Vol.

XXVII, No 5

September/October 2014

CALENDAR
Saturday, September 6
Grape Day, Escondido, 9:30 -4 p
Tuesday, September 23
History Discussion, Rancho San
Julian led by Dianne Cowan,
Joslyn Senior Ctr Escondido,
4:00 to 6:00 pm
Friday, September 26
Board Meeting, 11 am-1 pm
Saturday, October 4
Annual Meeting, Speaker &
Lunch, Park. SPBVA offices
(behind Arch Center), Noon
Sunday, October 5
Living History, Park
Friday, October 24
Board Meeting, 11 am-1 pm
Tuesday, October 28
History Discussion, Banditos of
the Cow Counties led by Jake
Enriquez, Joslyn Senior Ctr Escondido, 4:30 to 6:30 pm
NOTE: History Discussions
have changed to the 4th Tuesday of the month AND the location is now Joslyn Senior Ctr
210 E. Park Ave (off North
Broadway), Escondido. Also
note starting times.

UPDATED PARK KIOSK:

EAGLE SCOUT PROJECT
Supervising Ranger Chris Lozano with new
Eagle Scout Nick Stevens--see article page 3
Photograph courtesy of Ranger Noah Martin

UPCOMING EVENTS
With autumn around the corner, it is time to rev up our activities.
Look for us at Grape Day in Escondido or at the park itself with First
Sunday Living History, resuming October 5. Be sure to join us for our
Annual Meeting on Saturday, October 4, when SPBVA member and
retired State Parks Historian Alexa Clausen presents her research on
Escondidos adobe homes. This is a good time to meet others, enjoy
lunch on us, and learn about the community. You can also check out
the Eagle Scout kiosk project, volunteer for First Sundays or Battle
Day, buy some good reads at the visitor center, and meet board members. We need your support!
1

BATTLELINES

Park Hours:

Park Updates for San Pasqual Battlefield SHP

Saturday &
Sunday, 10 am
to 5 pm
Park Phone
Number:
(760) 737-2201
weekends only or
(619) 220-5422
www.parks.ca.gov
www.spbva.org

by Supervising Ranger Chris Lozano

The park was approached by the
San Diego Arts and Cultural Tourism
Department for the City of San Diego
about doing a tourism video at San
Pasqual. The filming was held on August 10 and the park was fortunate to
have Tom Vilicich, Shirley Buskirk,
and Gilbert Garcia available and be a
part of the project. The project is
funded by the city and features cultural destinations that are not as high
profile, such as parks like Old Town
San Diego and Balboa Park. This was
a great opportunity and hopefully the
results will bring more visitors to San

Tom Vilicich
(951) 674-0185 or
Trooper284@aol.com

& Adult

Tours Contact:
Darlene Hansen
(760) 480-6320
BATTLELINES
Contributions
Deadline :
October 24, 2014
Contact editor,

Pasqual.
A great thank you goes out to Tom
V. and Gilbert for participating at the
Junipero Serra Museum at Presidio
Park and doing outreach for State
Parks. They participated in the Festival Celebration of Life on Presidio
Hill. I am told that it was a good turn
out and the public enjoyed seeing a
Dragoon and a Californio.
State Parks would also like to thank
the San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians for their support and recent efforts by coming out to the park and
conducting a park clean up.

SPBVA President
Tom Vilicich (left)
and Senior Park Aide
Gilbert Garcia at Presidio Park on July 13,
2014, for the Serra
Museum Open House.

SPBVA Info:

School

Sep/Oct 2014

Photos courtesy of Melvin Sweet

Ellen Sweet,
ELSweet@gmail.com

BATTLELINES

SPBVA 2014
BOARD
MEMBERS
Shirley Buskirk
Cliff Clifford
Royce Clifford
Donald Coates
Tom Cook

Eagle Scout Project

Randall Hamud
Darlene Hansen
Ron Hinrichs
Gisela Koestner
Richard Meyer
Leroy Ross, Jr.
Stan Smith
Ellen Sweet
Tom Vilicich
Bob Wohl

President:
Tom Vilicich
Don Coates
Treasurer:
Gisela Koestner
Recording Secy:
Ellen Sweet
Corporate Secy:
Ron Hinrichs

by Supervising Ranger Chris Lozano

Last year prospective Eagle Scout

Nick Stevens approached the park about
doing his Eagle Scout project. Although
it took a while to get the project approved and coordinated with various
park specialists, Nick hung in there and
completed his project in July.
I want to thank him for his efforts at

Jake Enriquez

Vice-President:

Sep/Oct 2014

Supervising Ranger Chris

Lozano signs paperwork
for new Eagle Scout Nick
Stevens. New trail marker
#1, indicates the BealeCarson Monument.
Photos courtesy of Ranger
Noah Martin

Mailing Address:
PO Box 300816
Escondido, CA 92030

the park and his contributions to the

community. The park now has an updated kiosk with a new park map and
marker post on the nature trail. An updated trail guide, which will coincide
with the new markers, will be available
shortly to guide park visitors along the
trail.

