Pala is a census-designated community situated north of Escondido in San Diego County, within the Pala Indian Reservation. Long used as a traditional gathering place for Native people; it is the site of Mission San Antonio de Pala, an early-19th-century asistencia that served as a sub-mission to Mission San Luis Rey, while the surrounding hills later gained renown for mineral wealth — especially tourmaline, gold, and other gemstones that fueled a mining boom in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with Pala's pink tourmaline prized internationally and still produced today. - AsNotedIn