An illustrated history of Southern California : embracing the counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the peninsula of Lower California, from the earliest period of occupancy to the present time; together with glimpses of their prospects; also, full-page portraits of some of their eminent men, and biographical mention of many of their pioneers and of prominent citizens of to-day, Part 68

Author: Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1038

USA > California > Los Angeles County > An illustrated history of Southern California : embracing the counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the peninsula of Lower California, from the earliest period of occupancy to the present time; together with glimpses of their prospects; also, full-page portraits of some of their eminent men, and biographical mention of many of their pioneers and of prominent citizens of to-day > Part 68
USA > California > San Diego County > An illustrated history of Southern California : embracing the counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the peninsula of Lower California, from the earliest period of occupancy to the present time; together with glimpses of their prospects; also, full-page portraits of some of their eminent men, and biographical mention of many of their pioneers and of prominent citizens of to-day > Part 68
USA > California > Orange County > An illustrated history of Southern California : embracing the counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the peninsula of Lower California, from the earliest period of occupancy to the present time; together with glimpses of their prospects; also, full-page portraits of some of their eminent men, and biographical mention of many of their pioneers and of prominent citizens of to-day > Part 68
USA > California > San Bernardino County > An illustrated history of Southern California : embracing the counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the peninsula of Lower California, from the earliest period of occupancy to the present time; together with glimpses of their prospects; also, full-page portraits of some of their eminent men, and biographical mention of many of their pioneers and of prominent citizens of to-day > Part 68

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" The valley of San Bernardino has peculiar topographical features, a study of which makes apparent the fact that it was once a lake of con- siderable proportions. On the north is the San Bernardino range of mountains, having an alti- tude of from 5,000 to 7,000 feet; on the east, a low range of clay hills, having for their summit the divide of the San Gorgonio pass; on the south, a low range of clay and granite hills, and on the west a high mesa, forming the west bank of Lytle Creek.

"The natural gate, outlet, or drainage of the valley is in its southernmost portion, where the Santa Ana river passes between two hills of limestone, or rather what was once apparently one lull, since cut through. At this point the ' bed-rock' is near the surface, forming the val- ley of San Bernardino into a complete and large catchment basin for the watershed of a very large area of country, the main channel of drainage being the Santa Ana river.

" The soil of the valley, as far as pierced by artesian borings, shows it to be mainly granitic in character, stratified by alternating layers of clay, evidently swept in from the country east and south. Boring to a depth of 150 or 200 feet, frequently pierce a bed of vegetable mold, proving that the valley has been filled up by the gradual erosion of the surrounding hills. This being true, it may be readily believed that the valley of San Bernardino, following a con- tour line from the level of the bed-rock at the outlet before alluded to, is a lake of water per- colating the coarse sands and gravel which un-

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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.

derlie it, and from which the artesian supply is invariably derived.

" There are, unquestionably, artesian channels of water passing underground from the mount- ains to the main drainage channel of the Santa Ana, and conforming in general characteristics to the surface channels. These, composed of sand and gravel, probably underlie clay, and pass over cemented sand and gravel at a cer- tain elevation around the margin of the val- ley, and furnish the ' head' to our wells. This theory is borne out by the facts presented in digging wells in certain localities. These arte- sian channels are believed to be as numerous as the surface streams whichi debouche into the valley, and all have an apex or point of concen- tration at the sonthwest corner of the valley, where our strongest wells exist, and ciénegas and springs most abonnd. * * *

" Artesian wells are bored rather for domestic use and sınall garden irrigation than for general agricultural purposes. The two-inch wells, there fore, prevail on account of their economy in cost The larger sizes do not afford a discharge com- mensurate with their largely increased cost. This fact lias seemed somewhat puzzling. I think it is due, however, to lack of head, as the increase in the weight of the column of water in the pipe retards the flow. This has given rise to the belief that a two-inch well affords as much water as one of three or four inches in diameter.

"Those best informed estimate the number at 400 to 425: in diameter from two to eight inches, the greater number being but two inches in diameter. A list of fifty-six wells bored by one firm shows the shallowest wells to be eighty feet, and the deepest 380, the aver- age being about 160 feet. The most northerly well of the valley is 262 feet in depth. The most southerly well is ninety-nine feet deep, and is the finest flowing stream in the valley. The most easterly well but one is 285 feet deep.

