Murrieta Mesa High School

The following background information comes from a December 2005 report prepared by the Archaeological Resource Management Corporation as part of the Draft Environmental Impact Report for Murrieta Mesa High School. This is a public document available on file at the Murrieta Public Library.

Cultural Setting

Prehistorically, the project area was occupied or utilized by pre-Shoshonean and Shoshonean native populations. In the Perris Reservoir area, the early occupation has been dated to 380-200 B.C. at the Peppertree Site (CA-RIV-463). The cultural remains in the early component consist primarily of manos and deep-basin metates, seed grinding equipment suggesting that seeds provided an important part of the aboriginal diet. The recovery of a variety of faunal remains, including cottontails, jackrabbits, and mule deer, from the early deposit, points to a utilization of animal resources as well. A projectile point, an Elko-eared specimen dating back to circa 2000 B.C. - AD 1080 (Hester and Heizer 1973), was recovered from the deposit in stratigraphic association with younger materials and so was probably redeposited (Wilke 1973). The early deposit at CA-RIV-464 suggests a base camp from which collecting or hunting parties set out and to which they returned for processing of the wild resources.

A Late occupation, the Shoshonean (Cahuilla or Luiseņo), has also been demonstrated from the archaelogical record in the project area. Recovered artifacts diagnostic of the Late Prehistoric Horizon include Cottonwood Series and Desert Side-notched projectile points, dated circa A.D. 1300, Tizon Brown and Lower Colorado Buff wares, and Olivella lipped beads (Wilke 1973). The Late deposits suggest that the settlement-subsistence pattern consisted of a small number of base camps and more numerous associated processing sites. Aboriginal occupation of the area apparently ceased circa A.D. 1800; there is no evidence of Spanish occupation in the Perris Reservoir region.

Ethnographically, the project area may have been occupied by one or several hunter-gatherer groups, including the Cahuilla (Saubel 1990), a Shoshonean linguistic group like their closely-related neighbors, the Luiseņo, Serrano, and Gabrielino. The Cahuilla's topographically diverse territory was bounded on the north by the summit of the San Bernardino Mountains, on the south by Borrego Springs and the Chocolate Mountains, on the east by the Colorado Desert west of Orocopia Mountain, and on the west by the San Jacinto Plain and by the easter slopes of Palomar Mountain (Bean 1978).

The Cahuilla had access to a wide range of floral and faunal resources which they exploited from a series of permanent villages. Each village was controlled by a landholding patrilineage which owned the surrounding area; other areas were divided into holdings for clans, families, and individuals (Bean 1978; Bettinger 1983). Ownership was established visually by petroglyphs, stones, or geographic features, or by oral traditions setting the precise limits of tenure. In addition to ownership of land, including the village area, collecting and hunting areas, raw material sources, the lineage owned traditional songs, stories, and anecdotes. Individuals owned subsistence and ritual equpiment which could be bought and sold (Bean 1978). Despite rigid ownership rules, Cahuilla were encouraged to share their possessions with other Cahuilla. Balanced reciprocity was strongly enforced in Cahuilla society.

Some Cahuillas specialized in trading and traveled as far west as Santa Catalina Island and as far east as the Gila River to obtain and transfer goods. Shell beads currency served generally as the medium of exchange.

The Cahuilla had early contact with the Spanish when the Juan Bautista de Anza expedition of 1775-76 passed through Cahuilla territory. The de Anza group traveled northward from Sonora through the northern Borrego Desert, through Los Coyotes Canyon, and down Bautista Creek near present-day San Jacinto (Bean and Lawton 1965). Subsequent contact with the Spanish occurred indirectly when Cahuilla were taken to the missions at San Gabriel, San Luis Rey, and San Diego for baptism and thus were integrated into the mission system (Bean 1978). In 1819 several asistencias were established near the Cahuilla at San Bernardino, Santa Ysabel, and at Pala. Further contacts with the missions eventually led to the Cahuilla's adoption of certain Spanish cultural patterns, including the raising of cattle and other agricultural practices, trade, and wage labor. Cahuilla also adopted the wearing of European-style clothing and the use of the Spanish language. Many were converted to Catholicism by the mission fathers (Bean 1978).

