Alume, California, a historical Acjachemen settlement, stood (or perhaps squatted) at the foot of Santiago Peak. The Bay Area hippie team discovered it in 1969, and it's remained a 'hidden gem' ever since, but it was no secret to Juan Crespí, a Franciscan friar, who passed through in 1769. He did not record 'bottles of friendship' from the villagers, but he did mention finding the 'finest and purest running water' he'd ever encountered. The water, it seemed, was all Juan could think about.
The last echoes of this forgotten Acjachemen village have been silenced by time, but the running water is still available at the nearby El Trabuco Adobe, built in 1810 as a Mission San Juan Capistrano outpost. The mission, in turn, brought calamity to the villagers, baptizing 60 of them between 1777 and 1787, leaving many to the harsh reality of colonialism. The fate of the last survivors, if any, remains a riddle.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Leroy
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