An illustrated history of Los Angeles County, California. Containing a history of Los Angeles County from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also of prominent citizens of to-day, Part 2

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1092

USA > California > Los Angeles County > An illustrated history of Los Angeles County, California. Containing a history of Los Angeles County from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also of prominent citizens of to-day > Part 2

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

.761

Germain, Engene. 752

Schumacher, John

648

Goodwin, L. C.

.483

Vickrey, William

7-1

Griffin, J. S ...

20G

Warner, J. J

Frontispiece.

HIatch, D. P ..

181

Wells, G. W.

190

Hollenbeck, J. E.

504

Wicks, M. L

ILLUSTRATIONS.

A Bird's-eye View of the City of Los Angeles .. .256 An Ocean View from Santa Mon- ica Beach. .335

Los Angeles in 1854. 253

Old Baldy in Winter.

Residence of A. J. Spencer, Esq. 631 The Old Mission Building at San Gabriel ... 27 View from the Ranch of Richard

.+40 Garvey.

View of Santa Catalina Island .. 6

Widney, R. M. 162

Wise, K. D

Woltskill, John. 114

Lindley, Milton. 546

Wolfskill, Mrs. J. W 529

Dalton, Sr., George

INTRODUCTORY.

HISTORY of Los Angeles County in- cludes not only a narration of the acts of mankind and nature which have occurred within its boundaries, but also a relation of those events which, happening elsewhere, have here had results. A complete history would naturally go back to the time when the dry land first rose above the waters, but as there has never been a geological survey of the county, this part of its history remains to be written. Enough is known, however, to say that the Sierra Madre, that chain of mountains which crosses the county in an easterly and westerly direction, are as old as, and in fact are a part of, the Sierra Nevada. And that after these mountains were raised to their present altitude, the gods of air, water and fire have created the topographical face that is now beheld. The whale, whose skeleton was found on the summit of the Santa Monica Mountains, tells of a time when he lived in the waters above. Then came the recedence of the water and the elevation of the land. In the asphaltum springs, west of Los Angeles, the finding of a saber-shaped tooth of a tiger, long extinct, tells of the ferocious animals which once lived here. The discoveries of the remains of inastodons at Tejunga, Los Angeles, Puente and San Juan 1

By-the-Sea, at a depth of from five to twenty feet below the surface of the ground, are the records of a period when the valleys were deeper than they now are, and had a vegetation of sufficientgrowth to have sustained these animals.

That the Indian made his appearance during the age of the mastodons is proved by the fact that in the bones of these extinct animals found in Missouri are imbedded Indian arrow-heads. After the Indian the white man appeared upon the scene with his written records, and history becomes more certain.

It has, therefore, been convenient to divide the history of Los Angeles County into different epochs. The first natural division gives the pre-historic and historic periods. The pre-his- toric includes accounts of the geological for- mation, and the origin and description of the Indian. The historic embraces the accounts of the white man. In Los Angeles County, as in all California, this last period has three subdi- visions, running from the times of Spanish exploration and occupancy, down through the brief period of Mexican independence, to Amer- ican conquest and development. The following chapters are, therefore, divided as they include respectively the foregoing subjects.

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

PHYSICAL FEATURES.

CHAPTER I.

GEOLOGY.

S no full, systematic geological survey has ever been made of the southern portion of California, we are unable to compile a sat- isfactory account under this head.

MINERALOGICAL NOTES.

The following miscellaneous notes are from the last State Report:

San Gabriel Cañon has some auriferous gravel scattered abont high up on the spurs of the range, similar in its general character to that which forms the great hydraulic mines of more northern counties. There is every reason to believe that these high and ancient auriferous gravels of the San Gabriel Range, and also the great mass of the whole range itself, from the Cajon Pass west nearly or quite to the Los An- geles River, belong to the same geological ages, and derived their origin from the same canses, as those of the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. The amount of denndation which has taken place since these ancient gravels were deposited has, of course, been something enormous, and no man can meas- ure it.

