A severe earthquake in December 1812 seriously damaged the church structure and killed 43 of the Indian worshippers in the church at the time. Everything seemed to go downhill for the mission after that.
July 16, 1998
History
Indians attack San Diego Mission in 1775
Beaver trapper James Pattie makes it to San Diego in 1828
They couldn’t find water for days. When they saw a pond near an Indian camp, they raced through the natives, scattering them, dove in the water, and “overloaded our empty stomachs, and soon became as sick as death."
June 25, 1998
Acorns in San Diego History
Hector renamed the site “Pio Pico,” because it’s across Otay Lakes Road from the campground by the same name. The site is 16,000 square meters and lies above Dulzura Creek, east of the confluence with Jamul Creek.
June 11, 1998
San Diego's Korean War vets surprised anyone wants to talk about it
“You know, when guys who were in Vietnam came back and got into some...well, some difficulty, everyone said it was the fault of the Vietnam War. But not Korea. Somehow it didn’t work that way.”
June 20, 1996
Socialist Dad loves Linda Vista paradise
Everyone who lived there knew the name meant “pretty view.” Maybe it wasn’t utopia. But it was a planned community for low-income people that, for a considerable period, managed to succeed. I lived there from …
March 28, 1996
Marjorie Reed leads me on the Butterfield Stagecoach route
Vallecito has always been Marjorie’s favorite. “In the ’30s, I’d come up here and walk up there along the old road through this valley. Oh, I'd find little tiny kids’ shoes — I think they were from the Mormon Battalion, probably.”
March 21, 1996
Why Kate Sessions, the Mother of Balboa Park, Is the mother of us all
Aller traced Kate’s early palms (including those on Horton Plaza, Sixth Avenue, and Orange Avenue in Coronado) to seeds acquired by a nurseryman from a South African conservatory 40 years earlier. That would have dated them to 1892.
April 13, 1995
A Little History on Imperial Beach
Imperial Beach was originally part of an 1846 land grant from the Spanish Crown to the benefit of one Pedro Cabrillo. Queen Victoria was on the throne and Grover Cleveland was president when the first …
December 8, 1994
San Ysidro's Little Landers
When the great flu epidemic hits, with their best lands compromised, somehow the spirit of the Little Landers disappears. Even the energetic William Smythe leaves his beloved village after the death of his wife.
October 6, 1994
Depression Letters, 1940-1948
"He was a partner to Jack Dempsey in the Ensenada La Playa hotel venture, and he insisted on our coming to Tijuana right then, so he could entertain us. He owns the famous Long Bar.”
January 6, 1994
City College professor Ternot MacRenato –a Sandinista, but not a Marxist
“Gioconda comes from a very wealthy family, and the Sandinistas came to power foaming at the mouth about the burguesia. But the Sandinistas still grabbed mistresses from the wealthiest families. Gioconda was one of these."
September 5, 1991