"The deepest and most easterly well in the valley is that of Judge Willis, of Old San Ber-

nardino. This has a depth of 410 feet, and a diameter of seven inches. Vegetable matter, consisting of decayed tule roots and pine wood, was brought up from the last sixty feet. Small fish (suckers), two to four inches in length, re- seinbling those found in the mountain streamns, were occasionally ejected from this well. The well afforded a fine flowing stream, but was afterwards spoiled through the efforts of the well-borer to perforate the pipe at 350 feet and secure the first stream."

In the abundance of the water supply, the valley of San Bernardino surpasses any other in Southern California. It is estimated that from some 450 artesian wells in the valley there is an aggregate discharge of twenty-five cubic feet of water per second, or 16,153,600 gallons of water every day.

The foregoing observations are based on con- ditions existing a number of years since. The number of artesian wells is very greatly in- creased, and they penetrate to a much greater depth than the older wells, some of them being over 600 feet deep.

Good surface water is obtained at a depth of from fifteen to 150 feet, according to the locality.

DITCHES AND DAMS.

The Mill creek ditch, on the eastern side of the valley, was constructed in 1820 by the Jesuit fathers, who founded the mission San Bernardino. This ditch, following a natural depression in the valley, so closely resembles a mountain stream that a question arose somne years since as to whether it really was an artiti- cial channel or the natural outlet of Mill creek. The question was decided by the courts, on competent testimony. The direct and plainly marked channel of the creek, joining the Santa Ana river several miles above the old mission, proved conclusively that the streamn did not naturally seek its present outlet. The waters of this ditch are controlled by eighteen indi- vidual farmers holding first rights to its use.

The principal ditch from Lytle creek is taken out on the west side near the canon mouth,

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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY

and for some miles follows the plateau, where a portion of its water is diverted for irrigation. It then is carried across the rocky channel to the town of San Bernardino. This ditch has numerous branches, owned by independent as- sociations of irrigators. The periodical rotation varies upon each of its branches.

· As the Santa Ana river emerges from its rock-bound canon into the valley, its waters are diverted into two ditches, the North Fork ditch, on the right bank, and the South Fork ditch, on the opposite side. Both these were constructed in 1858 or 1859, although a new ditch was made in 1878 for the South Fork, on higher ground than the old, which still continued in use. The North and the South Fork are similar in character, and each is about eight miles long.

The Bear valley dam is located at the outlet of Bear valley into Bear creek, which empties into the Santa Ana river about five miles below. The natural conformation of the land makes this the most favorable situation that could have been selected. The valley is surrounded by mountains, and has no other outlet than this, which here is very narrow, with precipitous rocky sides. Into the solid rocks of this gorge the damn is abutted, being built on a curve, arching inwards, forming the arc of a circle, with a diameter of 345 feet. It conforms to the mountain slope on either side. Its top length is 300 feet from the abutments; it is sixty feet high from the bedrock of the creek, at its deep- est portion. From a base width of twenty feet, it slopes to three feet wide at the top. Its aver- age co-efficient of safety is twenty-five, and it could resist twenty times the present pressure. This dam is built of vast granite blocks, laid in Portland cement (of which 1,600 barrels were consumed in the structure), the interstices be- ing filled with beton. The lake formed by this dam is said to be the largest artificial body of water in the world. It extends five miles back into Bear valley, with an average width of nearly a mile, and a depth of twelve feet, and it contains the enormous amount of 8,000,000,000

gallons. To supply this, the valley furnishes over sixty square miles of drainage area, on which falls three times the amount of water re- ceived by the lower valleys. The quantity of water now held in reserve is sufficient to irri- gate 50,000 acres of land, and to supply a pop- ulation of 500,000 with water for domestic purposes. This dam is 6,400 feet above sea level.

For the satisfaction of readers who desire more technical details, here follows a circum- stantial account of

THE BEAR VALLEY WATER SYSTEM,

taken entire from "Irrigation in California (Southern)," by William Hamilton Hall, State Engineer.

Bear Valley and Bear Creek .- Immediately north of the San Bernardino peak and Grayback mountain, extending in an easterly and westerly direction, at an elevation from 4,500 to 5,000 feet, lies the valley of the upper Santa Ana river. Overlooking this, and bordering it on the north is a long rugged mountain ridge, whose crest line holds 7,200 to 7,700 feet of altitude, and which I shall call the central ridge. Next north of this, with its axis in the same direction and about four and one-half miles from the main mountains on the south, we find Bear valley, a remarkably large and flat mount- ain basin, about 6,200 to 6,300 feet above the sea, and twenty-one miles in a straight line from San Bernardino.

