Potrero & Tecate

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Potrero

The median annual income in the 226 households was estimated at $43,801 in 2007

Once a seasonal living place for Kumeyaay Indians traveling between Mexico to the San Diego coast, Potrero is now a comfortable community in San Diego County’s “back country.” More than 700 people live in Potrero, about halfway between Dulzura and Campo on two-lane Highway 94, according to county officials. Just south of Potrero the town of Tecate straddles the U.S.-Mexico border. Both communities are less than an hour from San Diego. Mountains and desert-like plains mark the area’s landscape, which is shaded by oaks and pines.

About 200 years ago Spanish and Indian people lived in the broad Potrero valley, which was known for its acorns, a popular food source then. The town was named in the late nineteenth century with a Spanish word that means mountain meadow or pasture. Capt. Charles McAlmond, born in Maine, and his wife, Alfa, an Indiana native, were the first American settlers. McAlmond, a San Diego sea captain who had traveled the world, was injured and doctors told him to go to Pine Valley for his health. Traveling by Tijuana and Tecate, McAlmond refused to go any further in 1868 when he reached Potrero. “This,” he said, “is good enough for me.”

The adobe residence that McAlmond built in northern Potrero became the first real home in the community. The former sailor started a cattle ranch and farm. Settlers continued to come from the east by wagon trail to the community. Many became ranchers or wood cutters as the cordwood business flourished. Big horse-drawn wagons hauled firewood and bark to San Diego. With rough mountains on the east and west of Potrero, the struggle to keep trails in good repair so settlers could get supplies was a continuing problem.

It can still be a bit of a trip to get some things, but Potrero now has two schools, a community center, a general store with a deli, a post office, a county library branch, a restaurant, an auto repair shop and a Christmas tree farm. However, the community remains low-key, a place to raise children, pets and livestock.

Potrero County Park offers nature up close and personal to RV, tent and group campers. Grassy meadows, rocky hillsides and the shade of hundred-year-old oak trees at 2,300 feet are quiet oases for hikers, campers and picnickers. There are plenty of picnic areas in the 115-acre park, which is the site of a Renaissance battle re-enactment every spring. The park also has ball fields, a dance pavilion, playgrounds and hiking trails. Potrero marks its Fourth of July celebration with another fair at the park that includes a horseshoe tournament.

Mountain lions and bobcats are spotted at times in the chaparral. Hawks, golden eagles, acorn woodpeckers and scrub jays are among the birds that soar over mule deer, coyotes, raccoons, Pacific tree frogs, lizards and occasional rattlesnakes.

Tecate

County officials estimated the average median income of Tecate’s 41 households in 2007 at $29,375

Minutes away and southwest of Potrero off Highway 94, the colorful community of Tecate caters mostly to the interests of those crossing the U.S.-Mexico border at the southern end of Highway 188. Although the Tecate border crossing is also busy, it is usually more relaxed than the two crossings farther west in the county at San Ysidro ---- busiest land border crossing in the world ---- and Otay Mesa.

Named for an Indian village, Tecate in the U.S. remains a small town of about 140 residents. Located on a plateau with views of mountains, the town’s commercial interests include a bank, three stores, a gas station, and a sandwich shop. Tecate is also home to the Tecate Mission, the headquarters for about 15 churches in Mexico. The mission has its own church, the Tecate Christian School, and a distribution center for the needy that gathers and sends out food, clothing and other essential items.

On the southern side of the border, the much bigger city of Tecate in Mexico’s Baja California is the site of the Tecate beer brewery. The Mexican city also has a broad variety of businesses as well as recreational, government and community activities.