Yucaipa Rancheria

Yucaipat meant wet lands, and the Maara'yam who named it lived here most of the year on springs and creeks, going up into the mountains for acorns in the harvest season. The name is the part that survived. Everything the town is called comes from a Serrano word for water, and the people who supplied the word were pushed off the ground it describes within two generations of the ranchos arriving. The adobe plaque a few steps away tells the second half.

What the plaque says

Yucaipa Valley supported a large population of Serrano Indians. The fertile valley was watered by springs and creeks. The Indians called this area "Yucaipat" which meant "wet lands." These Native Americans lived at this village site most of the year, with occasional excursions to the mountains to gather acorns and other food items during the harvesting season.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Keller Peak Fire Lookout — 12 mi
  For ninety-eight years it watched this forest for smoke. In September 2024 a fire took it, and the steel frame is what is left.
• Original McDonald's Site — 13 mi
  The corner where two brothers invented fast food, now an unofficial museum the corporation has never blessed.
• March Field Air Museum — 13 mi
  A century of the same field, still working — the museum parked outside the fence of a base that has flown since 1918.
• SkyPark at Santa's Village — 15 mi
  The Christmas park that opened six weeks before Disneyland, and franchised itself on advice from the McDonald brothers.

More markers nearby

• Yucaipa Adobe — steps away
• Kimberly Crest — 4.2 mi
• The Zanja — 4.6 mi
• A.K. Smiley Public Library — 5.2 mi