SAN DIEGUITO RIVER PARK newsletter fall 2003 volume 12, issue 2 RiverScape Sikes Adobe Farmstead Restoration Underway! By Susan Carter, Deputy Director estoration of the Sikes Adobe Farmstead is well underway. At this time we are restoring Ronly the farmhouse. Mark Sauer Construction, a firm that is experienced in working with historic adobe structures, began work in late March and is expected to complete the job at the end of September. (The adobe, home of 19th century settlers Zenas and Eliza Sikes, is located south of Escondido’s Westfield Shoppingtown mall and at the beginning of the Mule Hill Trail.) Other features of the farmstead site will be restored or replicated in the future when funds This photo of the Sikes Adobe Farmhouse, discovered at the are obtained. Poway Historical Society, dates to about 1885-1890. A number of interesting discoveries have been made during the reconstruction process. For exam- This was a discovery for the ple, we learned that the adobe’s original floor was researchers, who previously thought they had mar- earthen. Historians Stephen Van Wormer and Susan ried in Ohio and had come west together. Walter found that the family dug about a foot deep Long-term goals for the Sikes Adobe Farmstead down to the clay layer, then smoothed it out and are: spread a mud plaster on it. They later added a wood • Open the Sikes Adobe Farmhouse as a muse- floor, but only the joists of that original floor remain. um and educate the public about the pioneer You can keep track of the restoration on our Web farming experience via docent-led tours. site at www.sdrp.org where photos of the construc- • Furnish the house with time- and context- tion progress are being posted. appropriate furnishings, appliances, goods, The San Diego County Committee of the National decorative arts and clothing. Society of the Colonial Dames of America has taken • Restore the creamery, corral, gardens, wheat on the responsibility for furnishing the interior of the fields and expand the tours to encompass farmhouse. The committee is preparing a Historic these elements. Furnishings Report to identify what type of furniture • Nominate the Sikes Adobe Farmstead to the is appropriate for the time and income level of the National Register of Historic Places. Sikes family during the period of significance (rough- • Create a “Friends of the Sikes Adobe ly 1870-1890). Farmstead” support and fund-raising group. Colonial Dames volunteers have also been One task we’ll be working on in the near future is researching the Sikes family genealogy and have an interpretive narrative for docents as they talk to traced Zenas Sikes’ family back eight generations to the public about the Sikes Adobe Farmstead. Docent 1620 in Westhampton, Massachusetts. Zenas came tours will begin at the end of September when the west with his two brothers during the Gold Rush. restored house is opened to the public. If you are Eliza’s stepfather also headed to California from interested in becoming a docent for the Farmstead, Ohio in 1849. Eliza and her stepmother and siblings or if you are interested in becoming a Founding joined him in California in 1853 after a voyage on the Member of the Friends of the Sikes Adobe Farm- ship Westward Ho from Boston around Cape Horn. It stead, please contact the River Park at 858-674-2270. was in California that she met and married Zenas. News Save the Date – 9/28! Don’t miss the 10th Annual San Dieguito River Park Family Hike and Trail Run on Sunday, September 28! It’s your wonderful opportunity to enjoy the Park trails, spend time with family and friends, PLUS help raise money for the Park. 100% of proceeds goes toward Park programs. Thanks to our sponsors: Qualcomm, Hodges Golf, San Dieguito River Valley Conservancy, North County, Pizza Port, North County Smooth Jazz 98.1, Westfield Shoppingtown Times, Henry’s Marketplace. To register: www.sdrp.org/trailrun, www.active.com, 858-674-2275 x 14 River Park Milestone Our Generous Friends San Dieguito River Park has made great progress Mark Collins, of Evergreen Nursery, has been a on the ground with more than 17 miles of the Coast good friend to the River Park. In the past year he pro- to Crest trail completed. You can now hike, bicycle, vided equipment and a driver to help Park rangers or ride your horse uninterrupted from the Lake grade the Highway 78/Bandy Canyon Road staging Hodges Dam east to the intersection of Highway 78 area; he donated a large number of native and Bandy Canyon Road. More than $60 million plant species to be put in appropriate worth of projects such as the Sikes Adobe and the areas in the valley; and he has agreed to San Dieguito Lagoon restoration projects are under- allow a trail connection to cross his way or