Guachama Rancheria

Kaawchama, glossed as plenty to eat, was a substantial village here long before any Franciscan arrived. Whose village it was is genuinely contested: some accounts place it at the eastern edge of Tovaangar and count it Tongva, others give it to the Maara'yam and the Kawiya, the Serrano and Cahuilla whose country surrounds it. What the register records is the day in May 1810 when Francisco Dumetz renamed it San Bernardino, and the mission supply station that followed.

What the plaque says

The original Guachama Rancheria plaque, placed in 1932, was stolen in 2008. The plaque was replaced in 2010. The monument was moved 460 feet east to place it in the new Loma Linda Heritage Park. The Zanja, which ran under this spot, supplied the water from Mill Creek to the Mission Estancia. Later, it watered the citrus groves that fueled the local economy. The Zanja supplied water here from 1819-1919, when it was replaced with piped water.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Original McDonald's Site — 5.8 mi
  The corner where two brothers invented fast food, now an unofficial museum the corporation has never blessed.
• Wigwam Motel — 7.3 mi
  Nineteen concrete teepees on Foothill Boulevard, the last of Frank Redford's Wigwam Villages and still renting rooms.
• Harada House — 9.0 mi
  The 1884 cottage a Japanese American family bought in their children's names, and kept in court.
• Mount Rubidoux — 10 mi
  The mountain all of Riverside walks — and the half-acre at the summit the city sold rather than go to court.

More markers nearby

• San Bernardino Asistencia — 1.3 mi
• Fort Benson — 2.9 mi
• A.K. Smiley Public Library — 3.1 mi
• Kimberly Crest — 3.9 mi