To the west of the point where the Santa Ana River issues from the San Bernardino Range, the southern flanks of that range, so far

west as the Cajon Pass, are not flanked on the south by any heavy body of unaltered tertiary strata, while the southern flanks of Mount San Bernardino itself, to the east of the Santa Ana River, bear very heavy masses of such strata, which rise high against the mountain. Again, from the Cajon Pass west, nearly to the Los Angeles River, the San Gabriel Range itself is not flanked on the south by any such accumu- lations of tertiary rocks. These facts would seem to indicate either that the date of up- heaval of the great mass of the range from the Santa Ana River west to the Los Angeles River was somewhat earlier than that of the upheaval of Mount San Bernardino itself, or else that the amount of denndation which has taken place since the upheaval of these mount- ains has been vastly greater to the west of the Santa Ana River than it has been for a great many miles to the east of it.

In the Pacoima Canon, on the northeastern side of the San Fernando Valley, some three and a half miles from San Fernando Station, and 800 to 1,000 feet above the valley, Dr. J. S. Turner has a limestone quarry in the granite. The lower foot-hills here are unaltered shales and sandstones, dipping northerly. The lime- stone itself, at the quarry, is highly crystalline. It seems to vary much in purity, containing

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

in places considerable disseminated epidote, and being also here and there irregularly and capri- ciously intermixed with granite. The granite, too, varies much in character. Some of it is very feldspathic and contains very little mica, while some of it is full of black mica and con- tains much magnetic iron.

At a point about twelve miles west of San Fernando, Mr. Gilbert has a quarry of sand- stone, which is being used to some extent for building purposes in Los Angeles. It is a medium-grained, light-colored, yellowish sand- stone, of pretty uniform texture, but too soft to be first-class stone. From San Fernando up the valley of the Arroyo de las Palomas, to within about a mile of the San Fernando Railroad tunnel, all the rocks are unaltered sand stones and shales, the dip in the lower foot-hills being seven- ty-five or eighty degrees to the north; but farther up the rocks are in places greatly disturbed, and heavy bodies of them here dip to the southeast.

In a cañon on the northern slope of the range of mountains northeast of the San Fernando Railroad tunnel, and five or six miles south- east of Newhall, there are a number of locali- ties of asphaltum, with more or less seepage of petroleum in two different gulches; and in the eastern gulch, some 400 or 500 feet above the valley, a large accumulation of asphaltum ex- tends for about a quarter of a mile along the bed of the gulch. The seeping oil is black and heavy. The prevailing dip of the rocks here is northwesterly, but some of them dip south or southwest. They occasionally contain pectens and other shells. The bed of the gulch is strewn with granite bowlders from the mount- ains further east.

On the south side of this range, and a short distance southeast of the railroad tunnel, a small cañon, called Grapevine Cañon, runs southerly to the San Fernando Valley. At a point in this canon, well up toward the head of it, a well was drilled by Mr. Mentey, in 1875, to the depth of 417 feet. Above this well for about a quarter of a mile there is a heavy de- posit of asphaltum, with a very little seepage

of heavy black bitumen. The well developed some gas and a considerable stream of water, probably five or six miner's inches, containing a variety of soluble sulphates, but no oil. Three or four miles southeast of this place, and about two miles northwest of Pacoima Cañon, are the limestone quarries of Mr. Wilson, who has been burning more or less lime here for a number of years. The limestone burned here is all crystal- line, and a heavy body of it is enclosed in mica schist and gneissoid rocks. The latter are often curiously intermixed with the limestone itself in ways not easily explicable, the whole being very highly metamorphosed. No epidote or graphite was found here during the last survey. Some limestone bowlders here are filled with fossils, not well preserved, and the rock is so compact and hard that it is difficult to obtain good specimens of the fossils.

The Padre Mine is situated on the eastern spur of Gleason Mountain, in the Gleason Mountain mining district, about six miles south of Acton Station, on the Southern Pacific Rail- road, and is 6,000 feet above the sea level. The ledge runs northwest and southeast, cropping out for 2,000 feet, and dips northeast into tlie hill at an angle of about eighty degrees. The hanging wall and the foot wall are clay schists.

The New York Mine, in the Cedar mining district, is 4,000 feet above the level of the sea. The ledge runs northeast and southwest, and dips to the east. A 200-foot tunnel run- ning in from the west taps the ledge at a depth of 300 feet below the surface, at the extreme northwest end of the claim. At this point the ledge is broken up, and the ore channel filled with conglomerate ledge material. The average width of the ledge is about two and a half feet.

The Red Rover Mine, about fifty-five miles north of Los Angeles, is 4,000 feet above the sea. The ledge runs northwest and southeast, and dips to the southwest at an angle of about forty degrees. This mine lies in the center of the Sierra. Madre Range, in the low hills, and in the same belt as the New York Mine, being one-fourth of a mile west of it.

