Pala is a small, mostly Native American, community and CDP located in the

Pala Indian Reservation The Pala Indian Reservation is located in the middle of San Luis Rey River Valley in northern San Diego County, California, east of the community of Fallbrook, California, Fallbrook, and has been assigned feature ID 272502. Historic variant names ...

, located within

San Diego County San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the f ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. For centuries a traditional gathering place of native peoples, it was selected in the early 19th century by Spanish

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

missionaries as the site of a mission to indoctrinate the Native Americans. The community is north of Escondido in the San Diego-Carlsbad metro area. In the

National Geographic Names Database The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features throughout the United States and its territories, Antarctica, and the associated states of ...

, it is officially catalogued as feature number 1661174. The community is in ZIP Code 92059, and inside

area code 760 Area code 760 is a California telephone area code that was split from area code 619 on March 22, 1997. Area code 442 is an overlay of 760 that became effective on November 21, 2009. It encompasses much of the southeastern and southernmost porti ...

. The community name may be derived from the Native American Cupeño or

Luiseño The Luiseño or Payómkawichum are an indigenous people of California who, at the time of the first contacts with the Spanish in the 16th century, inhabited the coastal area of southern California, ranging from the present-day southern part of ...

language term ''pal'', meaning "water." Another possible origin of the name is the Spanish word ''pala'', which means "shovel." The community is in the Pacific time zone. Pala is at an altitude of 404 feet, located at (latitude 33.365N, longitude 117.075W).

Mineral resources

After United States annexation of California following its victory in the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...

, Pala became known for its mineral resources, including

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

and

tourmaline Tourmaline ( ) is a crystalline silicate mineral group in which boron is compounded with elements such as aluminium, iron, magnesium, sodium, lithium, or potassium. Tourmaline is a gemstone and can be found in a wide variety of colors. The te ...

. Numerous gem mines were established in 1890s, of which more than twenty are listed in the Mindat database.Pala District
at Mindat.org Gem mines in the Pala District still produce

, with the pink variety as the regional specialty. China's

Dowager Empress Empress dowager (also dowager empress or empress mother) () is the English language translation of the title given to the mother or widow of a Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese emperor in the Chinese cultural sphere. The title was also ...

Cixi Empress Dowager Cixi ( ; mnc, Tsysi taiheo; formerly romanised as Empress Dowager T'zu-hsi; 29 November 1835 – 15 November 1908), of the Manchu Yehe Nara clan, was a Chinese noblewoman, concubine and later regent who effectively controlled ...

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-spea ...

highly prized the pink tourmaline mined in Pala. Under her influence, China's demand for this gem created a boom in the California tourmaline industry after 1902, particularly at the Himalaya mine. Demand fell off about 1911, declining after the Empress died in 1908. Pala was the site where

morganite Morganite is an orange or pink gemstone and is also a variety of beryl. Morganite can be mined in countries like Brazil, Afghanistan, Mozambique, Namibia, the United States, and Madagascar. Morganite has grown in popularity since 2010. ''Brides ...

beryl was first discovered. In 1902 it was found to have the first commercially significant deposit of

kunzite Spodumene is a pyroxene mineral consisting of lithium aluminium inosilicate, Li Al( Si O3)2, and is a source of lithium. It occurs as colorless to yellowish, purplish, or lilac kunzite (see below), yellowish-green or emerald-green hiddenite, pr ...

, named after George F. Kunz, the godfather of gemology.

References

Unincorporated communities in San Diego County, California Unincorporated communities in California {{SanDiegoCountyCA-geo-stub

Mineral resources

See also

References