Darrell Farnbach is president of the Vail Ranch Restoration Association, which runs the history center. Volunteers are restoring a 19th-century coach, and arranging hundreds of books in a Native American library.
Wedged into a corner plot next to the Kohl's store, a parking lot and Redhawk Parkway, the red barn that houses the Little Temecula History Center looks like the last holdout of old Temecula in a sea of suburban development.
Since it opened in June 2008, the center has attracted some 4,000 visitors.
The center is a replica of a barn, now demolished, that was originally located on a nearby portion of Vail Ranch, which once spanned more than 87,000 acres.
"This is where Temecula started," said Darrell Farnbach, president of the Vail Ranch Restoration Association, which runs the history center.
Until the railroad came through town in the 1880s, the area was the hub of Temecula, with a stagecoach route stop and the Wolf Store. American Indian rights activist Helen Hunt Jackson visited store owner Louis Wolf and his wife, Ramona, who was of American Indian descent. Ramona and the property apparently served as inspiration for the 1884 novel "Ramona," which is credited with helping the Pechanga tribe get a reservation.
From 1905, when the Vail family purchased the property, until it was sold to a land-development company in 1964, Temecula was sparsely populated cattle country.
Farnbach said the history center's mission is to educate locals about local history.
The center has been a popular destination for scout troops and summer camp groups. Displays including stage coach and covered-wagon replicas and a Model-A pickup like those that would have been used decades ago on Vail Ranch liven up local history lessons for children.
Farnbach said the association has a few loyal volunteers who help run the history center, but is looking for more.
"There's always something to do," he said.
Over the past year, volunteers have been refurbishing a 19th-century coach donated by a Wildomar resident. They have also been working to shelve and catalogue a 750-volume Native American library at the center.
The association is still waiting to see the culmination of its efforts to preserve a portion of the former Vail Ranch and surviving buildings that comprised its old headquarters. A group of Temecula residents came together in the 1990s to begin lobbying to save the site.
"We saw all the vestiges of this old ranch just being obliterated by construction," Farnbach said.
Now, a development that will include restaurants, shops, office space and historical exhibits and preserve the remaining Vail Ranch buildings on the 4-acre site is planned. Farnbach said the Pomona-based developer slated to build the project is still trying to obtain financing. It is unclear when construction might begin.
Anyone interested in volunteering at the Little Temecula History Center may call Farnbach at 951-552-3516.
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