Ballena is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in the Ballena Valley of

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 ...

. Ballena is east of

Ramona ''Ramona'' is a 1884 American novel written by Helen Hunt Jackson. Set in Southern California after the Mexican–American War, it portrays the life of a mixed-race Scottish– Native American orphan girl, who suffers racial discrimination and ...

and west of Santa Ysabel, at the junction of

California State Route 78 State Route 78 (SR 78) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California that runs from Oceanside east to Blythe, traversing nearly the entire width of the state. Its western terminus is at Interstate 5 (I-5) in San Diego County and its e ...

and the Old Julian Highway.

History

The area of Ballena is named after the nearby Whale Mountain in the northwestern Cuyamaca Mountains. The

Ipai The Kumeyaay, also known as Tipai-Ipai or by their historical Spanish name Diegueño, is a tribe of Indigenous peoples of the Americas who live at the northern border of Baja California in Mexico and the southern border of California in the Unit ...

name for the mountain was ''Epank'', meaning "

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...

," and ''ballena'' is the Spanish word for "whale." Ballena began in 1870, as a way stop and layover point for freight wagons, which provided fresh teams of horses and mules for the wagons on the road between the gold rush camps of Branson City, Coleman City, Eastwood and Julian − and the ports of National City and

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 eighth most populous city in the United State ...

. Sam Warnock opened a general store and post office there. The post office operated from July 27, 1870, to September 26, 1894, then from August 12, 1896, to August 30, 1902, when it was moved to Witch Creek.Frickstad, Walter N., A Century of California Post Offices 1848-1954, Philatelic Research Society, Oakland, CA. 1955, pp. 147-158

References

Unincorporated communities in San Diego County, California Populated places established in 1870 1870 establishments in California Unincorporated communities in California {{SanDiegoCountyCA-geo-stub