How they fought 2004 Campo fire After it crested, the fire started "running pretty hard" east along the ridgeline. "We were coming along holding it with engines," Scully says, "and we were actually being very …
November 26, 2022
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Stories by Jeff Smith
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Mexico fire comes up canyon to Campo
Imperial Beach horses ride on the sand
You're always the cowboy “I took riding lessons the way some people play golf. I was the only one in my family. I started doing weekend trips. I’ve led pack trips in the Sierras for …
July 25, 2022
San Diego crime boss gunned down on Lamont St.
How Frank Bompensiero met his fate "Bomp kicked the door shut, Mirabile wrapped his arms around Borgia just as Jimmy dropped the garrote over his head, handing the other end of the rope to Bompensiero. …
July 17, 2022
Albert Arffmann grooms La Jolla's streets
Show me a sign Arffmann works into the early-morning hours, cleaning the restaurant and preparing the Pearl for the coming day. “Imagine you were having some friends over for dinner,” he says, "and imagine the …
May 30, 2022
Murder at 63rd and El Cajon Blvd.
American gothic horror By late October they had an apartment at Fortieth Street and Orange Avenue. Early one morning Garrett saw two men at the front door, one of whom was Marck Lambros III, a …
May 22, 2022
3000 hours later – SD Rep's Elephant Man
The town that San Diego would like to forget “San Ysidro’s dead,’’ says an Hispanic banker whose branch is on San Ysidro Boulevard, within sniffing distance of a McDonald’s, a donut shop, the Main Attraction, …
May 15, 2022
Rudford's blue plate waitresses
Blue plate special "I’ve worked at Rudford’s since 1965. Twelve years altogether — I left three times. I used to get mad at something and I'd go back and quit. Some of the girls have …
May 7, 2022
I was kennelboy at Coronado Veterinary Hospital
Among the creatures I put the dog on the table. I felt inexplicably ill at ease with just the dog, myself, and Dr. Smith there; it was a rare moment shared by just the two …
May 2, 2022
Little Galapagos – right next to San Diego
Death of an island “There’s not another island off the Pacific coast of North America, including Alaska, that ever evolved five of its own bird species.” points out Bill Everett, a local ornithological consultant and …
April 17, 2022
The venerable Armed Forces YMCA
Downtown's YMCA – doors always open In 1944 alone, almost eight million people came through the front doors. A continual flow of humanity, 22.000 per day, filed through them. “They say it was a sea …
April 11, 2022
Luman Gaskill and the bloody gunfight at Campo, Americans invade Baja
Captain Billy Hunts a Human Martinez escaped in the brush. But his wounds— three buckshot near his right lung, two lower down — and the December cold forced him to the Gaskills’ house at 4:00 …
January 15, 2022
Santee's Creation Museum, the nuns behind Mercy Hospital
A Little Bit East of Eden There are also sharp disputes about Noah's Ark within the Creationist movement. Some years ago, in the ICR museum, I helped John Morris, their principal ark investigator, look for …
December 26, 2021
Digging up your San Diego family Who was Pio Pico? Life at the Presidio
How to Do Genealogical Research in SD “On July 1, 1769, soon after the arrival of Father Serra, burials began in consecrated ground on Presidio Hill.... Even though people began moving off Presidio Hill and …
November 22, 2021
Nathanael West, Jim Thompson, Max Miller
Janet, My Mother, and Me “We went out to Belmont, and Harry couldn’t stop picking winners. We went to the 21 Club for dinner, and we scalped tickets for a Broadway musical in the fourth …
November 20, 2021
Dick Nixon in San Diego, Joseph McCarthy in La Jolla
When Dick Nixon Came to Town San Diego entrepreneur Arnholt Smith, one of Nixon’s earliest supporters, remembered a melancholy evening in the early ’60s when Nixon was holding a meeting and asked him to get …
November 8, 2021
Stingaree's red-light rules, early Horton Plaza, Lomaland
Murder in Mission Valley There was a history of immigrants to the area penning Indians up in reservations after throwing them off Mission lands. Indians tried to regain their lands, but they were often unable …
October 23, 2021
The 1930s Depression in letters from San Diego, early hunting in Mission Valley
Depression Letters “He had been working since May at Balboa Park, cutting wood, gardening, cleaning up ravines, canyons, etc. When he was put on the Federal work card, a foreman's name was on the card. …
October 11, 2021
The ugly war housing of Midway-Rosecrans, San Diego's Japanese imprisoned in Poston, Arizona
The Frontier They Want Us to Forget By the late 1960s, the only Frontier structures that still remained were two war-era public schools, Barnard Elementary and the Midway Continuation High School. The city council had …
September 27, 2021
Subs off Imperial Beach, Yamamoto's killer, a kid in WWII San Diego
Lie Down in Darkness The submarine had been discovered by two San Diego State students who were financing their educations by salvaging objects. They had located S-37 about 300 yards off the coast and in …
September 20, 2021
Cave Couts, Old Town loveletters, San Diego's first school
Cave Johnson Couts Ysidora's brother-in-law, Don Abel Stearns, gave her the Guajome land grant surrounding Mission San Luis Rey. Couts resigned his commission with the Army and built a ranch on land that “had neither …
August 28, 2021
Jack Kemp and the fugitive, U.S. Grant's son, Seals ambivalent about Jesse Ventura
