Riverside County mountain creek named for cattleman, fur trapper
On the west side of Pinyon Flats lies Omstott Creek, a tributary to Palm
Canyon. It’s a short waterway whose namesake goes back over 150 years here in the Inland Empire.
Marion Montgomery Onstott (the creek misspells his name) was born in 1835 in Sangamon County, Illinois. While nothing could be gleaned about his early life, by the time he was 25, he was living in the San Salvador district of San Bernardino County. This area is better known as Agua Mansa to us today. At that time, he was listed as a “herder” living with Zina Ayers and his family. According to later accounts, though, he gained a bit of fame during this time protecting the herds of cattle from cattle rustlers who would come through the area hoping to steal as many animals as possible.
Onstott spent most of the 1860s and 1870s living in either Agua Mansa or Chino. He was a fur trapper in addition to his other work, and hired out as a guide to people wanting to traverse the mountains or desert. By 1884, he had moved east to San Jacinto, where he was farming outside of that city. He continued to farm for a while, and also ran cattle in the mountains. He spent most of the rest of his life between Hemet and San Jacinto and the mountains.
In 1899, he purchased 640 acres northeast of Keen Camp (near present-day Mountain Center), built a cabin, and spent his remaining days in the mountains running cattle and living a hermit’s life.
When Onstott died in February 1908, he was fondly remembered in several obituaries throughout the region. The Riverside Enterprise wrote at length about his hermit existence, indicating that while he did live alone and rarely ventured from his cabin, he was always welcoming of visitors. The Enterprise noted that, “the aged mountain dweller had a splendid education. He was a most interesting conversationalist. He had the characteristics of a Quaker. In fact, he strikingly resembled the old founders of Pennsylvania. He was intelligent, serious-minded, and generous.” Apparently, in his youth Onstott loved hunting bears, and he wowed many a passer-by with his accounts of bear hunting.
Marion Onstott never married or had children, so it took a while to dispose of his estate, which included several thousand dollars and nearly 1,000 head of cattle, plus almost 1,000 acres of property. When exactly the creek that bears his name was given such is not known. What is interesting, though, is that the creek is nearly 15 miles to the southeast of his mountain property. This is due to the fact that he, like many other cattlemen of the time, moved his herds on a seasonal basis between the higher elevations during the summer and Pinyon Flats during the winter. Onstott had a corral near the creek, and the creek was soon given the name.