Agua Mansa | |
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  Agua Mansa Location within the state of California Show map of California Agua Mansa Agua Mansa (the United States) Show map of the United States | |
| Coordinates:34°02′31″N117°21′50″W / 34.04194°N 117.36389°W /34.04194; -117.36389 | |
| Country | United States of America |
| State | California |
| County | San Bernardino |
| Elevation | 922 ft (281 m) |
| Time zone | UTC-8 (Pacific (PST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-7 (PDT) |
| GNIS feature ID | 238451 |
| Agua Mansa Cemetery | |
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 Interactive map of Agua Mansa Cemetery | |
| Built | 1845 |
| Designated | May 15, 1933 |
| Reference no. | 121 |
Agua Mansa (Spanish for "gentle water")[2] is a former settlement in an unincorporated area ofSan Bernardino County, nearColton, California, United States. Once the largest settlement in San Bernardino County, it is now aghost town. Only the cemetery remains.[3]
The town was established in 1842 in early CaliforniaAlta California.[4] It was on theSanta Ana River, across from the era settlement ofLa Placita.[5] Agua Mansa and La Placita were the first non-native settlements in theSan Bernardino Valley.[6] Together known as "San Salvador",[7] they were also the largest settlements betweenSanta Fe de Nuevo México and thePueblo de Los Ángeles in the 1840s.[8]
The Agua Mansa Valley is located on the south side ofSlover Mountain.[9] The valley was 6 mi (9.7 km) in length; its width varied between .5 mi (0.80 km) and .75 mi (1.21 km), the variance depending on the river that flowed through the valley. The area was used as farmland, divided into at least one hundred fields, owned by separate ranchers. The valley's lower end included aFrémont's cottonwoods (Populus fremontii)riparian forest owned by Rubidoux, while the upper end was a sandy plain that extended to the borders of present-day San Bernardino.[10]
In 1845, DonJuan Bandini donated parts of his land grantRancho Jurupa to a group of New Mexican colonists led by Santiago Martinez, and Manuel Lorenzo Trujillo fromAbiquiú inSanta Fe de Nuevo México — on the condition that they would provide in protection from local Indian raids, in exchange for land, "Civil Militia" Ten of these families moved to 2,000 acres (810 ha) on the "Bandini Donation" on the east side of the Santa Ana River, forming the village of La Placita, while a second group colonized the west side of the river, forming the town of Agua Mansa.[6] The group that formed Agua Mansa was led by Santiago Martinez, Manuel Lorenzo Martinez and Hipilito Garcia, and includedCristobal Slover andLouis Rubidoux.[4]
After the adobe church built in La Placita in 1852 collapsed inquicksand, a new church was built in Agua Mansa. Completed in 1853 and dedicated to San Salvador, the church survived through theGreat Flood of 1862.[6] The parish, which included Agua Mansa and La Placita, became known as San Salvador de Jurupa, and was the first non-mission parish in Southern California.[11] The chapel's bell now hangs at theGlenwood Mission Inn.[12]
The town prospered for almost 20 years until the1862 flooding swept away many of theadobe buildings, leaving the area strewn with sand and gravel. Though the town was rebuilt on higher ground, its prosperity did not return.[2]
Built in 1870 in Agua Mansa, theJensen Alvarado Ranch is aCalifornia Historical Landmark and is listed on theNational Register of Historic Places. Its vineyard produced and sold thousands of gallons of wine each year.[13]
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Agua Mansa is designatedCalifornia Historical Landmark No. 121.[14] The marker is located at Agua Mansa Pioneer Cemetery, the only site that remains of the once flourishing town.[7][14] The first burial occurred in 1852, and the last occurred 111 years later in 1963.[8] It has a museum and chapel, and tours are available.[6]
Records of who is buried in the cemetery are incomplete but about 1,400 (as of October 2018) names have been identified out of a total of 2,000 estimated burials.[15] Only a few grave markers remain today. The earliest known interment was that ofLouis Rubidoux, who came to California in 1844 and bought the Jurupa Rancho near today's City of Riverside. Another burial was that ofCornelius Jensen in 1886; Jensen was a Danish sea captain who established a store at Agua Mansa before moving to part of the Robidoux ranch. Jensen's wife, Mercedes Alvarado, is also buried in the cemetery along with other members of her family. Lorenzo Trujillo, the original patriarch of the community, is also believed to rest somewhere in a grave that long ago lost its marker.Isaac Slover, a mountain man and bear hunter who came to California in his old age (and who was killed in 1854 by a bear), is also buried in the cemetery.[8][16]
Agua Mansa is the namesake of a fictional town in Southern California in the contemporary novelStill Water Saints by writerAlex Espinoza.[18]
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Media related toAgua Mansa, California at Wikimedia Commons