Running Cattle in Lost Valley

Cattle grazing in the Meadow, 1953

“Despite encroaching population, cattlemen are still holding on in the vast mountain area astride the Riverside-San Diego County line south of Hemet and San Jacinto. They still drive their cattle back and forth between winter and summer pastures.

“Typical of these men who still raise cattle the way it was done in the Old West is Ray Bergman, fourth-generation cattleman, who recently drove part of his stock from Aguanga up to the summer feeding grounds in Lost Valley. It was a three-day drive.

“Typical of one day of the drive was the day the trip began before 5 a.m. from the overnight camp at Oak Grove, a famed stop on the old Butterfield Stage Line.

“Bergman and his cowboys saddled their horses by the headlights of their truck and started the cattle out from a pasture nearby. The first few miles of the day’s trip lay along the highway and early morning fog swept up the Temecula River Valley through Radec and Aguanga Valleys into Dodge Valley and threatened to engulf the herd and create the danger of a passing car crashing into cattle or riders.

“But the danger passed.

“The day’s schedule was largely up to the cattle. If they wanted to stop and rest on the steep climb up to Chihuahua Valley, they could.

Drive Lags

“Before 8 a.m. the drive turned off the highway and the cattle began to feel the effect of the mounting sun and the steep climb up Chihuahua grade. They began to string out along the grade as cows with calves lagged behind.

“The cattle wanted to rest two-thirds of the way up and they did.

“Shortly after 10 a.m. the herd reached the summit and started down the slight descent to the floor of Chihuahua Valley. By now the cattle were tired enough that, although the going was easier, they dawdled along the way and munched grass beside the trail.

“Mrs. Bergman brought noonday chow up on the truck. Cowboys lunched off the truck fenders and the cattle grazed nearby.

Rest in Corral

“A short afternoon march and the cattle were driven into a Chihuahua Valley corral, fed and watered and allowed to rest in the shade of big oaks for the following day’s drive to Lost Valley, a sort of Shangri-la for cattle, accessible only on horseback.

“Bergman and the other cattlemen are inclined to belittle their present-day drives and recall that many years ago a thousand head would be drive along the old Butterfield Stage route.

“But that was in the day when the railroad ran to Temecula. It was before the present-day motor truck. Those drives involved stock being driven from Warner Ranch to railhead on their way to market.” (Los Angeles Times, July 4, 1954.

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