corporation, was formed to heighten awareness of the rich heritage
of the properties now known as the Historic Vail Ranch Headquarters site.
Included on this site is the Wolf Store--a former stage stop, store, inn,
cantina, and post office. This heritage spans a history which goes back
1000 years and includes Native-American, Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo
impacts on the area.
Additionally, the organization hopes to seek National Historic Register
District status for the 4.5+ acres of land presently comprising the
Historic Vail Ranch Headquarters site in Temecula, California.
Another goal is to promote interior restoration
of several buildings on the Historic Vail Ranch Headquarters site, most
notably the Machinery Barn, the Water Company office (once a U. S.
Meteorological Bureau station), and the Wolf Store (built around 1868 and
home of the second post office of Temecula).
VaRRA seeks to promote research, preservation, and restoration of
other Vail Ranch sites in Southern California that were part of the landholdings of the historic Empire Land and Cattle Company, established in 1883 by Walter Vail and named for the Empire Ranch, Vail's founding ranch purchased in 1876 in Arizona.
Lastly, the organization hopes to conduct tours and create a "living
history" site of the Historic Vail Ranch Headquarters property. The site
would include the recreation of a "turn of the century" U. S.
Meteorological Bureau weather station, an "implement museum" of farm and
rural tools contemporaneous to the period 1850-1950, creation of a working
blacksmith shop (in the Machinery Barn building), and the re-creation of
the Wolf Store as it would have been seen by travelers in the period
1870-1900.
