According to the Ramona Sentinel (1949):

“The Fish and Game Commission brought seventeen beaver from Merced, Friday morning to plant in this area. Glen Willingham of the Forest Service accompanied them to the several spots picked out to put in the beaver, but most of them were too dry. Seven were planted in Lost Valley, five in Mendenhall Valley on Palomar Mt. and the other five will be taken to Pine Hills [near Julian].”

The hope was that in building dams and dens, the beaver would provide erosion control in the mountain meadows. The Lost Valley beaver eventually selected a stretch of Agua Caliente Creek near today’s Nature Center. In the early 1960s, the beavers and their dams were still visible. But in 1965 a man-made dam was built across the creek near the beaver dams, to form the camp’s first lake, and the beaver headed downstream into Agua Caliente Canyon.

Nothing more was seen of them until the floods of 1980, when a pair of beaver – probably seeking safer waters – came back up into the valley and took up residence in Agua Caliente Lake. They built a den, and lived alongside the lake until June, when they headed back down the canyon.

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