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

The Silver Mountain mining district is twenty- two miles north of Newhall, on the Southern Pacific Railroad, and has an elevation of 3,200 feet above the level of the sea. There is here a large belt of quartzite extending northeast and southwest for several miles in length by two in width. By running cuts and tunnels upon this quartzite a large body of ore was dis- covered, containing silver and lead. Timber is plentiful on the property, and an abundance of water two miles south.

The Casteca placer diggings are about forty miles northwest of Los Angeles, ten miles north of Newhall Station on the Southern Pacific Railroad, and four miles north of Casteca Station on the branch railroad extending from New- hall to Santa Barbara. The average elevation of this placer area is 1,455 feet. This gold belt lies on the southern slope of the Sierra Madre, and extends southeast and northwest for ten miles, and is eight miles in width. The gravel averages ninety feet in depth. The inclination from the highest to the lowest point of gravel averages 150 feet to the mile. The gravel dips to the south, with the bed-rock. This deposit is cut through by numerous small gulches running in all directions, each gulch having been worked in a small way off and on for the last thirty years. The preliminary tests gave an average gold yield of thirty-six cents per cubic yard. These tests were made by a dry washer, which of course doe's not separate the gold from the clay and lumpy portion of the gravel. Elizabeth Lake, not far distant, affords an abundant source of water high enough for the highest point of gravel.

The San Feliciana placer diggings, between Casteca diggings and Piru Creek, twelve miles northwest of Newhall, are 2,100 feet above sea level. This deposit of gravel, for an area of four by eight miles in extent, is supposed to average fifteen feet in depth, and is cut through by gulches and canons. Each canon through- ont this area has been more or less worked for the last twelve years.

During the period from 1810 to 1840 José

Bermudes and Francisco Lopez superintended the Mission Indians in working these gravel deposits. In 1842, finding that these deposits, though worked in a crude. manner, paid ex- ceedingly well, the Mexican government was petitioned to consider the territory between Piru Creek and the Soledad Cañon, and extending west of the Mojave Desert, mineral land; and that no grant be extended taking in that terri- tory. This petition was granted by the govern- ment. The most extensive mining operations carried on in this belt of gravel were in 1854, when Francisco Garcia took out of the San Feliciana Gulch in one season $65,000 in gold.

The reason why this canon was worked more than the others is, that at its head there is a spring that flows one and a half inches of water. This water was used at intervals until twelve years since, when W. W. Jenkins se- cured the right of its use, and after conducting it to a reservoir, employs it for hydraulic pur- poses. It is stated that the yield is sixty- five cents per cubic yard for gravel washed. At the juncture of Palomas Canon and Sheep Creek, behind a bowlder extending out from a belt, a prospector found one piece of gold that was worth $1,900. Every rainy season Mexi- cans can be seen in Palomas Cañon prospecting for gold.

In 1882 J. R. Holmes placered in Cave Cañon, which connects with the San Feliciana, and worked 200 cubic yards of gravel, which yielded 81 per cubic yard. So far as this gravel belt has been examined, both on the high hills and down in the cañons, the gravel seems to be free from large bowlders. The black sand containing the gold is composed of magnetic iron and iron oxide. The bed-rock is slate.

Besides many substances which are of special scientific interest to the chemist and the inin- eralogist, the following is a list of the useful substances properly classed as mineral products, found in the county: Gold, silver, copper, coal, asphaltum, graphite, iron, tin, limestone, build- ing stone, clay, mineral paint, gypsum, borate of lime, silica, kaolin, petroleum, borax, epsom

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

salts, nitrate of soda and salt. Mineral waters of various kinds are plentiful, including hot, cold and sulphur waters. Near Lang's Station, in the northern part of the county, there is a large deposit of chrome iron, free from sulphur, which is considered valnable for the manufact- nre of paint.

Large deposits of malachite, or carbonate of copper, have been found in the San Fernando Mountains and along the Arroyo Seco.

Gypsum exists within twenty miles of Los Angeles. The varieties known as alabaster and selinite are found. This mineral is said to be very useful in reclaiming alkali land. The water which flows from the San Fernando tunnel con- tains, by analysis, 30.6 per cent of gypsum.

A salt lake, fed by salt springs, is located near the sea, between San Pedro and Santa Monica, and can be utilized in the manufacture of salt of excellent quality.

