GRAVE NEWS!! THERE’S A CEMETERY IN THE MIDDLE OF RANCHO SANTA FE ROAD!!

And if you think it’s a scary Halloween graveyard, it’s not. It’s a skeleton of a burial ground located in the median, literally in the middle of the road. As you pass away south from Lake San Marcos at the intersection of Meadowlark Ranch Drive, the Meadowlark Pioneer Cemetery reposes on your left within the median. Cryptically, there’s a simple cross laid flat on the concrete with a memorial stone in the center, which reads: 

“Meadowlark Pioneer Memorial Cemetery

(circa 1884-1908)

A Recognized Historical Cemetery

Among the group of Spanish colonial descendants from Ojai and Ventura buried in this cemetery, are

Caildo Figueroa who died December 14, 1904, and his grandson Jose Figueroa who died at age 7.

Tomasa Tico de Gonzalez, who died March 9, 1906 at age 38, and her son Alfredo Jaoquin Tico who died at age 9.

The following persons, native to this area, are also buried here:

Ramon Moralez, Jose Urbano (a local rancher), and Felipe Sanchez.”

Also adjacent on the west side of Rancho Santa Fe Road by the sidewalk is a tombstone which reads:

“Meadowlark Pioneer Memorial Cemetery

A Recognized Historical Cemetery

In the 1880s, a group of colonists of European Spanish descent from Ventura and Ojai, California settled here in the Meadowlark region, then known as Fresno Valley, and homesteaded land. This monument commemorates the memory of those colonists who died here and lie buried in the Meadowlark Pioneer Memorial Cemetery adjacent to this monument. Among the pioneers buried in this cemetery are members of the Figueroa, Gonzalez, and Tico families… in whose bones and dust rests the heritage of their Spanish ancestors, who explored and settled California.”  

I’m haunted by the fact that I’ve passed this place countless times, coming and going, not knowing it existed. In my research of the founding of San Marcos I happened upon the cemetery’s existence and was dying to learn more.

In the 1880’s Salvadore Gonzalez and Juan Tico and their families sold their Spanish land grant ranchos in Ojai and Ventura and moved southward to homestead 160 acres in what was then known as Fresno Valley – that area where Melrose Avenue now crosses Rancho Santa Fe Road. Gonzalez created the cemetery as a place for his family to be laid to rest. His grandfather had been given a Spanish land grant and created Rancho Ojai. Juan Tico married Gonzalez’s daughter Tomasa and they all came south together.

The seven pioneers interred in the tiny cemetery are: 

Casildo Figueroa (1824-Dec. 14, 1904), aged 79 or 80, from Sonora Mexico.

Jose Figueroa (1893-1900) age six or seven. He was the grandson of Caildo Figueroa.

Ramon Moralez (unknown-1898) La Jolla Tribe native. He was involved in a gun battle and killed three. In response, he was eliminated in a shootout with  Parker Dear, Jr., the grandson of American founding pioneer Lt. Cave Couts whose Guajome Ranch and adobe still stand in Vista, California.

Jose Urbano (unknown) La Jolla Tribe native and ranch hand.

Felipe Sanchez (1840-July 6, 1905)

Tomasa Elvira Gonzalez Tico, the daughter of Salvadore Gonzalez. Tomasa Tico had four children with husband Juan Tico. She died of tuberculosis at age 36 in 1906. Juan Tico too had a rich history in California. His grandfather Fernando was a Spanish soldier who came to California from Baja to repel Russians hunting seals off the California coast. He too was granted a ranch in Ojai by Spanish Governor Alvarado. Juan Tico courted and married Tomasa Gonzalez, moved to San Marcos with the family, built a home, and settled down. They had four children. Juan Tico passed away in 1899 and was buried in Escondido on St. Mary’s Catholic Church Cemetery. That graveyard was destroyed by fire. A Gonzalez forefather was Jose Francisco de Ortega, an early pathfinder for the Spanish Army and Fr. Junipero Serra. Ortega is famous for discovering the mouth of San Francisco Bay on November 1, 1769. 

Alfredo Joaquin Tico (unknown) Nine-year old son of Juan and Tomasa Tico. 

It’s actually miraculous that this cemetery still exists given its location on a heavily trafficked street within a traffic median. It’s almost entirely due to the efforts of the Tico descendants to protect it, many of whom still live in north San Diego County. In 1959 a grading of the area which threatened to destroy the cemetery was halted through the efforts of descendant and Oceanside barber Ralph Tico. It was gravely desecrated by vandals in 1962 and then rebuilt by the Ticos. In 1996 a fire swept through the cemetery, and again it was restored. During the final widening of Rancho Santa Fe Road, the Tico family seemed resigned to the cemetery being moved either to the hillside across the road or to the San Marcos Cemetery on Mulberry Avenue. However, engineers were able to redesign the roadway where the graves could remain in their final resting place in the middle of Rancho Santa Fe Road — hopefully forever.