Julian, California

As one snakes along the serpentine Route 78, meandering through the foothills east of San Diego, one is struck by the beauty of the landscape. Julian is a gem found in that piedmont region. The natives of the area are now mostly gone, many inadvertently killed by diseases spread by the Spaniards who built the tiny SantaYsabel mission in the early 19th century. There are fewer than 100 Cuyamacas left today, the predominant tribe of the area after whom the local reservation and surrounding countryside were named, and none of the many other smaller tribes remains that used to be indigenous. There was no significant migration to the town after mining died out, and it continues to be a village.

The land once belonged to Don Agustin Olvera, of Los Angeles fame, who sold it in 1869. By that time, there were a handful of East Coast transplants living in the area that was later to become Julian city. They were joined by some ex-Confederates. With the exception of one, the latter went prospecting, something they had been busy doing through Arizona, and found gold. In 1870, there was a gold rush, and the population swelled to 574, according to the census. There were 9 saloons, 2 gunsmiths, 3 teachers, a couple of hotel and restaurant keepers, 1 barber, 38 carpenters, 93 miners, and 80 housekeepers (all of them female), as well as other professionals needed in the affairs of mining.

It was then that the town was born, due to the influx of miners. Julian got its name from one of the former “secesshers” from Georgia. In the heyday of the local gold rush, right after the census, a greater number of miners drifted into the town, generally males, from all over the United States and Western Europe, as well as Chinese who labored and laundered. Among them, a few African American families settled in the boomtown and opened businesses. Coleman Creek is the namesake of a former slave turned prospector. However, as is generally the case in mining, it is a boom and bust business, and by the late 1870s the hills' veins had been bled dry. As the lifeblood of ore trickled out, so did those who had extracted it, and the town's 100 souls returned to farming and ranching.

To that end, James Madison, a New Yorker, arrived in the area of Julian in 1867. His interest lay in horses, and he developed a new breed, the Shilo. Madison's interests were not limited to livestock, however, and from his importation of some central California apples, a new breed of the fruit arose, the Julian apple. Arthur Juch bred them alongside many other popular breeds that took well to the climate. By the 1880s, the surrounding countryside abounded in orchards. In the 20th century, migrant laborers came seasonally to pick the fruit, most of them of Mexican origin, especially after that country's bloody civil war in the 1910s.

Horse ranching and cultivation of apples continue in Julian to this day, although not on as large a scale as a century ago. The population of the town and surrounding area is 3,000. It has become a tourist attraction because it is beautiful, close to hiking trails, lakes, weekend getaway activities, and offers a couple of annual fairs in keeping with the traditional cultivation activities. After the mining boom, Julian became the sleepy hollow it is today.

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