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California Golf - Rancho Bernardo
A unique resort experience where warm, attentive service focuses on meeting your individual needs. Where surroundings are lush and tranquil, yet filled with possibilities. Where world-class recreation and fine dining await. And, most importantly, where each and every guest is treated as a lifetime friend.
Rancho Bernardo has felt the tread of Indian, conquistador, mission padre, soldier, traveler, cattle rancher, and developer. The Rancho’s roots are deep in the beginning of our nation’s history - from the conquistadors who paused here as they searched for new wealth for Spain, to the Battle of San Pasqual in 1846 - the climax of the struggle of the young United States of America to bring California into the Union. It felt the moccasin feet of the padres, from the Mission of San Diego, and their converts as they tended grapes and herded cattle in its rich valleys and fertile hills. Long before the Spaniards came to California, Indians made their campsites here. Massive boulders, covered with pictographs, and hollows in the rocks where they ground their corn still remain. The trail where they wound their way from the ocean coast to the site of present day Rancho Bernardo can still be traced.
As an original Land Grant from the King of Spain in 1789, Rancho Bernardo began as “La Canada de San Bernardo” - 17,763 acres of good hill and valley land in what was then called Upper California. The grant probably received its name from St. Bernard of Clairvaux, a revered theologian who led the Second Crusade in the Middle Ages.
“San Bernardo” is shown on maps as early as 1800, and several ranchers were victims of an Indian raid in 1837. Rancho Bernardo’s first recorded owner was Capt. Joseph Sevenoaks, an enterprising English seafarer. He gave up a life of adventure and daring on the bounding main to become Don Jose Francisco Snook, a gentleman rancher in the best romantic tradition of the Spanish Don.
Snook’s days of adventure were not over, however. Troops under the command of Mexican Gov. Pio Pico were fighting to keep California from becoming part of the United States. It was at the eastern part of the Rancho that Federal troops under U.S.Gen. Stephen Kearny met them in the famous “Battle of San Pasqual.” After suffering tremendous losses, Kearny’s remnants stopped at the hastily deserted Snook Rancho for replenishment of supplies and rest as they retreated towards San Diego.
But the fight was not over for Kearny’s little “Army of the West.” Pico’s troops ambushed them as they left the Rancho. They were forced to defend themselves for three days from what is now called “Mule Hill,” deriving its name from the only food they were able to obtain - one of the pack animals! They were rescued finally when Kit Carson, the famous scout who was traveling with Kearny, was able to slip out at night and make his way to San Diego.
The Snooks died without heirs and their Rancho passed to many other hands. Its lands were traversed by the famous Butterfield Stage and the tiny village of “Bernardo” grew to be a favorite stopping point for travelers between Escondido and San Diego. The Rancho through the years became the property of various owners who forged the destiny of the county. James McCoy, sheriff and state senator; Col. Ed Fletcher, William Henshaw, and Lawrence and Donald Daley, cattlemen and industrialists. In 1961 the Daleys joined W. R. Hawn and Harry L. Summers to form a corporation known as “Rancho Bernardo, Inc.” Several years later this corporation was obtained by AVCO Community Developers. This was the beginning of Rancho Bernardo as we know it today. The original concept has been beautifully implemented into a planned community of residential, light industry, shopping, parks, clubs and golf courses - a “52-week vacationland.” The community has grown and become one of the most envied in the country.
Time has been kind to Rancho Bernardo since Gaspar de Portola of the Spanish Army, along with Friar Junipero Serra, claimed California for God and for Spain. Its dramatic rock formations remain the same, its fields and valleys are still fertile and green, and the graciousness of early California lives on.
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