Legendary Locals of Encinitas (signed)

Drawn by extravagant promises of "a beautiful village of 500 inhabitants, studded with orange trees and grapevines," the Hammond family arrived in Encinitas in 1883 only to find that advertisements had rather overstated the case. Undeterred, these 11 English settlers remained and, in doing so, doubled the town's population overnight. Subsequent pioneers brought wide-ranging talents to this fledgling California coastal town--none more so than the Ecke dynasty, whose flower fields established Encinitas as the poinsettia capital of the world. Today, the city encompasses five distinct communities, and while it boasts many famous celebrities, it is the ordinary folk whose passion and daring have made Encinitas the place their forebears long ago envisaged.

The photographs within these pages have been generously donated by a community whose main priority is to ensure that its unsung heroes take their rightful place in history. Like many of the early pioneers, author Alison Burns hails from England, traveling the world as writer and editor. With a passion for history, she currently works at the Encinitas Historical Society, headquartered in that same schoolhouse built by E.G. Hammond, the man who stepped off a westbound train in 1883 and had the courage and foresight to stay.