Anza Valley

Anza Valley, formerly known as the Hamilton Plains,[1] is a basin in Riverside County, California. Anza Valley trends southwest from Bautista Canyon, west of Thomas Mountain to Terwilliger Valley, 2.8 miles west-southwest of Table Mountain and 12 miles south of Idyllwild. The valley lies at an elevation of 4,157 feet (1,267 m), west of the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa Mountains. It is drained by Cahuilla Creek, a tributary of the Santa Margarita River.[2]

History
Anza Valley is named after Juan Bautista de Anza, a Spanish explorer who led the Anza expeditions into California.

Anza Valley is named after the Spanish soldier explorer Juan Bautista de Anza who first passed through the valley on March 16, 1774, and again on December 27, 1775.[3] De Anza originally named the valley "San Carlos"; it was renamed in his honor from Cahuilla Valley to Anza Valley on September 16, 1926.[4]

In the later 19th century, Anza Valley was named after its early pioneer settler, Jim Hamilton, an African American man who settled there after he lost his land in Butterfield Valley in a lawsuit over ownership of the Rancho Pauba in the early 1880s.[5] Hamilton moved out to the lands of the Cahuilla, where he and two of his sons continued to raise cattle at their ranch in what is now the Anza Valley, which was first known as the Hamilton Plain. Hamilton Creek, originating east of Anza still bears his name. Hamilton School in Anza was also named after him.[6] The school has been divided into a K-8 School and Hamilton High School since 2006-2007.[7][8]

Hamilton was married to a Native American woman and had three sons. Two became U. S. Marshals, and one was killed in the line of duty at San Jacinto, California. The two surviving sons also married native women.[9]

References
  1. Durham, David L. California’s Geographic Names, Clovis, CA: Word Dancer Press, 31-Dec-1998.
  2. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Anza Valley
  3. A historical marker of the location was placed by the Historical Landmarks Committee of the Native Sons of the Golden West approximately 7 miles southeast on Cary Ranch (60901 Coyote Canyon Road) in 1924. Johnson, Marael (1995). Why Stop? A Guide to California Roadside Historical Markers. Houston, TX: Gulf Publishing Company. p. 213. ISBN 9780884159230. OCLC 32168093.
  4. Gudde, Erwin; William Bright (2004). California Place Names (Fourth ed.). University of California Press. p. 15. ISBN 0-520-24217-3.
  5. Robert L. Carlton, Blacks in San Diego County: A Social Profile, 1850-1880, The Journal of San Diego History, San Diego Historical Society Quarterly, Volume 21, Number 4, Fall 1975
  6. Steve Lech, Pioneers of Riverside County: The Spanish, Mexican, and Early American Periods, Arcadia Publishing, Dec 10, 2012, Notes, Chapter 4, note 58.
  7. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Hamilton School
  8. About Us > School History from hamiltonbobcats.net accessed August 23, 2016.
  9. Edgar F. Hastings, “An Interview with HARRY P. JONES” (March 10, 1960), Seth Mallios, Sarah Stroud, Lauren Lingley, Jaime Lennox, Hillary Sweeney, Olivia Smith, and David Caterino, Archaeological Excavations at the Nate Harrison Site in San Diego County, California: An Interim Technical Report for the 2005 Field Season, © 2006 by San Diego State University, Department of Anthropology

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