San Deigo Historic Site 304 VALLECITO STAGE STATION

The name Vallecito, which means "Little Valley," dates from Spanish times. The salt grass cienega made the valley the goal of travelers to California from Sonora in the early years of California, as it held the first good waterin any quantity to be found on the west side of the Colorado Desert.

During the Gold Rush period immigrants in large numbers stopped to refresh themselves and their animals after what was called "The journey of Death"across the Imperial Valley. The road through this valley was the great southern immigrant trail, the only wagon road into Southern California.In the early 1850's James R. Lassator built the house, of sod cut from the cienega, to serve as a stopping place for parties passing through. The roots can be seen in the walls. This structure is not an adobe.

Vallecito was an important stop for Army detachments leaving and enteringCalifornia, from the time General Kearny's Army of the West stopped here on the road to defeat at San Pasqual. The house became a station on the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Route (The "Jackass Mail") in 1857, and in 1858 it was made one of the stops of the famous Butterfield Overland Mail. It is one of the chief landmarks remaining from the great stage line between Missouriand San Francisco.

The present building is a reconstruction. It is nineteen miles south of ScissorsCrossing which is twelve miles east of Julian on Highway 79.