[Rocky_Shorz]

Story

Gunfight in Moosa Canyon, 1888
Contributed by the Fallbrook Historical Society
Don Rivers, President

The following story was taken from notes written by Bessie (Ormsby) Helsel of stories told to her by her father John W. Ormsby. Also from clippings of articles that appeared in the Escondido Times Advocate, saved by Bessie Helsel and passed on to her daughter Janice Bricker, of Fallbrook, to whom we wish to thank for this material.

In 1887, Levi P. Stone, a bachelor school teacher from Rhode Island homesteaded land in upper Moosa canyon, which is approximately 10 miles north of Escondido and one mile east of Interstate 15. For those who are a little more familiar with the area it was east of Isaac J. Frazee's Woreland Castle, with its picturesque setting in a valley of luxuriant old oak trees and the beautiful Pamoosa Falls as a backdrop. It has been said that the Woreland Castle was a close copy of an ancient feudal castle in Scotland. ...