The San Gabriel Silver Mines in the canon of that name, twenty-five miles from Los Angeles, have produced as rich silver ore as has ever been found in the State.

Clay for brick is plentiful. Large tracts of the lowlands abound in soda. There are traces of quicksilver in the San Fernando Valley, but no ledge of the metal has yet been discovered. There is a ledge of sulphide of antimony seven uniles northwest of Los Angeles. There are deposits of mineral paint of several colors on the sea shore near Santa Monica.

The coal oil properties of Newhall and Puente will be noticed subsequently.

TOPOGRAPHY.

The , topography of Los Angeles County might be likened to a terraced mountain, upon which are three grand benches or planes, slightly inclined of conrse, the foot of the lower one being washed by the ocean. From the northern boundary of the county rise the Sierra Nevada, which, though they are not the snowy mountains here that they are further north, attain the respectable elevation of 7,000 feet.

The first grand terrace is Antelope Valley,

which has a general elevation of 2,000 feet, and is about fifty miles long east and west, and some thirty miles wide north and south. This valley was undoubtedly at one time an inland lake, whose waters held in solution the borax and soda that are now deposited on a consid- erable portion of its soil. The valley is shut in on the east from the Mojave Desert by a low line of hills known as the Lovejoy Buttes. Portions of the valley have a dense growth of yucca and cactus. The western part is very fer- tile. On its sonthern side is a high range of mountains, known as the Sierra Madre, which traverse the county east and west at an ele- vation of about 6,000 feet. These mountains are often called by a variety of local names, such as San Fernando, San Gabriel, or San Bernardino, according to the residence of the speaker. Their geological formation and gen- eral configuration show them to be of the same range as the Sierra Nevada, though not so high, and a part of the same range which constitutes the backbone of the California Peninsula, and are properly the Sierra Madre or mother mount- ains. Old Baldy, one of the highest peaks of this range, is partly in Los Angeles County, and has an altitude of about 9,000 feet, and has snow on its summit during the rain season.

South of the Sierra Madre is the middle of these three grand terraces, and has an elevation from 500 to 1,000 feet above the sea level.

From its location close beside these mount- ains and its elevation above the range of ocean fogs, it enjoys a particularly fine climate. Three spurs of hills from the mountains enclose and divide it into grand valleys. On the west are the Santa Susanna Hills; on the east are the Pnente Hills, while the San Rafael Spur cuts it in two, leaving the San Fernando Valley on the west and the San Gabriel Valley on the east. On the southern edge of this grand middle terrace is a range of hills, quite low, east of Los Angeles City, but attaining a respectable eminence on the west, where they are known as the Santa Monica Mountains. These last constitute the southern border of San Fernando Valley.

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

The lower terrace, which runs down to the sea, is alsodivided into valleys. The one to the north is known as the Santa Monica Valley, and is triangular-shaped, the base of which may be said to lie along the ocean front about ten miles, while the apex is abont fifteen miles east, among the Los Angeles Hills. To itsnorth is, the San Fernando Valley, while on the south between it and the Los Angeles Valley, is at first a low divide, which culminates in the Palos Verdes Hills of the San Pedro Peninsula.

The Los Angeles Valley is a plain that is about twenty miles wide and forty miles long, extending over into Orange County.

Santa Catalina Island, thirty-five to forty iniles southwest of Los Angeles, is twenty-three miles long, and two to four wide, and is almost in two sections, a depression only thirty feet high con- necting them. They are 3,000 feet high. Nice little harbors exist around the island, and upon it are beautiful valleys, mineral springs, wells of goud water, etc. Wild goats are still here, and fish and natural curiosities abound along the shore, and the island is a popular summer resort. It is eighteen miles from shore, and is now the property of an English syndicate.

There are several sections which are denomi- nated as valleys and have separate names. The " Pomona Valley" is that portion of the great San Bernardino Valley lying within the eastern boundary line of Los Angeles County. The "Cahuenga Valley " is that portion of the Santa Monica Valley immediately sheltered by the hills of Cahuenga Pass.

The Los Angeles River rises about twelve miles northwest of the city of Los Angeles and flows easterly to the city, turning thence to the south; the remaining waters, after supplying the irrigating ditches, sink inside the city limits. In time of high water, however, the stream flows further, joining the old San Gabriel River seveu miles from the ocean. Its ancient course to the sea was via the Cienega and La Ballona.

