This photograph of Escondido was taken in 1886, just a year before the Trussells invested in San Pasqual. The "City" should have looked about this way when the Trussells first saw it. Surely it took a lot of guts and imagination for those early Californians to invest here, building a railroad, subdividing the land and setting up banks, hotels and seminaries. Nevertheless, that is exactly what happened. Shown below is Escondido's new rail station, built by Santa Fe Railroad in 1887. About that same time, A.D. Trussell arrived in town and purchased 80 acres of prime land in San Pasqual Valley. Nevertheless Escondido was a small market at first and Ray's diary makes it clear that he didn't see it as a viable place to sell his products until the turn of the century. He would rather take a two-day trip and drag his goods all the way to San Diego and get the higher prices of a larger market.
