SAN PASQUAL VALLEY -- The San Diego Archaeological Center has
received a $46,500 National Park Service grant to help determine
exactly where the Battle of San Pasqual was fought in 1846.
Historians, archaeologists and many longtime residents already
know the short but bloody confrontation took place somewhere in the
picturesque valley that is now home to extensive agriculture
However, San Diego Archaeological Center Executive Director
Cindy Stankowski said Monday that researchers have yet to determine
the precise site of the fight.
The center, the state parks department and the San Pasqual
Battlefield Volunteer Association hope a three-year investigation
they are launching will solve the mystery, she said.
Richard Carrico, a historian who teaches American Indian studies
at San Diego State University, will lead the project, which will
see researchers delving into historical documentation, going out
and walking the valley and possibly using ground-penetrating radar
to search for evidence of the battle, Stankowski said.
"This is really to tease out as much information as we can … so
we know a little bit more instead of just relying on conjecture,"
she said. "We hope to identify where the battle took place and
maybe understand a little bit more about the movements of the
Researchers hope to use the findings to complete the
battlefield's nomination for listing on the National Register of
One of the last conflicts of the Mexican-American War, the
Battle of San Pasqual took place on a cold and rainy Dec. 6, when
U.S. troops came face-to-face with Californios, or local troops of
Mexican descent, in the valley.
Overwhelmed in number and weapons, the U.S. troops were trapped
until Dec. 11, when the arrival of reinforcements from San Diego
caused the Californios to leave. Many U.S. soldiers had already
been killed by then.
The battle is memorialized with a monument on Mule Hill, which
overlooks Lake Hodges southeast of the Westfield North County mall.
A state-built visitors center and the 50-acre San Pasqual
Battlefield State Historic Park along Highway 78 also commemorates
the conflict, and the volunteer association re-enacts the battle
Actual evidence of the fight has been hard to find, though,
leaving its precise location open to debate.
January Ruck, an historic preservation specialist and grants
administrator for the Park Service's American Battlefield
Protection Program, which approved the grant request, said the
preservation is the issue.
"If you don't know the boundaries of your battlefield, it's
sometimes hard to protect them," she said. "If you have some kind
of highway work or housing project, you have no idea whether that
historic resource is going to be damaged or lost. And you can't
protect it or mitigate that damage."
The budget for the investigation's first year is $69,000.
Stankowski said the center will apply for subsequent grants to pay
for the second and third years' worth of efforts.
In the meantime, she said, people should check the center's Web
site periodically for news on the project.
"Also, we're interested in folks who have information about the
battle," Stankowski said, citing people who might have had
documents, journals or other related materials passed down through
their families. "There was a guy who came in the other day who's …
a relative of one of the men who fought in the battle. That kind of
information is invaluable."