Gunshots rang out as the bank manager and a rancher chased after two bank robbers trying to make their getaway in a yellow Model A Ford. The rancher was driving a 1930 Buick which quickly caught up to the robbers who had just stolen $1200 from the First National Bank of Temecula.

The real incident occurred on August 14, 1930, but for a group of students from Mary Fay Pendleton School, the reenactment was just as exciting as may have been back then.

Last week, I accompanied the students on a field trip to the Temecula Valley Museum which included a walking tour of Old Town Temecula.

On the tour, Docent Jim Ott brought history to life, telling us what happened that morning, almost 80 years ago, when a ranch hand named Miguel Diaz walked into the bank with a gun, only to be greeted by name by Agnes Freeman, the clerk, whose father was foreman of the ranch where Diaz worked. Diaz went ahead with the robbery but stopped two miles down the road when he ran out of bullets.

He spent a few days in the Temecula jail before being sent to prison for three years.

The jail still stands, not far from the Bank – the restaurant that now occupies the former bank’s building on the corner of Main and Front streets.

A favorite stop for the third, fourth and fifth graders; the one-room jail with Advertisement

[ Chatton and Associates ] 18-inch thick granite walls can be found in the Old Jail Courtyard off of Main Street.

The Temecula Valley Historical Society’s tour guide brochure is available at the museum for anyone who wants to take a self-guided tour of the other historic buildings in Old Town Temecula. For groups, arrangements can be made with the museum for a docent led tour; there is no charge but donations are appreciated.

The museum offers a detailed history of Temecula from the days of Indian settlements to Spanish mission lands, from Mexican land grants to the planned community of Rancho California. The docents are very knowledgeable and can explain the stories behind the objects, from the flags that have flown over our state to the stones used by the Indians, from the tools used by cattle ranchers to two off-road vehicles designed by one of Temecula’s most famous citizens, writer Erle Stanley Gardner.

Many of Gardner’s Perry Mason books, later adapted for movies, radio and television, were written at his Rancho Del Paisano where he lived from 1937 until his death in 1970. One museum exhibit is a replica of his Temecula office, while two off-road vehicles that he designed can be seen in the lobby.

The upstairs area of the museum includes an interactive section for kids, with period dress-up clothes and a life-sized horse for them to climb up on, which added another dimension to their history lesson.