BATTLELINES

Park Day 2014: Clean up & Event

We would like to send a big Thank you! to the
members of the San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians for cleaning up the park. Armando Martinez and
the work crew spent three days cutting, raking, and
removing brush, leaves, and other debris from the
sidewalks, amphitheater, and bridge areas. It looks
so much better! They also cleaned up the graveyard
where Felicia, daughter of Chief Pinto is buried.
Then, under the leadership of Christie Orozco
from their education department and others, a cultural event was held on July 10. A group of dancers

Sep/Oct 2014

by Gilbert Garcia, Senior Park Aide

and singers performed in the amphitheater. Armando taught the youth and everyone else how to
work the clay for making pottery.
The event continued with everyone visiting the
museum and learning the information there. The
San Pasqual Reservation fire truck and crew were
on hand to keep everyone safe.
I personally had a great time working with and visiting with all who were involved. I hope they will
come again soon. Thanks again for all your help.

San Pasqual Band of

Mission Indians Park
Day 2014
Photographs courtesy of Gilbert
Garcia

BATTLELINES

Sep/Oct 2014

SPBVA ANNUAL MEETING

Park Boardroom (behind Archaeology Center)

Saturday, October 4, 2014

12:00 Noon Lunch

provided

Escondidos Adobe Home Revival:

From Mid-Century Modern Adobe to Mexican Hacienda
Speaker: Alexa Clausen
An intense revival of adobe home construction took place in midcentury throughout San Diego County, and Escondido was not the
exception. The hub of the adobe revival was in the development
called Longview Acres, located in the area surrounding Kit Carson
Park. In 1948 an adobe brickyard was created to supply the construction. Charles Paxton, self-taught architect and developer from La
Jolla, and citrus grove owner and developer Lawrence R. Green laid
out sections of land in old orange and avocado groves for adobe built
housing. In 1952, Weir Brothers Adobe Construction of Encinitas
moved their headquarters to Escondido Blvd. By 1980, the cost of
construction became prohibitive and requests to build adobe homes
dwindled.

Alexa, retired State Historian for California State Parks and SPBVA member, lives in Escondido. She is a volunteer for the Escondido History Centers annual Adobe Home Tour, and
will share her research on the adobe home development craze.

Lunch: Please RSVP by Wed, Oct 1 to Ellen Sweet at (858) 459-7759 or by

email to Elsweet@gmail.com

BATTLELINES

Sep/Oct 2014

SPBVAs HISTORY DISCUSSIONS:

Tues, September 23* 4:006:00 pm
Rancho San Julian
led by Dianne Cowan
Tues, October 28* 4:306:30 pm
Banditos of the Cow Counties
led by Jake Enriquez
*Joslyn Senior Center
210 E. Park Ave (off North Broadway), Escondido
, * Note location change and schedule change--now programs are the 4th Tuesday of the month and

starting time changes between 4:00 pm and 4:30 pm. Check carefully!

Call Ron Hinrichs, 760-746-8380 for information.

San Pasqual Battlefield Volunteer Association

15808 San Pasqual Valley Rd P.O. Box 300816
Escondido, CA 92027
Escondido, CA 92030-0816
September 1, 2014

ANNUAL MEETING NOTICE

In accordance with Article V, Section 2 of the Bylaws, this is to notify all members of the San Pasqual
Battlefield Volunteer Association that the ANNUAL MEETING will be held on Saturday, October 4,
2014, at the park beginning at 12 noon.
In accordance with Article VI, Section 1, additional nominations will be accepted if:
1. Any ten members nominate candidates for directorship at any time before the 10th day preceding the election. On timely receipt of a petition signed by the required number of members, the secretary will cause the names of the candidates to be placed on the ballot along with the candidates named
by the nominating committee.
2. Any member present at the meeting may place other names into nomination.
(This assumes they have permission.)
The Nominating Committee has selected the following members to be elected for THREE YEAR
TERMS starting January 1, 2015:
* Don Coates
*Tom Cook
*Richard Meyer
*Bob Wohl
Prior to the above election any new business brought to the floor will be discussed.
TOM VILICICH., President

