Historic San Timoteo Canyon (courtesy of Two Canyons Parklands )
By Pat Murkland
Learn which Native plants serve as food and medicine. Make an early 1800s-style adobe brick. Ride in a stagecoach. Try panning for gold. Tour an 1800s ranch home. Discover what it was like in the 1900s to work on the railroad. Travel though time to discover California’s history in your own back yard, when 10 organizations in a roughly 35-mile region from Loma Linda to Morongo Reservation share free events on Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023.
It’s all part of “Doors Open,” a weekend throughout California when, as state organizer California Preservation Foundation says, people get “rare chances to experience history first-hand normally not available to the public.”
Locally, you and your family can time-travel through the beautiful and unique landscapes of Inland Southern California that have served for centuries as Native American homelands, and remain important to Native Americans today. The local organizations worked together to offer experiences that will open the door for people of all ages to explore multiple cultures’ relationships with the land, through time.
As some of you know too painfully, Native American history often is invisible. So with the “Doors Open” goal of giving access to history, our News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center newsletter will come in two parts. Today we want to let you know about special family-oriented FREE events planned for Sept. 9, 2023. Our next News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center newsletter will offer a (brief) self-guided tour you can take anytime in the same region, roughly the Loma Linda area to Morongo Reservation.
The road through the San Timoteo Canyon region and San Gorgonio Pass is one that Indigenous people have walked for centuries; next came stagecoaches, trains, and automobiles.
We also hope this opens the door to you sharing history with us, and we all can keep expanding our knowledge of history.
Here are the special Sept. 9 events, all FREE:
1. History Hangout
With Loma Linda Area Parks and Historical Society
10 am-4 pm Sept. 9, Heritage Park, 25976 Mission Road, Loma Linda
llaphs.wixsite.com/lomalindahistory
Join family-friendly fun all day. Learn about Native Americans. Make adobe bricks. Explore the vintage train locomotive! Tour 1800s historic homes that have been moved to the park to save them. Play history games and more! Celebrate the nearby Frink Adobe, a birthplace of citrus history. Help save local history: Bring your own photos to be scanned into the community archives.
2. Mission Outpost and Ancient Trails
With Redlands Conservancy, Two Canyons Parklands
The current outpost was “re-created” in the 1930s.
Historic Asistencia. Explore a re-created adobe outpost or estancia of the San Gabriel Mission. The outpost, originally a mile away, served as an early 1800s “home on the range” for mission cattle and the first Inland cowboys.
Note: And don't forget, the first cowboys were Native Americans.
11 am-3 pm Sept. 9, 26930 Barton Road, Redlands
redlandsconservancy.org
Ancient Trails. Take a side trip along historic San Timoteo Canyon Road to Gateway Ranch, 31313 Live Oak Canyon Rd., trailhead to 20+ miles of open trails. Tour native plant garden, learn about Two Canyons Parklands.
twocanyonsconservancy.org
3. 1800s Schoolhouse and Trains!
With San Gorgonio Pass Historical Society
And Riverside County Regional Park and Open Space District
San Timoteo Canyon Schoolhouse (Pat Murkland Photo)
At Riverside County’s first school, the San Timoteo Canyon Schoolhouse, our 1800s schoolmarm will teach you about 1800s reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic. The schoolhouse is now on the National Register of Historic Places, but in the late 1800s it was an early integrated classroom for Native Americans, pioneers, and the children of workers on the nearby train tracks. Also explore life and work on the early railways in a special San Gorgonio Pass Historical Society exhibit by railway-working families. Share your stories!
11 am-3 pm Sept. 9, 31985 San Timoteo Canyon Rd., Redlands
sgphs.org and rivcoparks.org
NOTE: Saahatapa, also spelled Sáxhatpah, the Cahuilla name for the canyon, means, “Place of the Willows,” and in part 2 we’ll discuss more about the canyon and the village, starting in 1851, of the famed Cahuilla tribal leader Juan Antonio.
4. Ride a Stagecoach! And More!
With Gilman Ranch Hands
And Riverside County Regional Park and Open Space District
Morongo Warriors and Daughters of Morongo in the 2019 Stagecoach Days Parade. (Pat Murkland Photo)
10 am Sept. 9, FIRST … Enjoy the City of Banning Stagecoach Days Parade along Ramsey Street in Banning.
(see Banning Stagecoach Days on Facebook for details)
Stagecoach rides will be free at the Gilman Historic Ranch and Wagon Museum on Sept. 9 only. (Pat Murkland Photo)
11 am-3 pm THEN … mosey to Gilman Historic Ranch and Wagon Museum, 1901 W. Wilson St., Banning, for a big community party and free family fun:
Approx 11 am Sept. 9: Native American opening blessing by Ernest Siva (Cahuilla-Serrano), president of Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, will open the event.
Ernest Siva gives blessing in 2013 at Gilman Ranch, © copyright artist Gloria “Toti” Bell.
Along with free parking and free admission, Sept. 9 activities at the ranch are all free, including: Free stagecoach rides along a bit of the historic stagecoach road. Museum tours. Face-painting. Gold-panning. Old-time games. Tours of the circa-1800s Gilman ranch home, on the National Register of Historic Places, and MORE!
At 3 pm: AC Dysart Park, 2101 W. Victory Ave., Banning, opens for Stagecoach Days.
5. Native American Cultures
With Malki Museum
White sage (Pat Murkland photo)
Explore area Native American cultures at the oldest Native-run museum in the United States. Baskets, artifacts, exhibits, cultural beauty. Discover how native plants are used as foods, medicines, and more in a Native plant garden.
10am-4 pm, 11795 Malki Rd., Morongo Reservation, Banning.
malkimuseum.org
Nonprofits and agencies participating in the local “Doors Open” Sept. 9, 2023, events are Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, Malki Museum, Loma Linda Area Parks and Historical Society, San Gorgonio Pass Historical Society, City of Banning, Gilman Ranch Hands, Riverside County Regional Park and Open Space District (Gilman Historic Ranch and San Timoteo Canyon Schoolhouse), Redlands Conservancy, and Two Canyons Parklands.
Watch for Part 2!
Thanks from us!
Thanks for supporting the 501c3 nonprofit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, led by Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla-Serrano), as we continue our 20th year of saving and sharing Southern California Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts. And as always, thanks from Center leaders Ernest and June Siva and Editor Pat Murkland for reading, liking, subscribing, and sharing News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, your FREE online weekly newsletter. We love to hear from you. PLEASE EMAIL. September 1, 2023.