Lake Mathews and Gavilan Hills

The sparsely populated Cajalco basin holds a rich and varied history. Native American pictographs, grinding slicks, and mortars dot the landscape, while mine shafts and tailings reflect the arduous labor of tin and gold miners in an earlier time. Except for these seekers of fortune, hermits, and the occasional rancher or sheepherder, there were few inhabitants in this region until Lawrence Holmes planted 50,000 carob trees in the 1920s and sold off plots to potential carob barons. Soon the ...