Robert M. Tibbetts Finds An Old Stone Mill in Borrego Valley

My 3rd great uncle Robert Nelson Tibbetts (1848-1926), older brother of my 2nd great grandmother Mary Jane (Tibbetts) Hartley, with his third wife Mary Cristina Garcia (1866-1952) and four of their children: Juanita "Jennie" Pauline Tibbetts (1885-1964), Harvey Henry Tibbetts (1887-1970), Robert M. Tibbetts (1889-1938), and Adelia "Dee" Belle Tibbetts (1892-1979). The picture was taken about 1895, very likely in the Otay Mesa area.  I suspect the standing center boy is Robert M. Tibbetts.  Image courtesy of Ancestry user Danielle Hanson.

My 1st 3x removed cousin, Robert M. Tibbetts, was a butcher and oil worker, and apparently a miner as well.  He found an old stone mill (likely of Cahuilla origin?) in the Borrego Springs/Santa Rosa Mountains area and donated it to the Serra Museum when it was at Presidio Park (the museum and the collections are now part of the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park).  As his own maternal grandmother's people were Chumash he was probably interested in keeping the local archaeology local and not dispersed to the highest bidder, as was common then.

I tried to locate the object at the San Diego History Center through their online catalog and website, but their object collections are not searchable or view-able online.  I am curious if it is still in their holdings.

I don't know what the stone mill looked like, but I'm assuming it looked like this:

Image of grindstones from user ddozier at Palomar College.

San Diego Union (San Diego, CA)
Thursday, February 11, 1932
Page: 11, col 1
from GenealogyBank.com 

Museum Library Gets Additions 

Wangenheim Contributes Diary of H.M.T. Powell; Old Stone Mill Put on Display.
...
Robert M. Tibbetts of El Cajon brought in a stone mill, found in six parts in Borego valley while he was prospecting for the Yaqui mine.  The mill has attracted the attention of many antiquaries, and other museums had bid generously for its posession [sic] but Mr. Tibbetts prefers to have it remain in this county where it belongs.

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