Storage Reservoir .- This valley has the ap- pearance of once having held a lake whose wa- ters, at an elevation of 125 feet above its bottom, overflowed at the east end into the head of a cañon which leads away into the Colorado desert. Now, however, we find a deep and nar- row rock-bound gorge leading out of its other extremity, and, cutting southerly around the west end of the Central mountain ridge, before mentioned, joining the cañon of the Santa Ana river about ten miles above its outlet into San Bernardino valley. This gorge holds Bear creek, at whose point of departure from the valley a

VIEW OF BEAR VALLEY RESERVOIR AND DAM .- San Bernardino County, Cal. (Altitude, over 6,000 Feet above Sea Level. )

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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.

dam has been built, whereby the basin has been made, or remade, a lake. The bottom plain of the valley is twelve miles long, and varies be- tween a few hundred yards and a mile in width. Its lower end was narrow and rock-bound; then, a couple of miles or more above the dam site, it opened out into a couple of beautiful meadows, whose level plains, 700 to 800 acres in area, were thirty to forty-five feet above the ontlet; and at the upper end of the valley is another such flat, covering abont 800 acres, and twenty to thirty feet still higher. At sixty feet of elevation above the base of the dam a water- plane would reach 5.9 miles up the valley, and have an average width of 0.6 of a mile, covering 2,252 acres in area. At 120 feet of elevation the length would be 11.5 miles, the mean width 1.1 miles, and the area submerged 7,850 acres.

Water-shed and Precipitation .- The water- shed tributary to the valley is forty to forty-five square miles in area. On the south lies the Central ridge already described, and heavily timbered on its slope toward Bear valley. North and west is a well timbered but not abrupt mountain 1,000 to 1,500 feet above the valley. Northeast are rolling hills-500 to 700 feet above the valley, and sparsely timbered; while the east end is closed in from the desert slope by a comparatively barren range of hills, whose altitude ranges from 200 to 500 feet above the valley. The rock of the country is, for the most part, granite, of which huge boulders and mas- sive ledges crop out around the slope, particu larly near the western end. Limestone is found near the eastern end, and some good lime lias been burned there. Although the country is mnuch broken and shattered in its rock forma- tion, there is a good layer of soil over most of it, and the bottom of the valley itself is well clothed in this respect, as attested by the rich meadows which ordinarily remain moist and green the year round-receiving little streams from the wooded hillsides, and having some springs along their margins. It was feared in some quarters that the reservoir would not hold water-that it would escape in enormous quan- 28

tities through the rock rifts and seams. But this fear has proven groundless. Bear valley is in the midst of the heaviest down-pour belt in Southern California. The clouds collect and bank up against the high peaks of San Bernard- ino and Grayback, and spread over into the Bear valley water-shed. Holding so great an altitude, its precipitation is largely received in the form of snow, which, in the wooded and shaded portion of its sides, lies for several inonths.

Bear Valley Dam .- The dam is at the ex- treme western end of the valley, at the head of the narrow, rock-bound gorge, which drops rap- idly away. Founded on granite, where the channel was sixty to seventy-five feet wide and abutting against granitic mountain sides, at the top line it is about 300 feet in length, in the form of an arch, having a radius of 335 feet; and it is 64 feet in height from extreme base to top of coping. In cross-section it is remarkable. The top is but 3 to 3.2 feet wide; the lower face vertical for 48 feet and the upper face bat- tered so that 48 feet down the structure is 8.5 feet thick. At this plane there is an offset up and down stream-the dam increases in thick- ness to twelve or fifteen feet-and thence has a slight batter on both sides, so that at the ex treme foundation it has a thickness of twenty feet. This structure is of granite, rough-ashlar masonry on both faces, and broken-coursed rub- ble in the interior, all laid in a cement mortar and grouting. The square stones show dimen- sions ranging from three to five feet in length, one and one-half to two and one-half feet in width, and one to two feet in thickness, with others, of course, smaller. Its total volnine is about 3,300 or 3,400 cubic yards. At the time construction commenced, in the fall of 1883, there was no water running out of the valley, and little was encountered in sinking three or four feet for the dam foundation, so that small difficulty was had in this work. That season the wall was brought up to the level of the benel, sixteen feet above the foundation plane, for half of its length. It was desired to make

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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.

some show of impounding water the first year, and to test the water-producing capacity of the shed; so a temporary earthen dam was put across the valley just below the wide marshes, about two miles above the main dam site. This embankment was five to six feet high, and was calculated to bank water over 500 to 600 acres, to an average depth of three or four feet. The move was quite a fortunate one, for the water thus held back during the winter of 1883-'84 fur- nished a supply, which being gradually let out of this temporary reservoir, during the summer, enabled the constructors to keep a lake surface of sufficient depth and extent behind the new wall to afford, by means of flat-boats, an eco- nomical way of transporting stone from the quarries. The rock was quarried from the. out- cropping masses of granite along the edge of the valley, and near the level of the proposed lake, from 100 yards to three-quarters of a mile above the dam site. That for the first season's work was obtained near at hand and delivered on sleds, but that for the second season's work, comprising the great mass of the dam, was transported on flats and put into the work by means of derricks on large rafts floated close against the upper face of the dam.

