Mount Fairview, a community on the San Luis Rey River between Oceanside and Pala, was enough of a settlement that it was the location of a polling place for an 1894 election, as shown in the notice below from the Escondido Times issue of August 2, 1894:

An article in the San Diego Sun of September 19, 1883 noted that “The approach to Mount Fairview is very pretty and as a farming country will have a great future. Farm houses although few and far between are met surrounded by orchards and vineyards, all giving proof that the industry of the community is well rewarded.”

The community had a busy post office and schoolhouse, but by the end of the nineteenth century the post office and the school’s names had been changed, at local residents’ request, to the name of a respected local nursery owner and retired Methodist minister, James Bonsall.

Mount Fairview is one of the places I’ll be covering when I next speak on “The Lost Towns of San Diego County.” on February 1 at 10 a.m. at the Santee City Hall Complex.