There was a time when farm livestock outnumbered human beings in San Diego County, a time when much of the county looked like the photo below of Poway Valley from 1887:

Join me on April 1 at Ranch Bernardo Oasis as I present stories and slides from my research into our county’s agricultural history and the role agriculture still plays in our lives today.

To sign up for the class, you can go online to https://san-diego.oasisnet.org/san-diego-oasis-at-rancho-bernardo/, click on “Classes” and find “Class # 2289, San Diego County’s Agricultural History.” Or you can call 858-240-2880 and tell them you want to sign up for that class number and name. See you then!

In March in San Diego County, 151 years ago, it was rodeo time, as exemplified by the notice below from the San Diego Union of March 21, 1873:

Back then, this wasn’t a public entertainment event. It was all business, part of the cattle business, to be exact. As Charles Nordhoff, a prominent journalist of the day, wrote in, California: A Book for Travellers and Settlers, which was published that same year, “Every spring, in the cattle country, rodeos are held. Rodeo comes from rodeár, the Spanish verb to gather or surround. A rodeo is, in fact, a collection of cattle or horses, made to enable the different owners to pick out their cows, count them, and, if they wish, drive them off to their own pastures.”

Nordhoff added that, “Sometimes, 20.000 head of cattle are gathered on a plain, and the work of ‘parting out,’ as it is called, and branding, lasts for several days. A carefully defined set of laws regulates this work, and law officers, called ‘Judges of the Plains,’ attend to settle disputes as to ownership, and regulate the procedure. These officers appoint the times and places of rodeos, and attend at each.”