* Denotes Incumbent

BATTLELINES

Sep/Oct 2014

San Diego: From Presidio to Pacific Powerhouse

by Stan Smith

An Exhibit in Balboa Parks San Diego History Center

The dragoons and ship landing forces who
fought at San Pasqual, not to mention the
highly skilled mounted Californios, represented some of the earlier ancestors of todays armored forces of maneuver. The
heavy horse of antiquity might more
closely resemble the tanks role in breaking
up infantry concentrations, but the lighter
mounted infantry of 1846 followed the
same credo of move, shoot, and communicate that is followed today by tankers in
the US Army and Marine Corps. This review of the Balboa Park exhibit will look at
the role of Marine armor in the San Diego
region, as highlighted in the exhibit.
The Marine Corps Tankers Association
recently donated $2,000 to help the historical society at Camp Pendleton get needed
siding for the building housing their
Mechanized Museum. That structure used
to be the embarkation point on the rail head
and is an all-wooden structure. The building represented the initial marshalling area
and starting point for hundreds of thousands
of Marines off to Pacific campaigns from
WWII through the Vietnam years, and a
while thereafter. The author recalls loading
M48s bound for Twenty-Nine Palms there
in the late 1970s. Faye Jonason, Camp Pendleton Base Historian, suggested this contribution as the best way of helping portray tanks in the Corps. Base Facilities was reluctant to dedicate
funds to accomplish much-needed repairs to the old warehouse. There were legal questions as to whether a
non-governmental agency such as the Tankers Association could contribute to repairing governmental
facilities. So we simply gave the money to their docent fund to accomplish the purpose. The society followed our lead with more funds, and soon the government decided to complete the project with over
$200,000 in restoration funds. Youll see this work being done as well as the ongoing repowering of tanks
and ontos by Society volunteer at the large tank park next door.
Theres lots of other military and maritime museums in town, but the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park is a good place to start. Its exhibit will run until the end of the year, and tells the story of how the
large military presence has shaped the development of San Diego over the last 200 years. The exhibit is
housed there with the help of nine other local museums contributing displays that highlight their specific
roles in the theme of the exhibitthe title of this article. Ill focus on how Marine tanks and amphibious
capabilities are portrayed in the museum to help define this Pacific Powerhouse.
Continued on next page
7

BATTLELINES

Sep/Oct 2014

San Diego: From Presidio to . . . continued

Continued from previous page

C Company of First Tank Battalion is shown en masse in the center of this 1956 photo with all eighteen Pershings together in this shot
of what goes into a powerhouse
taken during a get-together between
the Korean and Vietnam wars.
In the next photograph, a more
modern M-1(A)1 is off-loaded by
Marine Reservists from a fastmoving LCAC (Landing Craft, Air
Cushion) onto Camp Pendleton
beaches during summer training,
showing one way to project this local Powerhouse concept onto distant
shores in other Pacific locations in
the future.
Finally, we might be remiss if we
did not include a rendition of the
first Marine into San Diego back in
1846. First Lieutenant Archibald
Gillespie is featured here using his
cigar lighter to fire the US Army
Dragoons field howitzer during the
battle of San Pasqual. Note the Mameluke sword identifying him in
this painting on loan to the History
Center from MCRD San Diegos
Command Museum. Gillespie was
the only Marine present at the battle.

Gillespie was the senior commander of the naval contingent and subordinate to only General S.W. Kearny
during the skirmish. The unique perspective his force
brought to the battle was significant to the outcome and
could be considered as one of the hereditary ancestors
of todays Marine tanker units. Likewise, the US Armor Association has long given credit to the United
States Cavalryrepresented by Kearnyas being
among their forebears. Both, undoubtedly, would give
full credit to the mounted vaqueros of yesterday as also
representing todays Combat Arm of Defense.
8

BATTLELINES

Sep/Oct 2014

NAME THE 1st US DRAGOON PRIVATE of COMPANY C

As announced in the last Battlelines, remember to send Tom Vilicich (trooper284@aol.com) your choice in
the Name the Private election or vote at the visitor center before our Oct 4 Annual Meeting (see list below).
PRIVATES OF COMPANY C:
Stephen A. Bishop
Zarah Bobo
John Brown
George S. Bryan
Joseph T. Campbellkilled in action 12/6/1846
Mark D. Childs
George Coffelt
Jeremiah Crabb
Edward Curran
Michael Curran
William Daltonkilled in action 12/6/1846
A.C. Donaldson
Thomas A. Douglas
John Dunlapkilled in action 12/6/1846
Peter Forney
Thomas Grady
John Hamerle
Joseph B. Kennedydied of wounds12/21/1846
Matthew Lauber
William C. Leckeykilled in action 12/6/1846
Jacob Mauser
John McNeilly
James Murphy