The San Gabriel River has two principal sources in the Sierra Madre Mountains, the North Fork and the East Fork. The former

rises in township 2 north, range 12 west, and flows easterly through three townships into range 9 west, where it forms a junction with the latter, flowing south through three townships from its head, in township 3 north, range 9 west. From thence its main channel is south to the ocean. Draining a greater mountain area, its stream is much larger and longer, and also more constant than the Los Angeles River.

Numerous other streams exist in the county, which, though quite small and apparently in- significant, are nevertheless valuable contributors to the value of the land.

The coast line of Los Angeles County ex- hibits two large indentations, geographically de . fined as bays, and designated on the map as Santa Monica and San Pedro. One of them (San Pedro) has for years ranked as the leading port of California, ontside of San Francisco, and with the completion of the harbor improve- ments now in progress and contemplated, its possibilities will be greatly augmented. The inner bay of San Pedro, better known as Wil- mington Slongh, with an area of between 1,100 and 1,200 acres, had a narrow entrance at La Goleta, between the main land and Rattlesnake Island. From Rattlesnake Island to Dead Man's Island, about one mile and one-fourth, the Bay of San Pedro had but little depth, except in a narrow channel near to and north of Dead Man's Island. Timms' Point, one-half mile from Dead Man's Island, was the nearest mainland.

CLIMATE.

The facts in the following paragraphs are mainly compiled from Dr. J. P. Widney's article in the book entitled "The California of the South:"

While the Pacific Coast, in respect to some climatic features, is somewhat uniform through- out its extent, the climate of Southern California has some marked differences from that of the other seetions, As one comes by sea from the northwest and turns into the Santa Barbara Channel he suddenly emerges from a region of chilly fog into one of sunshine. The direction

A VIEW OF SANTA CATALINA ISLANDS, SHOWING BEACH AND HOTEL, WITH MOUNTAINS IN THE DISTANCE.

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

of the currents in the ocean and the mountain ranges on land is such as to cause a striking change in climate as one approaches this part of the country from the north. The Sierra, which from Alaska south follows the general trend of the coast, turns eastward, walling in the country from the north, and then turning south- ward again with a great curve, walls it in again' on the inclement east side. The land which in Northern California faced off westward to the sea now faces southward toward the sun. On the part of the sea, the current from the north is left far to the westward by the eastward turn of the coast, and even kept still farther ont by a chain of islands, while a warm current emerges from the south near the shore, within the islands.

The interior plain of Southern California thus affected comprises the long reach which includes the San Fernando Valley, the Pasadena country, the valley of the San Gabriel River, the Pomona and Ontario uplands, the valley of the Santa Ana River, in which lie Colton, the San Bernardino country and Riverside, and the long plains of San Jacinto River southward. Unlike the in- ward plain of Central California, it is very irregular in outline, branching out in many directions, and often merging, almost insensibly, into rolling upland mesas. This plain, with its irregular windings, is about 200 miles in length, with a width averaging from thirty to fifty miles. The whole country is therefore a great open coastland facing the south, and with the high Sierra for a background.

The Sierra, which north of the so-called Mo- jave Desert makes a great curve westward around the south end of the San Joaquin Plain, turns southward again opposite Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, and, doubling back upon its course, walls in the west end of the desert, then, turning directly eastward, separates the desert from the Los Angeles and San Bernardino plains. Turning southward again, it stands as a wall between the Colorado desert and the west part of San Diego County. The range varies in height from 5,000 to 7,000 feet, with peaks

reaching from 8,000 to 13,000 feet. There are several passes in these Sierra which are less than 3,000 feet in altitude; and this feature has a perceptible influence upon the climate in this portion of the State. The Mojave Desert, with an area of several thousand square miles, aver- ages about 2,000 feet above sea level, while the Colorado Desert, with a less area and lying op- posite the passes leading eastward, has some of its surface 350 feet below the level of the sea.

The term "winter," with the associations it has in the minds of the eastern people, is not applicable in California. Even the term "rainy season " conveys the idea of too much rain; the phrase " rain season " might be better, signifying that portion of the year during which there is some rain. The cause of the "dry season " is evi- dently the excessively heated air of the interior plains, which absorb and carry away all the moisture brought thither from the sea, while the current from the sea meets with no cold air to condense its freight of moisture until the sun has nearly reached its southern tropic, in No- vember.

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Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1092

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1092