When Temecula was incorporated in 1989, we were told that the name meant “sun rising through the mists” in a local Native American tongue. The only other option on the ballot at the time was “Rancho California”, which was another way our unincorporated region was often referred to back then. I was only twelve years old at the time, so I wasn’t old enough to vote on what to name the new city I lived in, but I was old enough to be aware of the issue.
In 1989, the town was so small that there was barely a grocery store here. When I was much younger, I remember making trips all the way to either Escondido or Oceanside just to buy groceries at one of the old Gemco stores. I remember Gemco as a sort of 70s-esque version of today’s Super Walmarts. My mother would spend a few hours in the front of the store going through the various departments of men’s, women’s and children’s retail clothing, household items, and other things before ending the trip at the back of the store in a full grocery department. Then we would load up the car and make the hour-long trip back home.
So it was no small thing when the grocery chain Stater Bros.
opened a store on Jefferson Ave in the lot that is occupied today by a bowling
alley. (This was the Stater Bros. I mentioned the other day where I first
discovered comic books, by the way.) The majority of the town was still
undeveloped at the time and consisted mostly of empty grazing land for the
local ranchers. I was in middle school in the early 90s before we got our first
Target department store. Believe me when I say it was cause for celebration.
Today, Temecula is still small by city standards. The
population is estimated at around 110,000, but to those of us who have been
around since before the 15 freeway was completed it’s been an incredible
change. I wasn’t able to find any good population estimates for Temecula in
1978, the year I was born (at the hospital in Fallbrook some fifteen miles away
because Temecula didn’t have a hospital), but I did find an estimate of about
56,000 for both Temecula and neighboring Murrieta for that year. Today, Murrieta
alone is estimated at around 110,000, meaning that since 1978 the Temecula-Murrieta
region has more than quadrupled in size. It’s still sometimes a shock for me to
drive around the area and see all the “new” development.
I’m honestly not sure what I would rename Temecula if I ever
had the chance. Rather than “sun rising through the mists”, I think something
along the lines of “place of great growth” would be more appropriate. I tried
looking up the phrase in Spanish but I didn’t find anything that rolled off the
tongue like a city name should. I do think “Temecula” is more appropriate for a
small, peaceful town than it is for the busy, commerce-driven city it’s become.
I might have to give it more thought.