OUR HISTORY
from Mined to Mindful
The San Diego River has always been a lifeline for our region.
It has sustained the Kumeyaay, the Spanish colonists—whose arrival lends to its name we use today—and an ongoing, steady stream of newcomers: farmers, settlers, us, and our industrial demands for sand.
And now, again, through our work here in Lakeside, and with partners along the river, it flows in service to the wild—sustaining native plants, animals, and the kinship that connects us all.
The Conservancy has 25 years of its own history, but it took many events, across our river landscape over decades and even centuries prior, to bring us to the relationship we have with the River today, and the work that we do.
10,000 - 1760s
Kumeyaay
For at least 10,000 years the river provided the Kumeyaay people materials for their livelihood.
They settled their villages along springs and water sources, leaving traces of their settlements dispersed along the river. The river’s riparian vegetation including reeds, willows and juncus were made into rafts, house thatching, clothing and baskets, and river clay into pottery.
The river’s corridor allowed for natural east-west migration and trade between neighboring tribes, following seasonal food sources across our region’s diverse microclimates. Through fire management practices they cultivated desirable vegetation and game.
Though their population, culture, and invaluable land-based knowledge took a genocidal hit upon the arrival of newcomers, the Kumeyaay are still here, with the river, today.
Read about our recent partnership with our neighbors, the Barona Band of Mission Indians, in providing willow for their traditional gathering.
1769 - 1820s
Spanish
Led by Father Junipero Serra, in 1769, the Spanish established the first of 21 Missions, Mission San Diego de Alcalá, along the San Diego River.
The mission and presidio were built on a hillside above the Cosoy, a Kumeyaay village, located along the river near today’s Old Town. Kumeyaay were forced into Christianity and Labor to sustain the Mission. Better agricultural suitability quickly moved the Mission approx. 5.5 miles upstream, to where it sits today, above another Kumeyaay village, Nipaguay.
The Spanish introduced cattle, used local trees as lumber for their buildings, and to irrigate their crops and livestock, constructed a dam at the river’s entrance to the gorge and a gravity-fed flume. Without he Kumeyaay’s burning practices, grasslands subsequently converted to chaparral, or were taken over by non native carpet grasses brought with the Spanish and spread through overgrazing cattle.
1769 - 1820s
Californio -
Land Privatization
Ranches form as land gets divided & granted by Mexican Authority.
Mexico governed California for 30 years after it broke away from Spanish control, during which, Missions were secularized, Kumeyaay villages were lost, and land grants were issued as reimbursement for aiding the war. Segments between landscape features designated on rancho maps marked the boundaries of ranchos, with 29 Mexican Land Grand Ranches granted within our region.
Now privatized, the land was developed into ranches and farms, whose introduction of livestock overgrazed the valleys and aided the spread of introduced/non native grasses. Remaining Kumeyaay left out of necessity, as they could no longer sustain themselves off the changed river valley conditions.
California's first river,
Empower
Growth
The San Diego River is California’s first river. It has always played an integral role in the lives of San Diegans from its importance to our Kumeyaay people, and all of the immigrant groups that followed. For many years, until the advent of El Capitan and San Vicente Dams, the annual flooding allowed for dry land farming along the river valley. With the advent of the dams, and the loss of ground water recharge, farming faded and sand mining became the staple economic activity along the river.
California's first river,
Empower
Growth
The San Diego River is California’s first river. It has always played an integral role in the lives of San Diegans from its importance to our Kumeyaay people, and all of the immigrant groups that followed. For many years, until the advent of El Capitan and San Vicente Dams, the annual flooding allowed for dry land farming along the river valley. With the advent of the dams, and the loss of ground water recharge, farming faded and sand mining became the staple economic activity along the river.