The
Luiseño name for Palomar Mountain was and High Point was called . The Spanish name
Palomar, meaning "pigeon roost" or "place of the pigeons", comes from the Spanish colonial era in
Alta California when Palomar Mountain was known as the home of
band-tailed pigeons. The peak was once called Mount Joseph Smith but reverted to its Spanish name, Palomar, in 1901. During the 1890s, the population was sufficient to support three
public schools, and it was a popular summer resort for
Southern California, with three hotels in operation part of the time, and a tent city in Doane Valley each summer. Nathan Harrison, the first African American homesteader in San Diego area, purchased several acres on the western slope of the mountain in the 1880s and graded a road that became a popular tourist route that is now called
Nate Harrison grade. According to an article by Daniel Weiss, "Harrison was briefly married twice, both times to
Luiseño Indian women who were part of a community that lived on the mountain," and he was baptized into the Catholic faith "by a Luiseño chief in Rincon who had converted to Catholicism." Harrison's tall tales of the mountain's fauna, including his overcoming of countless grizzlies and aggressive mountain lions, and his blithesome, joking disposition, made him locally famous among the county's travelers. ==Palomar Observatory==