The
history of Vista is a colorful one, full of interesting
people, places and events.
It stretches back more than 200 years – to the days
of the Spanish explorers and missionaries. (Click
here for Vista Historical Museum website.)
The
recorded history of the region begins with the arrival in
the late 1700’s of the Mission padres who traveled north
from San Diego along the original El Camino Real – the King’s
Highway – which actually passed through Vista on its way
to the Mission San Luis Rey.
In 1850, Col. Cave J. Couts, Sr., who later constructed
the magnificent Guajome ranch house adobe, drew a map which
plainly shows Vista on the original El Camino Real over
which Portola, Crespi, Fages, and Moncado first traveled.
Others who passed through Vista in its earliest days
included Jebediah Smith, General Kearny, Commodore Stockton,
Kit Carson, and Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, son of the Indian
maiden guide of the Lewis and Clark expeditionary force.
Shortly
after Mission San Luis Rey was secularized in the 1830’s,
an Indian neophyte named Felipe Subria squatted on lands
lying along Buena Vista Creek.
To make the ownership legal, Mexican Governor Pio
Pico granted Subria the 1,184 acres he had long been claiming.
Subria soon deeded the property to his daughter who
in turn handed over ownership to Jesus Machado to pay off
an $8 debt.
The
stagecoach brought a new dimension to Rancho Buena Vista
in 1852. The Browning
& Alexander Stage Coach Line began operating semi-weekly,
stopping at Vista on the way between Los Angeles and San
Diego. Stages stopped
here beneath a huge sycamore tree that grew alongside what
is not Dura Paint Store at the corner of Main St and Citrus
Avenue. It was also
in 1852 that Cave Couts, Sr. began construction of the Rancho
Guajome on what is now the northern outskirts of Vista.
In its heyday it attracted many celebrities, including
Gen. (later President) Ulysses S. Grant, Helen Hunt (author
of “Ramona”) and author Peter Kyne.
In
1862, a severe earthquake struck the area, followed by three
years of severe drought.
In 1870, Bernard Delpy arrived from France to build
what eventually became known as “Delpy Corners” at the intersection
of today’s East Vista Way and Foothill Drive.
His nephew, Jules Jacques Delpy, joined him in 1879
and together they planted several hundred acres of grapes.
In 1886, they built the first successful winery in
the country. The
winery was shut down by the prohibition era.
Vista
received its name in an unusual manner.
A settler named John Frazier lived where Peto’s Farm
Supplies was located on W. Vista Way, near where the railroad
tracks are today. He
constructed a mineral well and took to calling the area
“Frazier’s Crossing.” On
September 1,1882 he applied for a permit with the U.S. Postal
Department to call the town Frazier’s Crossing. The application came back with the simple notation; “There is already
a Frazier Post Office in Tulare County. Submit another name.” Frazier
did just that with the name “Vista.” This time the Post Office Department accepted the name and permission
was granted for him to open Vista’s first post office on
October 9, 1882.
In
1887, the Santa Fe Railroad Company laid its tracks from
Oceanside to Escondido through Vista.
In 1912, A.W. Martin organized the Vista Land &
Water Co. He dug
a shallow well where the Lincoln Middle School is today,
and pumped water up the hill to a steel tank opposite the
present Wildwood Park.
In 1913, the Santa Fe Railroad announced it would
build a Vista railroad depot at the cost of $8,007.
The station was completed in 1914 and was used until
the late 1970s, when it was moved to 201 Washington St.,
where it became the home of the Vista Chamber of Commerce
- and remains the Chamber's home today.
During
the winter of 1912 – 1913, the Martin Corporation began
of the 26-room Vista Inn on the corner of Vista Way and
Santa Fe Ave. The
Inn was to be the cradle of birth for numerous civic organizations,
including the Chamber of Commerce, the Vista Irrigation
District, the Vista Press, and the First National Bank of
Vista. Eventually,
the Inn was moved down the block and then dismantled for
its lumber in 1960.
Electric
power came to Vista in 1916 and the Vista Irrigation district
was formed in 1923, bringing the first water to town in
1926. Following the close of World War II, Vista began to attract new
settlers and new construction was everywhere.
Determined to become master of its own destiny.
Vista was incorporated into a city on January 28,
1963
In
January 2003, the City of Vista celebrated its 40th
anniversary of incorporation.
