Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Mystery cattle brands

I'm hoping you can help the folks at Pechanga Cultural Resources identify some old cattle brands. (Their sketches are at the end of this post.) A large number of branding irons were
offered to the Temecula Museum, which accepted some of them -- But the rest were donated to Pechanga. They think they are Southern California brands, but don't really know from whence they originally came.
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The photo above shows cowboys Nick Gonzales and Henry Serrano branding a calf on the Starr Ranch. The photo below shows cattle branding on the Rancho Mission Viejo in 1964. And now for the "mystery brands" themselves. (I've added a number next to each brand to hopefully simplify the process.) If you can identify any of these, please post the news here and also send the information to Teresa Lorden, Curator at the Pechanga Indian Reservation. Her phone number is (951) 308-9295.
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5 comments:

  1. doug mcintosh1:29 PM

    Have you tried the Ca. Brand registry?
    Sometimes old brands are still listed.http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/ahfss/Livestock_ID/2007_Brand_Book.html
    Good luck.

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  2. Chris Jepsen2:08 PM

    I think they've already been through that. They've been picking away at this project for several years. But that is indeed an excellent suggestion.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous9:18 PM

    They probably need the older, published California Brand Books, which list every brand registered with the state. You sometimes find them in university libraries. Presumably there are also similar books for other states.

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  4. doug macintosh8:36 AM

    Would also check the reference library and collection at the Vail Ranch Restoration Society in Temucula. They have quite a collection and the staff of volunteers is generally very helpful.

    http://www.vailranch.org/3322.html

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  5. doug macintosh9:12 AM

    1921 California Brand Book.
    Fun. Even found my great-grandfather's (J.W. McIntosh) cattle brand.

    http://books.google.com/books?id=g05hAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=california+cattle+brand+book&hl=en&ei=FXU0TfvYKIessAPhpMTeBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&sqi=2&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

    ReplyDelete

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