At the north end the dam foundation was cut into the loose, sloping mountain-side, to a bed-rock base. The south end abnts against a massive, nearly perpendicular ledge, or point, of granite standing near 100 feet out into the cañon. This point in reality forms a part of the dam. Over it a flood escape-way has been cut twenty feet in width, and with a plane 8.5 feet below the level of the extreme crest of the dam coping. Through the bed-rock immediately below the foundation plane, about one-third of the length of the structure from the sonthern end, about 9.5 feet above its extreme base plane, is a cutting which forms a culvert 3 x 3.5 feet in aperture, opening ont below into a masonry pool, from which it was expected to measure the water over a weir. This culvert gradually becomes narrower towards the upper end. On the upper face of the structure the culvert is

closed with masonry, to a gate-opening of twenty by twenty-four inches, over which is an iron sliding-gate, on brass bearings, worked by a screw at the top of an iron rod, which extends up through the water, in a six-inch lap-welded pipe serving as a guide, to a wooden platform, built out from the coping of the dam. Subse- quently this culvert opening was lined over a movable mould with concrete, so that the opening is 2 x 3 feet, with an arched top. There is no gate tower; no provision for draw- ing water at less pressure; no safe-gnard or regulator on the one outlet provided other than the one gate. In the matter of abntment, the damn for about twenty to thirty feet at each side is gradually made thicker, so that it rests against the rock of the country at 1.5 to 2.2 its normal thickness. The coping stones are three feet long, generally one and one half feet thick, and two to two and one-half feet wide, resting lengthwise across the top of the structure. The finish work and copingstones have not been put on for the full length, so that for more than half the length the top is three to four feet below the intended plane of completion. The first year after con- struction, with the water-plane at forty to forty- five feet, there was a little leakage at the south end, near or under the base, which, it is claimed, came through rifts in the granite point, against which the structure there rests; and there was a remarkably free sweating and efflorescence of lime on the lower face over the whole structure, nearly up to the water-line. It is understood that the sweating phenomenon has now to a great extent ceased. There has been some expansive movement to the structure-attested by the reported fact that the cope stones which do not extend all the way across show a separa- tion at some of the points, to be accounted for . only as the result of expansion and subsequent contraction. Otherwise the structure appears to rest just as placed, and thus far serves its purpose; the water having been for a time within a foot of the finished part of its top, and having constantly stood well up on it for a con- siderable period, as hereinafter written.

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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.

The company, desirons of securing greater reservoir capacity, has in contemplation an enlargement of this work. It is proposed to provide for storage to the 100-foot plane above the present foundation.

Reservoir Space and Water-Supply .- This reservoir site was surveyed preliminarily by the State Engineering Department in 1880, and it was reported that a dam forty-five feet in height would impound water over an area of abont 1,500 acres, to a volume of about 650,000,000 cubic feet, and that a dam sixty feet in height would create a reservoir space about 2,300 acres in area, and about 1,850,000,000 cubic feet in volume. The dam subsequently built is not exactly at the location where the section of 1880 was made, so that the figures of the later and more detailed survey made by the Bear valley company do not tally precisely with those of the preliminary reconnoisance; but they are close enough to prove substantially correct.

Cost of the Work .- The dam cost about $68,000, which, together with expense attend- ing the management, and collateral costs during its construction, brought the total to about $75,000. There were upwards of 1,600 barrels of cement used, all of which had to be hauled by wagon from San Bernardino, over seventy miles of rough and heavy road, away round the mountains and up the desert face of the chain to Holcomb valley, itself not over 21 miles from San Bernardino in an air- line. This transportation cost over $10 per barrel, and the cement in all cost over $20,000. This cir- cumstance of heavy transportation and inacces- sibility of location made all rates high, and the cost excessive for its bulk. Under these cir- cumstances, it seems that another kind of dam might have been constructed to advantage.

