meadowbrook park

"Diagonally across the park...Helen and I took that trip hundreds of times" [ben sakoguchi]

Meadowbrook Park was established as San Bernardino California's first recreational park in 1906, on a tract of about 15 acres that straddled Warm Creek.

c.1920 ^ The Mary Bennett Goodcell Memorial steps, Meadowbrook Park, San Bernardino California

"Those steps are still there! We didn't go up the middle...always climbed on top of those side walls" [ben sakoguchi]

AUGUST 2012 ^ Google street view

c.1900 ^ Mary Bennett Goodcell was a San Bernardino school teacher & civic leader. Together with with Col. W. L. Vestal, she spearheaded the 1906 clean-up of "Squaw Flat" along Warm Creek, and the establishment of a city park on the site.

c.1920 ^ Footbridge over Warm Creek, Meadowbrook Park

AUGUST 2012 ^ Google street view

c.1920 ^ Kiosk in Meadowbrook Park

AUGUST 2012 ^ Google street view

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"Squaw Flat" referred to the marshy area along Warm Creek, that would become Meadowbrook Park. It had long been a seasonal campground for the Cahuilla people, with plentiful water, fish and small game. Stands of reeds and willow trees provided materials for baskets and shelter.

By by the turn of the twentieth century, citizens of San Bernardino were using the site as the town dump. It was also the local 'hobo jungle' and an attraction to scofflaws.

collected in 1876 ^ Cahuilla basket (Smithsonian #E21787)

collected in 1876 ^ Cahuilla basket (Smithsonian #E21787) interior view

collected in 1876 ^ One square inch detail, Cahuilla basket (Smithsonian #E21787)

Ancient Cahuilla territory map ^

c.1891 ^ Chief Gervasio Cabazon of the Cahuilla people

• After about 1870, when they had moved westward from the Mojave desert, into traditional Cahuilla territory, a band of Chemehuevi people also camped at "Squaw Flat"

c.1900 ^ a Chemehuevi camp

Chemehuevi baskets ^

c.1900 ^ Chemehuevi man with coyote

c.1900 ^ Chemehuevi cradle repair

c.1900 ^ Chemehuevi mother with baby

c.1900 ^ Cahuilla cemetery

c.1900 ^ Chemehuevi man

c.1899 ^ Maria Casseri, Cahuilla

c.1899 ^ Maria Antonia, Cahuilla

c.1899 ^ Maria Antonia, Cahuilla (detail)

c.1900 ^ Chemehuevi man sleeping in the field in his shelter

c.1900 ^ Chemehuevi basket

c.1900 ^ Chemehuevi women

c.1900 ^ Chemehuevi women (detail)

c.1900 ^ Maria Los Angeles, Cahuilla

Cahuilla basketweaver ^

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c.1900 ^ Chemehuevi basketweaver

c.1900 ^ Chemehuevi woman making splints

c.1903 ^ Luis Torres, Cahuilla

c.1900 ^ Chemehuevi kids in granery basket

"On the drive back from Newport Beach...flat fields and tall eucalyptus windbreaks...then somebody would see it...'SHERMAN INSTITUTE!'...and we'd know we were close to home. All my Riverside cousins knew that's where they kept the Indian kids. Big, mission-style buildings, set back with lots of lawn...a landmark." [ben sakoguchi]

c.1900 ^ Young Chemejuevi

1917 ^ Tomas Cisco, Cahuilla

Cahuilla Baskets ^

c.1900 ^ Chemehuevi woman ^

collected in 1876 ^ Cahuilla basket (Smithsonian #E21787) interior view

John Tortes Meyers' Cahuilla heritage came from his mother, Felicita Tortes Meyers. He grew up on the Santa Rosa Cahuilla reservation, and in Riverside, where he played baseball on the Riverside High School team.

'Jack' Meyers was active in baseball circles in San Bernardino and around the West. He would eventually head east to Dartmouth College, going on to become a widely popular Major League ballplayer, known as "Chief" Meyers.

Meyers was a National League catcher for the New York Giants and then the Brooklyn Dodgers. He played 'winter ball' in Southern California during the off-season.

At the end of his life, Jack Meyers' home in Rialto was 7.5 miles west of Meadowbrook Park.