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Lakeside
Lakeside is one of San Diego's oldest and most pastoral foothill communities. Its history as a township began with a 6,600-acre purchase by the El Cajon Land Company in 1886. Today, Lakeside covers 75 square miles -- roughly 48,000 acres -- of East County's beautiful backcountry, with oak and sycamore groves, sunny glades and meadows, sheltering valleys, and steep rocky inclines.
Like most of San Diego, Lakeside enjoys nearly year-round sunny weather: The Lakeside Chamber of Commerce boasts a sunny seven out of ten days, an annual average daily temperature of 62.2°F, and average rainfall of less than ten inches per year. Located twenty-five miles east of downtown San Diego and just minutes from the mountain communities of Ramona, Santa Ysabel, and Julian, Lakeside has an elevation range of 450-1000 feet above sea level.
The community takes its name from Lake Lindo, the only natural freshwater lake in San Diego County. The heart of the downtown area, the lake is a legacy of the El Cajon Land Company, which dedicated 45 acres, with Lake Lindo as its centerpiece, as a public park when it began developing the area in 1886.
Lakeside became a resort town soon after it was founded. Trains ran daily from San Diego to Lakeside and its luxury resort, the Lakeside Inn. Designed by Hotel del Coronado architect James Reid, the Lakeside Inn became known as the Coronado of the Hills. The grand hotel was torn down in 1920, but downtown Lakeside still boasts a handful of historic, turn-of-the-century buildings, many of which are still in use as commercial venues today.
Lakeside was primarily a farming and ranching community through the 1950s, when San Diego's booming post-war population began migrating eastward. The completion of Highway 8 transformed some parts of Lakeside into a bedroom community and introduced suburbanization, but the community has maintained its rustic, small-town feel -- reinforced by the County's General Plan and a Planning Group that carefully orchestrate development to preserve Lakeside's bucolic lifestyle.
Today Lakeside remains one of San Diego's most rural communities. With a population of roughly 50,000, it is a vibrant mixture of agrarian, industrial, and commercial businesses and residential neighborhoods. Over 80% of this unincorporated area remains undeveloped, with much of that land devoted to the open space preserves and wildlife sanctuaries that dot the hills surrounding Lindo Lake.
Recreation for residents and visitors alike is one of the chief advantages of Lakeside and its neighborhood communities of Winter Gardens, Lakeview, Moreno, Eucalyptus Hills, Foster, and Barona. Most of its parks and lakes -- even its day-use parks -- allow fishing. The El Capitan Reservoir offers rock-climbing and water-skiing, and open space preserves such as Sycamore Canyon and El Capitan provide miles of hiking and oppportunities for nature study.
Lakeside is also home to one of the country's top-rated modern golf courses, Barona Creek Golf Club, and a luxury resort hotel and award-winning casino at Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino.
Lakeside remains committed to its reputation as a "cowboy country" town, holding one of San Diego's two remaining rodeos every April. Small farms are still a common enterprise, 4H Club membership is robust, and horse ownership is high.