Diamond Valley Lake & Visitor Center First and foremost, Diamond Valley Lake is a lifeline for Southern California in times of drought. The lake holds enough water to meet the area´s emergency and drought needs for six months and is an important component in Metropolitan´s plan to provide a reliable supply of water to the 18 million people in Southern California who count on us.
Diamond Valley Lake is embarking on a substantial trail system that will allow visitors to hike and ride through the hill surrounding the reservoir. The first set of trails are along the north hills overlooking the lake, and another circumnavigates the lake.
Other amenities at the east dam area, including Metropolitan's partnership with the Valley-Wide Recreation and Park District to develop a positive recreational environment. This includes a swimming pool, soccer and other fields and more. l (800) 308-6767.
The Clayton Record Jr. Viewpoint is located off of Winchester and Construction roads. Hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. For more information please call (800) 308-6767.
Hemet MuseumState Street and Florida Avenue, downtown Hemet - (951) 929-4409 or (951) 925-5885: The exhibits at the Hemet Museum, housed in the historic Hemet Depot, showcase the area's colorful history. You'll see agricultural displays, Native American artifacts, railroading relics, rare historical photographs from the Ramona Pageant and more. One of the most recent additions to the collection here: a cream separator.
KidZone Museum123 S. Carmalita St., Hemet - (951) 765-1223. KidZone is an interactive children's museum located in Hemet, California. With over 20 interactive exhibits, the KidZone presents a rare opportunity for children to have fun-and learn-at the same time. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday thru Sunday. Closed Monday and Tuesday. for more information visit the KidZone website..
The Ramona Bowl Amphitheatre , home of the historic outdoor play Ramona, is located in the foothills of Hemet in the San Jacinto Valley. Ramona is America´s longest running outdoor drama and the Official California State Outdoor Play. First discovered in 1923 by playwright Garnet Holme, the natural amphitheatre is a beautiful and unique venue for many theatre events and local traditions such as graduations, sunrise services and the Chamber of Commerce Fiesta.
The Ramona Bowl also produces Courtyard Dinner Theatre Summer series, MSJC Shakespeare Festival and The Ramona Bowl Repertory Theatre fall musical. Coming this fall in 2004 is Shakespeare´s popular comedy "Much Ado About Nothing" and the huge Broadway hit musical "South Pacific". For more information visit ramonabowl.com or call 800-645-4465.
Western Center for Archaeology & Paleontology 2345 Searl Pkwy., Hemet. (951) 791-0033 : Come share the excitement at this state-of-the-art museum complex! It is home to a fascinating array of history and Ice-Age beasts that were unearthed right here at Diamond Valley Lake. You'll be moved by 'Max', the largest mastodon found in the Western U.S., as well as 'Xena', a Columbian Mammoth.
Let your imagination run wild as you walk on tempered glass which houses 'Little Stevie', a large mastodon re-buried beneath the museum floor to re-create the actual dig site. Whether it's our dire wolves, saber-toothed cat or the many other fossils, local family history, or Native American artifacts, we have something for you!
Patterson House Museum28030 Patterson Ave, - (951) 926-4039. Patterson House Museum contains historical information about the community of Winchester and surrounding areas. Hours: 11a.m. to 3p.m., Saturdays and Sundays. Admission is free.
Temecula Valley Museum Sam Hicks Park downtown Temecula: The Temecula Valley Museum reopened in October 1999 in their new building in Old Town Temecula. the museum is home to a host of treasures from the area's early history. Displays explore the culture of local native American tribes and show what life was like on the area's early ranches and in train-stop frontier towns. Call for Museum hours.
Ryan Field Museum 4280 Waldon Weaver Rd, Hemet - (951) 654-1924. Hours are 10a.m. to 3p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.
San Jacinto Museum Located at Estudillo Park off of Dillon St., San Jacinto. (951) 654-4952 The San Jacinto Museum has moved to a new location. It is now inside the Francisco Estudillo Heritage Park located along Dillon Street. The museum is open Friday to Sunday, 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The admission is free.
Orange Empire Railway Museum2201 S. St. Perris - (951) 657-2605: All aboard for a visit to the Orange Empire Railway Museum - the largest operating railway museum in the Western United States. It's home to more than 225 different rail vehicles, some dating from as early as the 1870s. You'll see stream and diesel locomotives, old City of Los Angeles trolley cars, and unusual passenger and freight cars. If you visit on the weekend, you can even take a ride on one of the vintage trains or trolleys.
Riverside Municipal Museum3580 Mission Inn Ave., Riverside (951) 782-5273: New at the Municipal Museum: The Desert in Bloom, celebrating the beauty of flowering desert plants. Also growing are the museum's anthropology, history and natural history collections. At the interactive nature Lab, guests handle specimens of local plants and animals; the Clark Herbarium is a highly regarded catalog of plant diversity.
March Field Museum22550 Van Buren Blvd., Riverside (951) 697-6600: Among the newest additions at the March Field Museum: a recently restored P-59 fighter, the finest operational jet adopted by the U.S. Air Force over 50 years ago. The museum's 50-plus aircraft also include a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird and a B-29 Superfortress.
History of Hemet
The area in which Hemet is located was first inhabited by members of the Cahuilla Indian tribe. Then, in the early 1800's, it became a cattle ranch for Mission San Luis Rey and was called Rancho San Jacinto. When the missions were broken up by the Mexican government, the land was awarded to Jose Antonio Estudillo in 1842.
