San Diego County life during the 1860s will be replicated at the eighth annual Vallecito Day, a free family event Saturday at Vallecito County Park.
Visiors will see how locals dressed, cooked on an open hearth, made soap and lived as pioneers.
“Kids and their parents can learn a bit about San Diego County history and experience for themselves what hardships pioneers endured to survive in this part of the west,” said Parks and Recreation Department Director Brian Albright.
The festival lasts from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and highlights the role the Vallecito Stage Station played as a stop for the San Antonio-San Diego mail delivery service and the Butterfield Overland Stage Service.
Thousands of travelers passed through what is now Vallecito County Park to begin new lives out west.
During the Civil War, Union volunteers marched east across the desert to ensure those regions wouldn’t fall to the Confederate Army in Arizona and New Mexico. They all stopped torest at the stage station before moving on.
On Saturday, the Backcountry Horsemen of California and horseback riders from the Ramona Trails Association will wear period costumes and reenact the delivery of the mail to the Vallecito stage station. Mountain men such as trappers and hunters will set up camp as they did in the 1800s.
Visitors can tour the Vallecito Stage Station, see demonstrations on how to spark a fire with flint and steel, and get hands-on experience in how to pack a mule.