The early inhabitants of the area may also have been the Luiseņo. For a discussion of their cultural history and lifeways, see Bean and Shipek (1978) and Keller (1988).

For a comprehensive overview of local history, see Keller (1988).

Records search and results

The author conducted a records and literature search at the Eastern Information Center (EIC), Department of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside. The search revealed that the parcel had been previously surveyed for cultural resources (Keller 1988), but the survey was not up to date, i.e., done within the past five years. Thus a new field survey would be needed. No archaeological sites had been recorded within the project boundaries or within a quarter-mile radius of the property. Four archaeological sites had been recorded within the project boundaries or within a quarter-mile radius of the property. Four archaeological studies had been conducted within a quarter-mile radius, but none had resulted in the recording of a prehistoric or historic site.

Leighton Consulting, Inc., (2004) reviewed the historic topographic maps (1901, 1942, 1943, 1953, 1967) and aerial photographs for the proposed high school location and noted no development on the parcel until 1967. At that time a single structure was present in the northeastern area of the property along with an access road; this most likely corresponds with the extant residence. By 1973 two additional structures were present in the same area of the parcel; these may correspond with the barn and another outbuilding that are still present.

No historic archaeological sites have been recorded within or adjacent to the project area. A search of the listings for the California Historical Resources Inventory (HRI), Office of Historic Preservation Historic Property Data File and Archaeological Determinations of Eligibility revealed no entries for this project area or environs. The National Register of Historic Places also does not contain any listings for this project location.

Field Survey: Methods and Results

Personnel from ARMC carried out a field walkover survey of the project area on December 9, 2004. The crew easily located the area by comparing the roads and terrain with the USGS Murrieta 7.5' Quadrangle and project maps supplied by the client. The project area lies on the 1100-1220 contour elevations. The property is accessed from Los Alamos Road.

The ARMC survey team walked east to west 10 to 15-meter transects, alternating with north to south transects similar in width. The crew noted that the project area appeared to have been dry farmed; the native scrub vegetation had been removed by successive discing and/or plowing of the soil. Only grassland plants were present on most of the property along with riparian plants (cottonwoods primarily) in the extreme northeastern portion. The surrounding area was lightly developed to the south and west and heavily developed to the north and east of the property. The project area was bounded by Monroe Avenue, Los Alamos Road, Jackson Avenue, and by commercial and residential developments.

Ground visibility varied across the property. In the northern 1/3 of the parcel, visibility was very good (approximating 80%) with very light vegetation present. The exceptions were the clumping of riparian resources at the extreme northeastern end where visibility was greatly reduced, and the land including the house and related structures where vis was nonexistent. In the central and southern portions, accounting for 2/3 of the parcel, visibility declined to an estimated 40-50% because of moderate to heavy vegetation in the form of grasses and herbaceous plants (eg., lupines, rabbit clover, and black mustard).

The soil was a dark tan sandy loam with decomposing granite (dg) detritus. The soil was wet and spongy from recent rains. Observed lithics included cobbles and cobble fragments of quartzite, quartz, granite, basalt, cherty shale or chert, and metasedimentary rock types.

Disturbance included numerous ground squirrel burrows, a dirt road that passed from Los Alamos Road in the southwest diagonally to the northeast where a residence and related structures were present, and development (ground disturbance and landscaping) associated with these structures.

The observed wood-frame one-story residence with four-car garage was of vernacular architecture. Tenant occupied, the house dates to the 1960s based on review of aerial photographs and topographic maps (Leighton Consulting, Inc., 2004) of the property. Additional structures included a wooden barn and shed, and two beehive-shaped grain silos all of which may date to the 1970s. None of the structures would be considered a significant historic property in that none meets any of the criteria for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) or the California Register of Historic Resources (CRHR). Therefore, no significant cultural resources (prehistoric or historic) were found to be present on or immediately adjacent to the subject property.