The City of Hemet owes its inception and initial growth to two ironic events and the dedication of two wealthy men. The first event was the visit that Ramona author Helen Hunt Jackson made to the San Jacinto Valley in 1883 in order to gather material on the Sobobas, a group of Mission Indians living on the east side of the San Jacinto River. Mrs. Jackson was accompanied to the valley by her interpreter, Abbot Kinney.
During their visit, Jackson and Kinney stayed at various ranches and met numerous valley and mountain residents, notably Charles Thomas and Hancock McClung Johnston. Thomas and Johnston owned ranches in the San Jacinto Mountains where they raised race horses in what was then called Hemet Valley.
Helen Hunt Jackson
From these two men and others, Kinney undoubtedly learned about the 1882 court case wherin the lands of the Rancho San Jacinto Viejo were partitioned to various individuals, some of whom envisioned making a profit from their holdings if a sufficient water supply could be developed. Kinney also learned about and saw a potential reservoir site in Hemet Valley if a dam was constructed across the South Fork of the San Jacinto River.
The next day, October 15, 1886, Estudillo sold the 3,000 acres to three other men, Edward L. Mayberry, Albert H. Judson and Peter Potts, under the same terms as those with the Lake Hemet Company. Originally conceived by Abbott Kinney and Hancock M. Johnston, the town of Hemet would now evolve under the watchful eye and ready money of E.L. Mayberry and later, W. Whittier.
By December of 1886, Mayberry, Judson and Potts had sold some of their interests in the Estudillo tract to Hancock M. Johnston. Also in that same month, the four men and a San Francisco capitalist friend of the Mayberry's, William Whittier, acquired another 3,000 acres adjacent to and east of the Estudillo tract from H.T. Hewitt, who owned a hotel and some shops in San Jacinto, about a mile north of Park Hill. The Hewitt agreement included a stipulation that a townsite would be located on or near Park Hill.
The Hewitt property provided the basis for the formation of two companies. On January 27, 1887, the Lake Hemet Company and the Hemet Land Company were formed by Johnston, Judson, Mayberry and Whittier, the latter two holding the majority of stock in both companies.
The original plans were to build a dam in the mountains to form a reservoir in order to supply water to the lands of the Hemet Land Company, the Estudillo tract and two townsites, Hemet and South San Jacinto.
Looking S/E from Latham and State
During 1887 plans were made to lay the first railroad tracks into the San Jacinto Valley. Mayberry and Whittier wanted the Santa Fe Company to run the tracks through the Estudillo tract, to the east line of the Hemet Land Company lands, and then north and west to the town of San Jacinto, thus providing railroad access to Hemet and South San Jacinto land buyers. Instead, the first official train into the valley came in April 1888 to Mayberry's townsite and then turned north, ending at a spot one-half mile from the town of San Jacinto.
During the years 1891 - 1895, while the Great Hemet Dam was being built to 122-1/2 feet, the town of Hemet started to take on a look of prosperity. Mayberry built his three-story brick Hotel Mayberry on Florida Avenue between Harvard and State Streets; Whittier built a warehouse, his opera house, and business shops on North Harvard. In 1893, 39 families and businesses in the town of Hemet were buying domestic water from the Lake Hemet Water Company, and farmers were using irrigation water on their alfalfa fields, fruit orchards and row crops, particularly potatoes.
Despite a severe drought in 1898-1900 and a major 1899 Christmas Day earthquake, the town of Hemet continued to prosper. In 1899 Whittier sued Mayberry for monies owed him, taking control of all of Mayberry's interests in Hemet and in the two companies. Whittier, however, continued to improve the town's position. He started the Bank of Hemet,, built rental cottages and a stock farm with a half-mile race track, established and supplied by the town residents and electricity, a water filter system, and a stage line to Idyllwild.
On November 14, 1909, the San Jacinto Valley Register printed a synopsis of a speech by T.S. Brown, a Hemet real estate agent, in which he urged that the town residents vote for incorporation. On January 11, 1910, residents voted to incorporate as a city, and Brown was elected Hemet's first mayor. Formal incorporation was recorded with the County of Riverside on January 20, 1910.
Since 1923, one of the valley's chief claims to fame has been the annual Ramona Pageant. The incident which inspired Helen Hunt Jackson to write Ramona occurred in the valley, and the production of a pageant based on the story was discussed for a number of years as a method of promoting the valley. From 1923 onward, with only brief interruptions during the Depression and during World War II, the people of Hemet and San Jacinto have joined to stage this outdoor pageant each spring.
Hemet was also noted for the 46th Agricultural District Farmer's Fair of Riverside County, which had its beginning in 1936 as the Hemet Turkey Show, and for the Ryan School of Aeronautics, which trained about 6,000 fliers for the Army Air Force between 1940 and 1944. Hemet Ryan Airport exists today at the site of the original Ryan Flight School.
The character of Hemet began to change dramatically in the early 1960's with the development of Sierra Dawn, the country's first "mobile home subdivision" in which individual lots were sold. Other mobile home parks and retirement housing developments followed, and Hemet became well known as a retirement community.
Hemet today retains much of its retirement orientation but is also becoming home to significant numbers of younger families who provide services to the senior population or who are simply fleeing the more urbanized areas of Southern California. The economy is based primarily on service to the senior community and ancillary services such as financial institutions and the health care professions.
