Ahwel-Awa Native American
Kumeyaay history within the area has been documented to 7,000 years ago, which was adjacent to a Kumeyaay village west of
El Camino Real near the
San Dieguito River in
North City at the time of European contact with the Spanish known as
Ahwel-Awa or
‘aqwilawa, The
Portolá expedition in 1769, described it as "a large village... and many well built houses with grass roofs". The village were referred to various names by the Spanish such as Sellegua or Jellegua, and were given Christian names under
Spanish rule such as
San Jacome De la Marca, La Poza de Ozuna, or
San Dieguito (name for the region). Ahwel-Awa was the ancestral home of the Kwitlp clan of the Ipai-Kumeyaay people who spoke the Ipai dialect, and were one of the first Kumeyaay clans to convert to Catholicism in the 1770s under the leadership of Jamacuain "Benito" Culip, who was the kwaapay (leader) of the clan. The name Cordero comes from men with this surname who settled in the area in 1770s (Joaquin Ignacio, Francisco, Mariano Antonio, the sources also contain references to "Cordero brothers" that participated in the
Portolá expedition), a ranch house owned by one or more of them was located to the east of El Camino Real and south of Carmel Valley Road. Following the
Mexican-American War and the
California Gold rush, the area developed to support agriculture and horse farms. Some equestrian facilities remain in the area.
Carmel Valley The name Carmel Valley comes from the Catholic
Sisters of Mercy, who in 1905 had established a dairy farm (Mercy Hospital Farm) and monastery in the lower McGonigle Canyon. The Sisters of Mercy had named a nearby hill Mount Carmel after a Biblical place near Jerusalem when they came to San Diego in 1890s and were given 1,000 acres in the area by the McGonigle family in exchange for health care (Sisters established the
Mercy Hospital). When Robert Stevens acquired the farm in 1940s, he changed its name to Mount Carmel Ranch; the name Carmel got attached to the valley, at first starting with the lower portion of the McGonigle Canyon. Sisters of Mercy had also established the Carmel Valley Cemetery in 1900 (to the north of the modern
SR 56). The construction later began in 1983 as farms were replaced by residential communities. Although the area was known locally as Carmel Valley, in 1974 the area was given the institutional name
North City West in the master plan. The name
Carmel Valley was adopted by residents in 1991 to replace the old one. ==Geography==