about to start, and properties are being Highland Valley Road operation to enable the acquired to extend the trail its intended 55-mile Poway trail connection described above. The Park length. has benefited greatly from these actions, and we All this progress has resulted in achieving another extend our thanks to Mark for his cheerful, support- milestone, this one institutional: recognition by the ive attitude. (Phone 858-485-7867) State of California as one of only 26 existing or And thank you, Bitterroot planned long-distance trail routes with statewide sig- Restoration for donating over 600 nificance. The newest edition of the California native plants to the Park for restora- Recreational Trails Plan includes the San Dieguito tion projects! Bitterroot is at 10459 River Park Coast to Crest Trail. Roselle St., Ste B, San Diego, 92121, 858-546-1980. The Trails Plan emphasizes the benefits of trails including health, recreation, transportation, clean air, social, economic, educational, energy conservation Lake Hodges Bridge Delayed and resource protection. It can be accessed at www.parks.ca.gov. Click on Planning under Other Construction of the Lake Hodges Bicycle/ Links. Pedestrian bridge will not begin this fall, as previous- ly reported. A year’s delay has been caused by federal requirements for the environmental process and by Tie to Poway Trails Secured resulting ripple effects on when we can obtain required permits. An Environmental Assessment Soon a new trail will connect the River Park’s (EA) is being prepared and circulated for federal Coast to Crest Trail with the City of Poway’s well- review. We now anticipate that a joint Mitigated known trail system, via Poway’s new Heritage Negative Declaration (MND) and EA will be distrib- Estates home development project. One goal in the uted for public review in January 2004, with con- Concept Plan for the River Park is to connect the struction to begin mid-September 2004 after next Coast to Crest Trail to other park facilities and trails, summer’s bird nesting season. providing non-motorized means of travel around the County. A Poway connection was specifically pro- posed in the Concept Plan. When Poway approved Park Receives $25,000 Grant the Heritage Estates project, the City required the developer to construct a regional trail connection. The River Park received a Wetland Recovery Permits for the connection will be required from the Project Small Program Grant of $25,000. This will be City of San Diego because a portion of the trail will used to clean up materials that were dumped over a cross property owned by San Diego. Continued on page 3 2 Executive Director’s Report exempt organization called “Save the Beach” that has Controversy Stalls Mitigation been flooding the Del Mar area with misleading infor- By Dick Bobertz, Executive Director mation designed to alarm the public (and solicit con- tributions). Don’t take my word for it that their infor- hose of you who have been awaiting implemen- mation is misleading; you decide. For example: tation of the San Dieguito Lagoon restoration The Save the Beach literature and Web site project know that it has been stymied for several consistently try to cause alarm by reporting years as a result of litigation. An ongoing controversy T “The basins would be kept permanently between Sandy Lane homeowners and the San open to the ocean through a 130-foot wide, Dieguito River Park concerns the relationship 8-foot deep channel dredged through the between opening the San Dieguito River mouth to the heart of Del Mar beach.” Using a handout ocean and the amount of sand available to maintain distributed at a recent community group Del Mar beaches. The Sandy Lane homeowners have meeting, a Save the Beach representative residences located on the beach on the south side of attacked a Southern California Edison the river that are currently in jeopardy from winter statement that the permanent channel at storm wave action and river mouth flooding. That is the river mouth would be only 2 or 3 feet because the houses were built in an area of known deep as an “Edison Distortion” and cited a natural hazard. page in the Environmental Impact Report as Understandably, they would be concerned be- proof of their 8-foot depth assertion. cause their homes are at risk now, and the long-term What does that EIR page actually say prognosis for beaches all along the California Coast about the river mouth depth? It says, “The is poor. The natural sand supply that used to nourish design inlet channel depth east of the inlet beaches after erosion from winter storms has been sill would be about 3.3 feet below MSL intercepted by flood control projects and dams built (about –3 feet NGVD) across most of the in the 1900s.