A different kind of country club....

I came across this article and an old family name I recognized from my childhood caught my eye . . . . Mendenhall. I knew they lived on the mountain, but what a surprise to hear about this resource!

Hmmmmmm. . . . . My cousin lives on Palomar, wonder why he didn't tell me about this. Keeping it to himself maybe?

My Country Club: a hunter's dream

By: ERNIE COWAN - For the North County Times

We stopped counting the wild turkey flock at 200 when distracted by a herd of mule deer that decided we had gotten too close. In less than an hour, we had spotted several hundred wild turkey and more than 30 deer, including bucks.

While this might sound like some distant hunting paradise, we were on land within a rifle shot of Palomar Mountain.

I was bouncing over dirt roads with Frank and Janice Mendenhall, enjoying the mild winter day and the beauty of oak meadows filled with wild turkey and mule deer. In five years, the Mendenhalls have taken a dream and turned it into reality.


Their dream was to provide hunting access to some of the prime wildlife areas of San Diego County, some of which had not been hunted in more than 20 years.

The husband and wife, along with their son Joel and brother-in-law Gary Whyte, founded My Country Club and now own or control more than 50,000 acres in the Lake Henshaw, Palomar Mountain and Santa Ysabel areas.

The Mendenhall name goes back to the 1860s on Palomar Mountain, with one of the most scenic valleys still bearing that name. Frank Mendenhall was born in Love Valley, on land now owned by the U.S. Forest Service on the eastern side of Palomar.

"I've been here all my life, I'm in touch with the land and the wildlife, and I have watched as more and more areas were taken away from hunters," he said.

His family has lived on this land, raised cattle and hunted here for generations, and wanted to see others enjoy the same experience.
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Membership starts at $3,000 a year for an individual and $3,500 for a family. Additional information is available by calling (760) 782-3503.

As the shadows of evening began to fill the mountain valleys, we closed the last gate and headed back to the club office at Lake Henshaw. In the glow of sunset, a small dot in the distance grew larger until we could see the magnificent form of a bald eagle skimming the lake surface looking for the last meal of the day.

Every hunter should have such an experience. The good hunt is more than filling a tag, and the Mendenhall family wants to provide this experience to as many as possible.

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