Memories Of The River
Pat (Kuhner) Ingals
We live in sort of a no man's land with no real name for our little community, just one-mile from Lakeside on the road to Ramona. Not being either Lakeside Farms or Dexter/Moreno Valley/San Vicente Farms (you choose the name). Naming the driveway that has been in constant use for our family since the '20's has marked our territory. Now my sister Barbara Mason and her family live on Kuhner Way at the corner of Or No Way. The naming is a comment on my brother's individualism -- if you know Fred and Ron Kuhner you will understand.
This is the area to the northwest, just past the bottom of the "Y" where the at present dry Moreno Creek meets the equally dry San Diego River,
Our grandparents Bill and Helen Kuhner purchased many acres of land from 1912 through 1920 from Dexter/Moreno Valley/San Vicente Valley Farms on both sides of Highway 67 on downstream to the Channel Road area. Much of their land was river bottom or at least in the flood plain. Finally they got tired of losing their possessions to flood waters and took to the hills. This was before either the El Capitan or San Vicente dams were built. While they still had their dairy farm on Moreno Avenue they granted an easement to the County to build a bridge across Moreno Creek. This was a deal to insure that their milk would make it to market at all times. The first year after completion it washed out in the 1916 flood.
My grandparents granted a road easement to the County for the area where the latest bridge now crosses the river on Channel Road. This was with the understanding the road would be named for Bill Kuhner. The information must not have reached the ears of the naming committee.
My brother Ron and I can recall when the San Diego River was actually a river flowing on its way to the sea. Many hours where spent watching while the old bridge was built in the late '30's. For a child it was absolutely mesmerizing to watch the pile-driving machine at work. In the 80's I was there to watch the wrecking crews demolish that bridge after the new sturdier bridge was built to better withstand any potential floods.
We were old enough to be excited by a flood in the '30's when water covered the area all around what is now Willow Road and Moreno Avenue threatening to wash a house or two down stream. Of course we could not go to town until the water receded. El Capitan Dam was completed shortly after this time. That we lived on the hill where the water would not flood us out has always been a comfort. If one of the dams should give way the waters would spread out to the south instead of trying to climb our hill. At least I certainly hoped that was so.
Before the flood of the 70's my daughter's family had moved in a house to remodel and set it too close to the rivers edge. While deciding where it was to be set permanently floodwaters from San Vicente Dam decided for them and took it downstream.
(Continued on page 5)
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