San Deigo Historic Site 311 WARNER'S RANCH

Jonathan Trumbull Warner, of Lyme, Connecticut, came to California with a trappingparty from Santa Fe in 1831. He first saw his future ranch then, as the first outpost of Californian fertility after the desert journey.

In 1844 he obtained grants from Governor Pio Pico for the land, over twenty-sixthousand acres. After that his ranch became an objective of Americans who enteredCalifornia over the southern immigrant trail from the Yuma crossing. This was a stopping place for Kearny, for the Mormon Battalion, and for most Army unitstraveling overland.

In 1858 the ranch became a station of the Butterfield Mail.

The famous springs were discovered by Father Juan Mariner in 1795, when herecommended the area as a site for a pueblo and mission. Sacred to the Indians,the springs had been the cause of wars for their possession. They produce two hundred thousand gallons of hot, mineral-charged water a day, which has beenknown for its therapeutic qualities since time immemorial.

The old ranch house is about a mile south of Highway 79, on the road to San Felipe and Montezuma Valley, which intersects the highway between Warner Hot Springs and Lake Henshaw.

This is also a National Historic Landmark.