Bees and beasts in Temecula Valley, circa 1910-1945

Ranches dominated almost all of the Temecula Valley in 1910. The Vail Ranch owned 87,500-acres spreading from south of today's Temecula Parkway to Clinton Keith Road, west to U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and east to past Vail Lake. The two small villages of Temecula and Murrieta were sandwiched between ranch lands of the Vails and other ranchers, including the Roripaughs and Barnetts. The entire area was known as a cattle-grazing empire.

The Vail Company purchased yearlings, cattle a year old, and fed them in the local grasslands until they weighed enough to sell to a packing plant to...