In January 1847, about 350 soldiers of the Mormon Battalion, including the wives of five officers and a few children, passed through this area of Temecula Valley under the leadership of Lt. Col. Philip St. George Cooke on their way to San Diego after marching 2,000 miles from Council Bluffs, Iowa, carving the first wagon trail across the United States into southern California. The march of the Mormon Battalion is known as the longest march in U.S. military history, giving rise to the saying that "Only a Mormon soldier could out walk a mule."