Kemp and the Fugitive Fotomat also gave Graham a political base. One of the first beneficiaries was Jack Kemp. On May 23, 1968, the San Diego Union reported that Kemp had “joined Fotomat Corp., La …
July 5, 2021
Early San Diego Italians, Grandmother hosted the Marstons and Fletchers, La Mesa as Hollywood
India Street and Beyond: A history of the Italian Community of San Diego, 1850-1980 Pietro Lusardi came to San Diego with his brother, Francesco. They ran sheep on Mt. Palomar, then built a 3000-acre sheep …
May 22, 2021
Acorn history, Don Juan Forster, Cabrillo, John Crosby traces trail over Baja
Acorns in San Diego History The people roasted grasshoppers, yuccas, and ate abalone. But their number-one food source was the acorn, shaken from branches of Coast Live Oak trees. They poured hot water through baskets …
April 26, 2021
Traffic lights on Market Street, baseball card nostalgia, Surfer Motel attacked
Why 24th and Market got no traffic light It is an intersection that only God could love. Market and Twenty-fourth streets: its sidewalks are stuck about with telephone poles, shadeless palms, and a few eugenias …
April 11, 2021
Geronimo's San Diego ally, the five Indian settlements moved from Warner Hot Springs
An Indian Chief Plots Revolution Garra sent couriers to every tribe in San Diego County, including San Pasqual, Santa Isabel, San Luis Rey, and Temecula. At the same time, he also sent runners to tribes …
March 27, 2021
USS Bennington explodes in San Diego's bay, scalds, kills sailors
The IWW in SD The San Diego Tribune advocated a permanent solution: “Why are the taxpayers of San Diego compelled to endure this imposition?” Bands of vigilantes formed on the outskirts of San Diego. They …
March 15, 2021
San Diego fires: Campo Creek, Volcan Mountain, Hauser Canyon
It Would Turn You To Toast Pete Scully, a battalion chief for the California Department of Forestry's fire protection agency, stands next to his camper-shelled pickup truck at a Highway 94 turnoff east of where …
January 2, 2021
National City – still up and coming
National City – a Mayor Daley-type political machine To the south of San Diego, within range of the shadows cast by the Coronado Bridge, lies National City. Frequently described as the “backlot" of San Diego, …
August 17, 2020
La Jolla – a shoreline and a mountain
What Windansea surfers said about Tom Wolfe Eight summers have drifted by since Tom Wolfe (author of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test) traveled to California to write a series on “The New Life Out There” …
July 20, 2020
San Diego love stories
Why Knot? Randy said that some years ago he bought a thirty-foot trimaran, intending to sail it to the South Pacific. “Now we’re going to fly to the South Pacific on our second anniversary,’’ said …
February 14, 2020
Old Town – early and later stories
General store ledgers tell how people lived in Old Town Finding which store the ledger came from involved detective work. In 1864, there were only two general merchandise stores, one in Old Town, the other …
December 9, 2019
Best Reader stories from 1981
Postcards From Western Civilization Some years ago at Christmastime, when I was a teller at a bank downtown, I came to know Wayne Boyer, who was then an apprentice bum. I met him in the …
November 23, 2019
Best Reader stories from 1980
On the path of the old ones It’s now ten years, almost to the day, since an amateur archaeologist discovered what seemed to be extraordinarily old stone tools in a canyon above Mission Valley, and …
November 17, 2019
Jamul – last bastion of civilization on the 94
Jamul Residents Wage Indian Blood Battle over Gaming Site The Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs is asking a lot of questions about the Jamul Indian Village. The government agency has launched an investigation to determine …
October 28, 2019
Julian – chock full of history
Appellate court turns back Hosking's fake cattle ranch Inhabitants of Julian who oppose the development of 1416 acres of local back country have a newfound victory to celebrate. An appellate court has reversed the decision …
October 7, 2019
Warner Springs – place of contention
The blackest of crimes committed against Warner Ranch Indians Lummis rode past sturdy, whitewashed adobe houses with thatched roofs. When he reached the center of the village, anxious eyes approached. The Cupeños were desperate for …
July 8, 2019
Campo –small town rich in drama
Complications of Tijuana to Tecate to Campo train Ten federal agents waiting at the railway museum are demanding that the train continue onto its last stop in Campo and be cleared through customs before anybody …
April 22, 2019
Charles and Diana: the difference between Mstislav Rostropovich and Duran Duran
Editor: This week marks Jeff Smith’s last as the Reader’s theater critic. Smith is the longest-standing writer at the paper, having started in 1980. Before joining us, he got his Ph.D. in literature and critical …
March 13, 2019
Meandering must-see
Did the angel Gabriel flutter down from heaven to save Guernsey islanders from German occupation in 1943? Or did another Gabriel wash ashore, naked, from a shipwreck? He doesn’t know. He has amnesia, and Gabriel …
March 6, 2019
Ask Sugar
She’s a published author, working on another novel. She writes at home, cleaning up crayons and de-capping a beer before confronting the computer screen. Phone rings. It’s Steve Almond, editor of The Rumpus. He's resigned …
February 27, 2019
San Diego Reader 2019 Arts issue
Birds sing, elephants dance, and monkeys paint, but only humans turn those activities into art. And only humans evince a bottomless hunger for it: hence the endless parade of pictures on Instagram, stories on Netflix, …
February 27, 2019