Juan José Warner (1807–1890),Charles Snell and Patricia Heintzelman (1963 and 1975) , National Register of Historic Places Inventory –Nomination, National Park Service, accessed 18 Nov 2009 a naturalized American-Mexican citizen, developed

Warner's Ranch Warner's Ranch, near Warner Springs, California, was notable as a way station for large numbers of emigrants on the Southern Emigrant Trail from 1849 to 1861, as it was a stop on both the Gila River Trail and the Butterfield Overland Mail stageco ...

Warner Springs, California Warner Springs is set of springs and a small unincorporated community in northern San Diego County, California. Warner Springs is on the Pacific Crest Trail. Geography Warner Springs has a post office and the ZIP code is 92086. It is located n ...

. From 1849 to 1861, the ranch was important as a stop for emigrant travelers on the

Southern Emigrant Trail :''The Southern Emigrant Trail should not be confused with the Applegate Trail, which is part of the Northern Emigrant Trails.'' Southern Emigrant Trail, also known as the Gila Trail, the Kearny Trail, Southern Trail and the Butterfield Stage ...

, including the Gila River Emigrant Trail and the

Butterfield Overland Mail Butterfield Overland Mail (officially the Overland Mail Company)Waterman L. Ormsby, edited by Lyle H. Wright and Josephine M. Bynum, "The Butterfield Overland Mail", The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1991. was a stagecoach service i ...

stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...

line. Warner established the only

trading post A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded. Typically the location of the trading post would allow people from one geographic area to tr ...

between

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

and Los Angeles. Warner's Ranch was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

Early life

Warner was born in 1807 as Jonathan Trumbull Warner in

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

. He went west, travelling with a trading party from

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

in 1830, bound for Santa Fe. The following year he traveled with fur trappers to California. In 1907, the ''Annual Publication of the Historical Society of Southern California'' published Colonel J. J. Warner's account of his California trapping days in "Reminiscences of Early California – 1831 to 1846".

Career

In California Warner first trapped

beaver Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers ar ...

for several years. From 1834–1841 he worked in a merchandising store in Los Angeles. As

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

had controlled California since Mexican independence in 1821, Warner became a

naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

citizen and changed his name to Juan José Warner. About 1843, he moved to

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

. In 1844, Warner was granted the

Rancho San Jose del Valle Rancho San Jose del Valle (also called "Rancho Agua Caliente" or "Warner's Rancho") was a Mexican land grant in present-day San Diego County, California given in 1840 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to Jose Antonio Pico, and then given in 1844 by Gove ...

Mexican land grant, previously granted to José Antonio Pico and abandoned.Vincent Nicholas Rossi, "Warner Springs' history shadowed by conflict"
''San Diego Union'', 28 Jan 2007, accessed 18 Nov 2009 He established what became known as

near

. The ranch property included hot springs. After he started serving travelers in 1849 on the Southern Trail, Warner set up the only

between

and Los Angeles. Warner's ranch was a historic territory of the

Cupeño The Cupeño (or Kuupangaxwichem) are a Native American tribe of Southern California. They traditionally lived about inland and north of the modern day Mexico–United States border in the Peninsular Range of Southern California. Today their ...

Indians, who had inhabited the area for centuries before Spanish

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

entered the area. Their land was taken over, many of the Cupeños worked for Warner on the ranch and constructed a village nearby. After California became part of the United States, taxes were imposed on the Cupeño, one of a series of issues that led in 1851 to the Garra Uprising. In the revolt, several of the Warner ranch buildings were burned down. Warner moved his family to Los Angeles but continued to manage the ranch for years. The ranch was used as a stop on the

line, which operated from 1857–1861. Warner lost the ranch when his grant was challenged by a previous claimant. He was active in California politics in Los Angeles.

Death and legacy

Warner died in 1890. The Cupeño gained no legal remedy to their issues but remained settled around the hot springs, to which they charged some travelers admission. In 1880 the ranch was purchased by John G. Downey, a former governor of the state. In 1892 Downey tried to evict the Cupeño from the property. They filed suit against him, but lost in federal court in 1901 and were forced to relocate in 1903 to the Warner Ranch Indian Reservation(32 Stat., 257) Mission Indians located in Pala Valley about 20 miles away.

Early life

Career

Death and legacy

References

Further reading