[Rocky_Shorz]

http://www.escondido.org/library/pioneer/history.htm

“It was Christmas Day in 1919 that I first saw San Dieguito stone tools,” stated Malcolm J. Rogers. “I was hunting Indian artifacts on a sandy-loam ridge about a mile and a half west of Escondido. Since I was well aware of the kind of tools left behind by historical Indians, and the people of the La Jollan culture before them, I knew immediately that these tools were of a still earlier people.” From this site in Escondido, Rogers, an archaeologist and former director of the San Diego Museum of Man, launched a lifetime study of documenting human inhabitants of San Diego County. He estimated that these ancient inhabitants came into this area 10,000 years ago.

In other studies, Rogers suggested that the contemporary division of Native American culture and territory was established one thousand years ago when the Shoshonean groups of the Great Basin migrated to southwest California and originated the San Luis Rey culture. The Luiseño Indians had long established villages and campsites along the Escondido Creek and in the north and north central portions of present-day Escondido. The Native American Kumeyaay were Yumans who migrated from the Colorado River area and occupied San Pasqual Valley and sites along water sources in the southern and western portions of Escondido, especially along the San Dieguito River. Both the Luiseño and Kumeyaay camps and villages derived an economic base from neighboring natural resources. Notable village or camp areas were located around riparian corridors such as Orange Glen, Kit Carson Park, Felicita Park, Indian Rock Springs and Moosa Canyon. Most of these sites have been destroyed by agricultural uses and development. Luiseño and Kumeyaay adapted to European agricultural methods and were considered competent farmers. After the establishment of Indian Reservations, many Indian farmers were forced off their land and onto reservations; others remained in the greater Escondido area and continued to farm.