In the summer months, it operates exclusively as a boys club and camp with specialized workers in charge. Bringing fifty boys in succession for two-week periods, the camp is not a program for delinquents as such, but is aimed at the reduction and prevention of delinquency.
During the rest of the year, however, Green Oak is used as a spiritual training ground for picked mission converts. It is reserved for men whose decision for Christ is obviously not a matter of a bowl of soup, but rather a thirst for living water.
Helga Bender Henry, Mission on Main Street, (1955) at p. 155
Preface:
Green Oak Ranch is part of an area of early California land grants (i.e., Rancho Buena Vista, Rancho Vallecitos de Los San Marcos and Rancho Agua Hedionda), and was first settled in the 1800’s by homesteaders who used the land for livestock, fruit trees, vineyards, barley, tomatoes, gladiolas and timber.
Artifacts indicate the area’s earliest inhabitants may have been descendants of the Kumeyaay people, whose traditions had their beginnings 1,000 years ago. Pottery, arrowheads, milling tools, basketry, mortars and pestles, polishing stones, and various chopping and scraping tools suggest people lived in and around Green Oak Ranch as early as the 1500’s, or even before.
The San Diego Museum of Man and the South Coast Information Center, San Diego State University, record four prehistoric sites within the boundaries of Green Oak Ranch. These sites are identified as: (i) W-2007, recorded by Malcolm Rogers, located on the eastern property boundary; (ii) SDi-8347 (W-2757) recorded by R. Franklin in 1980 (The site is characterized by bedrock comprising slicks and mortars. A potsherd and three marine shell fragments were found on the site.); (iii) SDi-9251 (W-3188) recorded by Jim Brock in 1982 (The site is described as having moderate density with felsite and quartz like flakes, one amorphous core, one mano fragment. The site is on a ridge in the southwest corner of the site.); and, (iv) W-3190. (The site was discovered in 1982 at the northern end of the property and contained one andesite flake.).
Twenty-one other prehistoric and historic archaeological sites are located within a one-mile radius of Green Oak Ranch.
The Jesse Newton and James Irwin families built homes on what is now Green Oak Ranch. The Newton house, which is Green Oak Ranch’s “City Hall,” is a protected historic landmark. The Irwin a house, known as a “Chula,” was on the northeast portion of the Ranch, near the large cross that is a landmark along Highway 78.
In the 1930′s, Green Oak Ranch was the part of a Civilian Conservation Corps camp that housed four Missouri National Guard companies. The Guardsmen had responsibility for patrolling the Pacific coastline from northern San Diego County to the northern edge of Los Angeles County.
Union Rescue Mission:
In 1950, Union Rescue Mission (Los Angeles) purchased the first parcel of what is now a 142-acre site known as Green Oak Ranch. The purchase coincided with the Mission’s new ministry among Los Angeles inner-city 9 to 12 year old boys, and was intended to work in cooperation with local churches in providing children with a “ranching experience in the out of doors.” The ministry slogan was “Building Boys Rather than Mending Men.”
Art Layne, first Director of Green Oak Ranch
Green Oak Ranch was also the site set aside for a new men’s program. Men coming to the Mission from the skid row streets were afforded an opportunity to grow in their faith away from an inner-city setting. The men, known as “ranch hands,” provided facilities upkeep and maintenance, cared for the small stock of animals, and helped cultivate fresh produce that was regularly shipped to Union Rescue Mission.
In 1975 new cabins, rest rooms and a dining hall were added, and the facility name was changed from Green Oak Ranch Boys Camp to Green Oak Ranch Boys and Girls Camp. A gradual shift in use also began to occur. Sadly, by the late 1980’s Green Oak Ranch youth camping was eliminated. Soon thereafter, the adult program, which at its peak served an average of 40-men, also came to an end. By the fall of 1992 a small custodial staff of 5, and an equal number of program men, were all that remained of the Mission’s Green Oak Ranch ministry.
Though the future of Green Oak Ranch appeared bleak, more was in store for this unique place.
(See, 1992 – Present)