District and Works .- The waters of Bear valley reservoir being liberated come down Bear creek and Santa Ana river. The character of the river channel is such, and loss in it so very great after leaving the cañon, that it is desirable to take waters out of it at as high a

point as possible. The Bear valley company found the North Fork and South Fork ditches in possession of the point of advantage -- the highest place at which diversion could be effected, without extraordinary expense and cost for works, which would have to be located on rough cañon and mountain sides. After long and wearisome negotiations, agreements have been effected under which the Bear valley company has secured right of way for its waters ont from this point, and through the North and South Fork ditches.

The Beur Valley Canal and Structures .--- The work as it now is may be described as fol- lows: commencing at the "divide," the waters flow down a natural channel-way through bould- ers and gravels for somewhat less than half a mile; thence they are led partly in a natural channel and partly in artificial cuttings, still through the same river-wash about a quarter of a mile farther, to a place that may be called the southern face of the canon month. Here they are taken into a flume forty-eight inches wide and thirty-two inches deep, and carried around the base of the southern bluff for a distance of 2,600 feet, gradually coming out upon the first bench-land south of the river. Thence the canal is constructed across three flat points of beneh- land, crossing in its route two deep arroyos or barrancas, a distance of 2,650 feet to the great barranca known as Mill creek wash. This work is in the form of a paved and cemented canal, two feet wide on the bottom, five feet wide on top, and three and one-half to four and one- half feet deep. The paving and masonry walls were put in by line, in mortar and cemented over the whole surface. It was constructed in the spring of 1885. Its grades are eiglit inchies and twenty inches in the 100 feet, and its capacity is placed at 3,000 inches. The flu'nes across the two ar- royos mentioned are 360 feet and 290 feet long respectively, and are mainly supported on tres . tles, but with a truss-bridge support over main channel-way, forty-five and twenty-nine feet high, respectively, about the central part of each, Across Mill creek wash is a flume forty-eight

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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.

inches wide, twenty-four inches deep, and 240 feet long, supported on trestles. This is a work of the old Sunnyside or South Fork Ditch A8- sociation, and was constructed about 1878. It is now in a dilapidated condition, and is to be replaced. From Mill creek wash for one and one-half miles in a sonthwesterly direction, the work follows in quite a direct line, and over the ronte of the old South Fork or Sunnyside canal. As originally constructed, this was simply an excavated ditch, following the uneven grades of the ground's surface, with a cobble and gravel bed, three and one-half feet wide on the bottom, five feet on top, and two feet deep. During the past spring the Bear Valley Company recon- structed 3,295 feet of this ditch, making it a paved and cemented ditch two and one-half feet wide at the bottom, five feet wide on top, and three and one-half deep. At about a quarter of a mile above the lower end of this section is what is known as the Sunnyside " divide,"where the waters of the Sunnyside canal are turned into the old channel, which takes them westerly into the Lugonia district. At the lower end of this division of the Bear valley work, the T. & B. ditch joins it, having come around on a lower-grade line, west of the Bear valley course. Thence the Bear valley canal follows on nearly the old alignment of Redlands ditch, which was first constructed in 1881, almost on a dne south- west course, to and across the Mill creek zanja. As built, this was nearly a straight piece of ditch, and was ronghly paved and partly ce- mented; was about two and one- half feet wide on the bottom, two feet deep and five feet on top, being very irregular, however, in form as well as in grade. Of this old work, during the past spring about 500 feet were reconstructed, set deeper in the ground, repaved and cemented. * * This work thus far has stood well, there having been no cracks or checks in it. It cost about $2 per linear foot for the masonry works complete.

Across Mill creek zanja there is a flume 430 feet in length, three feet wide, two and one-half feet deep, on a grade of 0.3 in 100, all of red-

wood and well constructed. This brings us into the fifth division of the work, which extends from Mill creek zanja to the Yncaipa reservoir of the Redlands Water Company. Following the general line of the old Redlands canal, as constructed in 1881-'82, the new work here is gradually getting back upon the compara- tively high bench-lands and nearing the foot- hills of the Sonthern range. As originally constructed, the old canal wasabout 10,000 feet long through this division. It was very crook ed, and of irregular grade and cross-section, but generally two and one- half feet on the bottom, fonr to five feet on the top, and two feet deep. During the spring of 1888 the Bear Valley Water Company reconstructed this ditch for a total length of 3,800 feet of paved and cemented work and 600 feet of fluming. This new work commenced about 2,500 feet from the head of the division, and from being straight in align- ment has shortened the channel about 900 feet.

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Author: Lewis Publishing Company Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : The Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1038

Author: Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1038