About the Lost Blunderbuss

Posted on July 4, 2007 in History Neighborhood

It might be nothing more than local legend, but the lore has it that my community name derives from the results of a bit of horseplay. On July 24, 1769, [[Gaspar de Portola]] and Father [[Junipero Serra]] came through the vicinity. They camped next to what is now Aliso Creek — Aliso meaning “Sycamore”, a species which is thick in the local arroyos — before moving on, on July 26, to Tomato Springs.*

During their stay, a few of them crossed the mesa between creeks and found themselves in another wide wash. Lord knows what happened — were the men goofing off or were they on a serious exploration? — but in the course of their visit, they returned to the Aliso Creek camp sans one [[blunderbuss]].

A blunderbuss is an ungainly looking weapon, the kind that caricatures of old time hunters and soldiers like to mock. It’s a gun with a wide, tapering mouth into which is poured gunpowder, rocks, coins, nails, various metal fragments, teeth, and whatever else that is sharp, nasty and/or explosive. Gun historians describe it as a deck clearer — when you saw someone heave one of those into action, you dropped to the floor pronto! even when the wielder was on your side: the weapon had this way of choosing its targets randomly.

Portola’s men had one of these when they were off inspecting the region. When they came back, it certainly became a game of “I thought you had it”. They could never find it again, so the place became known as “Trabuco” (Spanish for blunderbuss) “Canyon”.

How appropriate that this follower of Emperor Norton should find himself in such a place.

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*Users of the Foothill Feeder or The Toll Road as we call it in these parts should recognize Tomato Springs as the place where they take the tolls. It’s about five miles west of Lake Forest in the middle of the old Irvine Ranch Property or about a mile or two north of the El Toro Marine Air Station property.