Adobe Day in Yucaipa
Ever wonder what it would have been like to live in California in the 1800s? Join the San Bernardino County Museum for Adobe Day at the museum’s historic Yucaipa Adobe in Yucaipa on Saturday, June 9 from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Designed for families, this event is free.
Visitors can experience what it was like to live 150 years ago by doing chores and playing games. Among the activities are candle-dipping, rug-beating, and making adobe bricks. Children can also make fresh butter, cross-stitch a bookmark, make a broom, and wash clothes the old-fashioned way.
The day will also include guided tours of the historic 1858 adobe ranch house. Before European contact, the site of the Yucaipa Adobe was occupied by the Serrano Indians. The marsh land, fed by springs, supported abundant vegetation and wildlife. In 1842, Antonio Maria Lugo received a grant of land in the San Bernardino and Yucaipa valleys from Mexican Governor Alvarado and established the San Bernardino Rancho. Diego Sepulveda, a cousin by marriage to the Lugo family, brought a herd of cattle from other ranchos and settled in the Yucaipa Valley.
Oral history and tradition attributed this adobe home to Diego Sepulveda. But historical and archaeological studies undertaken during restoration and seismic strengthening of the adobe in 1989-1990 provided a new interpretation. It is now believed that Diego Sepulveda’s adobe was located a few hundred yards away, near 16th and Dunlap Boulevard, and that James Waters, noted hunter, trapper, and mountaineer, built the Yucaipa Adobe in 1858-1859. Mr. Waters stocked his Yucaipa Rancho with sheep, driving herds as far as Arizona and Montana.
John Dunlap, a Texas cattleman, purchased the Yucaipa ranch in 1869. The Dunlap family moved into the adobe and used the land for grazing and for raising grain and alfalfa. The Dunlap family maintained ties to the ranch until the 1950s.
In 1954, the Yucaipa Woman’s Club raised funds to save the adobe dwelling from demolition. Eventually they gave the property to the County of San Bernardino to be administered as a part of the San Bernardino County Museum system. The front section of the adobe was refurbished, and caretakers’ quarters were placed at the back of the structure.
The Yucaipa Adobe is at 32183 Kentucky Street in Yucaipa. To reach the site, take I-10 and turn north-east on Yucaipa Blvd. Turn right on 16th Street, left on Dunlap, and left on Kentucky Street. No admission fee is charged. For more information, call (909) 307-2669 ext. 271 or visit www.sbcountymuseum.org.
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