On April 6, 1917, the U. S, Congress voted to affirm President Woodrow Wilson’s request for a declaration of war against Germany. This brought the United States into the First World War, which had been raging in Europe since June 1914.

When news of the vote reached San Diego, Mayor Edwin Capps issued a proclamation calling on all citizens to gather in “a great patriotic rally and demonstration” on the afternoon of Monday, April 9, “in the exposition grounds at the organ pavilion.”

According to the proclamation, printed in the April 6 San Diego Evening Tribune, the event was to be arranged “under the auspices of the United Spanish war veterans, that organization now being established by congressional recognition as the nation’s ranking civilian patriotic body since the retirement of the G.A.R. from active official participation in patriotic work.”

At that point in time, the Spanish-American War had been fought just 19 years previously. The initials G.A.R. stood for Grand Army of the Republic, which was the organization of Civil War veterans. So that reference in the proclamation tells us something about the state of those two veterans organizations.

It would be the first of many rallies. In just the first week after the declaration of war local papers reported rallies in San Diego, Coronado, Escondido and Chula Vista. Some 6,000 people participated in a mass meeting April 12 outside the U. S. Grant Hotel, where many signed up to volunteer at a naval recruiting office.

“Not since the early days of the Spanish-American war has this city witnessed such an outburst of patriotism,” stated an article in the April 12 San Diego Union. “Recruiting offices were crowded all day, bands played, flags fluttered, automobiles filled with sailors or soldiers wheeled through the streets exhorting the sons of the Southland to rally to the defense of their country…”

Sources for this post included historic San Diego newspapers and chronologies of World War I from the CNN Library and Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary.

Many readers of this blog may know Mule Hill if for no other reason than that it serves as my cover page. I use it because of its historical significance as the scene of the final engagement in the Battle of San Pasqual, bloodiest battle in the U.S.-Mexican War. There U.S. troops under General Kearny were besieged by Mexican forces under General Pico until they were rescued by reinforcements from the coast.

I also use the image because it presents a snapshot of what most of San Diego County looked like in the 19th and early 20th centuries, before urbanization transformed the land. Mule Hill remains in its natural state, preserved today as part of the San Dieguito River Park.

A plaque just off Highway 15, erected in 1950, gives a brief description of Mule Hill’s historical significance. A reference to the Americans occupying “this hill” implies that it refers to the immediately surrounding landscape. But it turned out that for a while a lot of researchers and visitors were climbing the wrong hill, so to speak.

It wasn’t until the early 1970s that the actual site of Mule Hill was established. It took a survey led by archaeologists, historians, and U. S. Marine engineers under the direction of the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. The survey employed aerial mapping and metal detectors among other methods. These methods led to the discovery of artifacts including military clothing items and swords matching materials used by Kearny’s men. They just didn’t find them in the area then designated as Mule Hill, but on a larger hill further west. As survey leader Konrad Schreier stated in a 1975 article written for The Journal of San Diego History; “The evidence demonstrates that the site now designated as Mule Hill is not the correct hill, and that the large hill with the two prominent rock outcrops on its western end is the true Mule Hill.”

Today a plaque and other signage stand in front of the actual site. So what you’re looking at up above, and what you’ll see if you visit there, is truly historic Mule Hill.

Sources for this post included historic San Diego and Los Angeles newspapers, The Journal of San Diego History, and the archives of the San Diego Archaeological Center.

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