Rancho Temescal: Stagecoach Stop on the Southern Route

The valley you are passing through carried the first transcontinental mail. Leandro Serrano, a Luiseno man who worked as a majordomo for Mission San Juan Capistrano, established Rancho Temescal here around eighteen eighteen, building an adobe house and tending orchards and cattle in the sheltered valley. When the Butterfield Overland Mail launched its southern route in eighteen fifty-eight, the stage line set up Temescal Station just north of the hot springs, calling it a splendid place to camp with wood and water plenty.

The first overland mail left Tipton, Missouri on September sixteenth, eighteen fifty-eight and passed through Temescal on its way to Los Angeles. For a brief window, this remote valley was part of the fastest mail system in the country, connecting California to the East in just over three weeks.