Old Warner’s Ranch House can be found along the Butterfield National Historic Trail in northern San Diego County. (Photo by contributing photographer Steve Lech)

In 1857, just seven years after California became a state, the newest part of the United States needed a reliable and reliable mail route to the East.

That year, Congress gave businessman John Butterfield a contract to establish and operate land mail routes between California and the rest of the United States. This route became known as the Butterfield His Overland Trail and began in St. Louis, Missouri. Memphis, Tennessee. It then followed a southern route through Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, entered California, and traveled north through that state to San Francisco.

Travel along the route was by stagecoach, which departed twice a week for the 25-day journey. Each stagecoach carried passengers, freight and mail, and on average he traveled a blistering distance of 100 miles per day.

Being a passenger wasn’t for the faint of heart. Tickets were $200 for him and allowed 25 lbs of luggage, two blankets and a water bottle. There was no overnight accommodation. The stage he ran 24 hours a day with very short breaks at stations where horses were exchanged. New York Herald reporter Waterman L. Ormsby, who rode the first stage, wrote: I spent 24 days on it. ”

In California, the route enters the state at Yuma, crosses the Imperial Valley, and enters the Hill Country that defines eastern San Diego County. Here, places like the famous Warner’s Ranch played an important role on the route. From San Diego County, he entered present-day Riverside County at Aguanga. Aguanga station was owned and operated by German immigrant Joseph Giftaler.

From there, the route continued 14 miles west to the next stop, Temecula. This stop was at the Maggie Store near the village of Luiseño (along present-day Temecula Parkway, a few miles east of Old Town). Here, two Americans, Klein and Moody, had a ranch in what is today the city of Murrieta.

From Klein and Moody’s Ranch, we continued northwest to Laguna Grande (now Lake Elsinore). For someone who had just emerged from the desert only a few days ago, the location of the inland lake must have been quite a shock.