Dieguito Discoveries
Dieguito Discoveries – Uncovering the fascinating people and places in the San Dieguito River Valley
Deborah Johnson
Dieguito Discoveries #4
The Story Behind the Cross on the Mountain The Story Behind the Cross on the Mountain
The Magic on the Mountain
You’ve seen the white cross as you’ve driven I-15, there
on the mountain just at the northern end of Rancho Bernardo. Maybe
you wondered how it got there and who put it there and why.
Take a walk up the mountain with Jack Templeton and you will find
out all about the Rancho Bernardo cross. The hike isn’t long,
but it’s steep. At 79, he isn’t doing a daily trip in the
20 minutes he used to: “15 minutes up and five minutes down.” Wearing
sturdy boots and with a walking stick in hand, he stops often, sometimes
to rest, sometimes to take in the view and sometimes to tell a story
about the cross.
The cross didn’t start with Jack. It was there on Battle Mountain
(named for the Battle of San Pasqual about eight miles to the east)
years before Jack came to Rancho Bernardo. The Rotary Club put the
first cross up in 1966 for an Easter Service on the land below. This
was well before the houses were built on Escala Drive and Reata Way.
Jack came along in 1985, following a career as a fighter pilot (he
just missed World War II, but flew in the Korean War--the P-40 was
his favorite plane). Three years later, when a storm knocked down the
old cross, Jack and some friends collected money to put the cross back
up. He built that cross in his backyard, all 26 feet of it and “a
guy from Sears” offered to cover it in aluminum siding. They
had enough money left over to rent two helicopters to bring the cross
to the summit.
But a running feud with a vandal finally brought Jack’s cross
down--a few cuts in the base of the cross in the dead of night aided
and abetted by a puff of wind in the morning and the cross was on the
ground.
But neither vandal nor weather had the upper hand, because of what
Jack calls the “magic of the cross.” With a little help
from media coverage, people come forward. The Jack in the Box Company
made a major contribution, along with the “nickels and dimes
and dollars” that Jack and his friends collected. A steel fabricator
from Chula Vista called and offered to build a cross and donate it.
Then there was the electrician from Poway who showed up and offered
to put in industrial lighting.
It’s always been that way. “Very wondrous things have
happened … in relation to this cross.” Like the three teenagers
from Escondido who just showed up one day and offered to help dig the
hole for his first cross. Or the two men who volunteered to sand the
rust and repaint the steel cross and the paint supply guy who donated
the paint. “We’ve tapped a nerve,” Jack says, “and
there are some very generous people.”
Perhaps it’s Jack’s own generosity that inspires others
as much as the cross does.
Resting on his “sitting rock” half way up the hill, Jack
surveys the beautiful vista of Rancho Bernardo below. Will he ever
stop? “I’ve tried several times to quit and everybody says, ‘No,
sorry!’”
“The cross means a lot of things to a lot of people and ,,,
I’m glad to say, it’s kind of an icon for Rancho Bernardo.
When you see the cross you know you’re in Rancho Bernardo.”
In case you are wondering, Battle Mountain is indeed public property,
given to San Diego by the developers who built the communities below.
But the city granted an easement, Jack says, for the small plot of
land that the cross sits on and the trail that leads up to the top.
Jack has plans for the cross when he passes on, collecting money so
the cross can be maintained, “in perpetuity.” He’s
raised $30,000 so far and is aiming for another $20,000. “I’m
interested in people finding there is a need to take care of it for
all time. I think I’m going to make it on the other $20,000.”
So when you drive I-15 and see the cross, you know you’re in
Rancho Bernardo. Give a good thought to Jack Templeton, who, if it’s
still early enough in the day, may just be making his way to the top
to take in the view of the beautiful San Diego scenery below, and the
cross, reaching up into the sky.
The foundation is called “Let’s Light the Cross, Inc.,” Box
270443, Rancho Bernardo, CA 92198
Deborah Johnson
© December 2004
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