Pinacate (

Mexican Spanish Mexican Spanish () is the variety of dialects and sociolects of the Spanish language spoken in Mexico and its bordering regions. Mexico has the largest number of Spanish speakers, more than double any other country in the world. Spanish is spo ...

word for the

Pinacate beetle ''Eleodes'' (commonly known as pinacate beetles or desert stink beetles) is a genus of darkling beetles, in the family Tenebrionidae. They are endemic to western North America ranging from southern Canada to central Mexico with many species foun ...

), was a small settlement east of the Pinacate Mining District in

Riverside County, California Riverside County is a County (United States), county located in the Southern California, southern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, its population was 2,418,185, making it the fourth-most ...

. It was established when the

California Southern Railroad The California Southern Railroad was a subsidiary railroad of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (Santa Fe) in Southern California. It was organized July 10, 1880, and chartered on October 23, 1880, to build a rail connection between wha ...

line was built between Colton and

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

in 1882. Due to a land title dispute the town was moved to the north to become

Perris, California Perris is an old railway city in Riverside County, California, United States, located east-southeast of Los Angeles and north of San Diego. It is known for Lake Perris, skydiving, the Southern California Railway Museum, and its sunny dry cli ...

, in 1885. The Pinacate station remained and become the location of the

Southern California Railway Museum The Southern California Railway Museum (SCRM, reporting mark OERX), formerly known as the Orange Empire Railway Museum, is a railroad museum in Perris, California, United States. It was founded in 1956 at Griffith Park in Los Angeles before movin ...

, formerly named the Orange Empire Railway Museum. The Pinacate Middle School is in the area.

References

Notes

Sources

Holmes, Elmer Wallace. ''History of Riverside County, California'', pp. 143–144
Perris, California Communities in Riverside County, California Ghost towns in California Former settlements in Riverside County, California {{RiversideCountyCA-geo-stub