Renewing MembersThanks!
Shelley Hayes Caron, Carlsbad
Ron Hinrichs, Escondido
Kym & Debbie Lobdell, Anaheim
Dick Staley, Lake Elsinore
Ellen & Melvin Sweet, La Jolla
Bob & Robyn Wohl, Carlsbad
US Seagoing Marines (Stan Smith), San Diego

John Murty
George F. Myers
Ferdinand Nicholas
James A. Osbourne
Amasa Palmer
George Pearce
James Pinkerton
Henry Purcell
Isaac N. Randolph
James Repeto
Samuel T. Reposekilled in action 12/.6/1846
John Stokely
David Streeter
Christian Teinchman
Michael A. Tubb
William Tubb
Paul Vanaken
John Vyer
Jacob Westfall
John White
George N. Williams
John D. Wood

Volunteer Recruitment!
San Pasqual Battlefield State Historic Park is always
looking for volunteers. If you have interest in working the visitor center, maintenance work, giving
school tours, or participating in the living history
programs at the park, please contact the park visitor
center and talk to Senior Park Aide Gilbert Garcia
for information.

Dragoon Level Members ($100 or more this year)

Bob & Judy Bowman

Ronilee Clark & Brian Arnold
Donald & Vicky Coates
Jake & Tammy Enriquez
Greg Hill

Kym & Debbie Lobdell

Michael Pique
Melvin & Ellen Sweet
Thomas M. Vilicich
US Seagoing Marines Assn (Stan Smith)

BATTLELINES

Sep/Oct 2014

JOIN NOW! Our non-profit organization supports the activities of the San Pasqual Battlefield State
Historic Park. All members receive BATTLELINES (email or regular mail), a 10% discount on all
bookstore items, special programs, field trips, history discussions, and opportunities to participate in our
Living History Sundays and in our annual December re-enactment of the Battle.
SAN PASQUAL BATTLEFIELD VOLUNTEER ASSOCIATION MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
P.O. Box 300816, Escondido, CA 92030-0816
(760) 737-2201
This is my/our membership application & dues for the following category:
____Student ($5)

____ Sustaining ($50)

____Dragoon ($100 or more)

____Individual ($15)

____Organization ($25)

____Benefactor ($1,000 or more)

____Family ($20)

____Corporate ($100)

Please make checks payable to: SPBVA

NAME(S)_______________________________________________________________________________________________
ADDRESS ______________________________________________________________________________________________
CITY _______________________________________________________ STATE _______________ZIP _________________
PHONE_____________________________________________ EMAIL________________________________________
OCCUPATION_________________________INTEREST/SKILLS_____________________________________________

Off the

Shelf...

by Shirley Buskirk

The park was scheduled to close July 1, 2012

but we were given a reprieve. They said we had
another two years. Well, July 1, 2014 has come
and gone and were still open, but Im still holding
my breath as nothing official has been saidand
the higher up you ask the question, the more vague
they becomeor they just dont reply at all. The
most encouraging thing I heard was from someone
not high up on the totem pole. His words of wisdom were in the form of a question, Do you think
theyd be making improvements to the park if they
were going to close it?
He wasnt telling me, Hey, of course its going
to stay open or they wouldnt be working on it. It
was a question, like he really wanted to know
what I thought because he didnt know for sure.
The head guy in Sacramento, a retired majorgeneral, quit, so who knows what is going to happen.
Well, at least the park is open now, so once again
Im inviting you to come to the visitor center and
look at our books. You might also noticeif
10

youve been there beforethat the mannequin with

the fancy dragoon dress uniform has been demoted. That guy with the horses tail spouting out
of his tall leather hat has been retired. Seems that
is a special uniformmaybe one of a kindthat
belonged to a guy that was in the dragoons, but
got out several years before the battle happened.
He was James Clyman, a mountain man. Now his
uniform is going to rest in a drawer where no one
will see it, but it will last a lot longer that way.
Anyway, the new guy, a private this time, is in a
regular everyday uniform that didnt belong to
anyone, but it has seen lots of action. Every December some volunteer puts it on and fights the
battle once more.
There is a list of all the dragoon privates of Company C in the visitor center. We are asking people
to look at that listanother reason to come to the
visitor centerand pick a name to go with the uniform. And, oh yes, while you are there you might
want to take a look at the books and things we
have for sale and maybe even buy something.