state for many years, and John Forster became a wealthy and influential man. However, numerous and long-drawn-out lawsuits over ownership and water rights^ at last brought about Forster's financial collapse. He died in Febru- ary 1882, and a few months later the ranch was sold by his heirs to Richard O'Neill. Shortly thereafter O'Neill transferred control of the ranch to James Flood of San Francisco.^ O'Neill continued to live on the ranch and to con- duct its affairs until his death, when these duties were assumed by his son, Jerome O'Neill. In 1906 the O'Neill interests received a deed for a half in- terest in the ranch. Through all its vicissitudes the ranch had remained un- divided.^
The second military occupation of the Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores, nearly a hundred years after General Kearny's visit, occurred in 1942, when the historic ranch became Camp Joseph H. Pendleton. In March 1942 the United States Navy Department announced the purchase of ap- proximately 123,000 acres of the ranch for the largest Marine Corps base in the country. The camp was named in honor of the late Major General Joseph H. Pendleton, U. S. Marine Corps, who had served in the Philippines, Nica- ragua and Santo Domingo, and was dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on September 25, 1942.
The present "occupying force" is aware of the historic significance of the Camp Pendleton site, and the old Santa Margarita adobe, the adjacent winery and bunk house, and Las Flores ranch house have been restored and will be preserved. The Santa Margarita residencia,^ built in the 1 820's, will serve as a hospice for distinguished guests; the even older winery is now the museum and reception hall for visitors; and the bunk house contains the reception center office, a recreation room, and living quarters of the ranch hands. The Las Flores adobe, built in 1867, stands twelve miles to the westward and a few hundred yards from the ruins of Las Flores estacion of Mission San Luis Rey. The 1 1 5-year-old bell which was originally used at Las Flores estacion now hangs at the west gate of the Santa Margarita residencia.^
The marines stationed at Camp Pendleton are learning to handle boats and equipment in the surf that breaks on the long beach line of Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores and are training for combat duty over approximately 1 20,000 acres of the ranch's hills and canyons.
NOTES
1. See, for instance, George W. Ames, Jr., ed., "A Doctor Comes to California, the Diary of John S. Griffin," this Quarterly, XXI (December 1942), 347.
2. R. W. Brackett, A History of the Ranchos of San Diego County, (San Diego: Union Title Insurance & Trust Company, 1939), pp. 44, 46.
3. Herbert Eugene Bolton, Fray Juan Crespi, Missionary Explorer on the Pacific Coast, i']69-i']']4 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1927), p. 133.
4. See Henry R. Wag-ner, "Edward Bosqui, Printer and Man of Affairs," this Quar- terly, XXI (December 1942), 329, and Terry E. Stephenson, Forster vs. Pico (Santa Ana, Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores 177
