USA > California > California of the South: Being a Complete Guide Book to Southern California > Part 10
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The vicinity of Elizabeth Lake abounds in ducks, deer, rabbits, and quail, while on the so-called desert lands, ante- lope are numerous, and the mountains are the haunts of the grizzly bear and mountain-lion.
The Santa Clara River, the principal stream of Ventura County, rises in this township in Soledad Canon.
The most important railway stations are Newhall, San- gus, Lang, South Side, Acton, Alpine, Lancaster, and Rosa-
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mond. There are very productive petroleum-wells in the neighborhood of Newhall, that will be described in a sepa- rate chapter. Placer gold-mining is quite profitable in parts of this township, and there are also undeveloped mines of silver, copper, coal, iron, and graphite. Marble and gran- ite are abundant.
This vast township is a terra incognita to the average citizen of Los Angeles County, and especially so to the ordi- nary tourist and health-seeker, yet see what a list of interest- ing features it presents ! To the student of Nature who loves mountains, forests, lakes, and plains ; who delights in ge- ology, botany, or zoology ; who desires fossils, shells, rare flowers, and ferns ; to the sportsman, the miner, the farmer, or to the fruit-grower, there are in this hitherto almost un- noticed territory points of great interest and value. More especially is this section to be commended to the health- seeker. Here, at an altitude of 2,500 feet, many invalids who suffer from pulmonary troubles, and fail to find relief nearer the ocean, are greatly benefited.
There are also in this township a number of mineral springs, the most noted being the iron sulphur springs at Lang Station, forty-three miles from Los Angeles, and at an elevation of 1,681 feet. These springs have quite a local reputation for curing rheumatism. There is a comfortable hotel for the accommodation of invalids.
San Fernando Township.
San Fernando Township is just south of Soledad, from which it is separated by the San Fernando Mountains. The Southern Pacific Railroad, in going from the town of San Fernando in this township to the town of Newhall in Sole- dad Township, passes through a tunnel one and one-third mile long, with two exceptions the longest on the Western Continent. This township was formerly a ranch of nearly
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125,000 acres, and belonged to General Andres Pico, who made the treaty with General Fremont at Cahuenga in 1847. General Pico sold the ranch in 1846 to Eulogio F. de Celis for $14,000, and in 1853 he repurchased one-half of it for $15,000.
This ranch has ever since been one immense wheat-field, and although subdivided and belonging in tracts of a few thousand acres, to a number of owners, yet it has still re- mained almost exclusively a wheat-producing territory, a twenty-thousand-acre wheat-field being no rare sight.
These tracts are now being subdivided into farms of from five acres to one hundred and sixty acres, and, as a consequence, the products will be much more diversified. The subdivision of the large ranchos into small farms has hitherto insured a thorough and economical cultivation of the land, and this, more than any one other cause, has operated to make Southern California the most prosperous and progressive section of the United States.
In about the center of this township is the Mission of San Fernando Rey, founded in 1797 at the joint expense of Charles IV of Spain and the Marquis of Branceforte, Vice- roy of Mexico, in honor of- Ferdinand V, King of Castile and Aragon.
The old church is now a complete but an interesting ruin. Formerly the mission-buildings aggregated over a mile and a half in length. Many of them have been leveled, but some are yet in an excellent state of preservation.
Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson, speaking of this town, said : "San Fernando is one of the places I desire to see twice." There are around this mission some fine old olive-trees, of which a correspondent of the "New York Times " recently wrote as follows :
"Some twenty years ago I visited the San Fernando Mission, twenty-four miles from Los Angeles, in company with Generals Jefferson C. Davis and Stoneman, and we sat long, one delicious
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mond. There are very productive petroleum-wells in the neighborhood of Newhall, that will be described in a sepa- rate chapter. Placer gold-mining is quite profitable in parts of this township, and there are also undeveloped mines of silver, copper, coal, iron, and graphite. Marble and gran- ite are abundant.
This vast township is a terra incognita to the average citizen of Los Angeles County, and especially so to the ordi- nary tourist and health-seeker, yet see what a list of interest- ing features it presents ! To the student of Nature who loves mountains, forests, lakes, and plains ; who delights in ge- ology, botany, or zoology ; who desires fossils, shells, rare flowers, and ferns ; to the sportsman, the miner, the farmer, or to the fruit-grower, there are in this hitherto almost un- noticed territory points of great interest and value. More especially is this section to be commended to the health- seeker. Here, at an altitude of 2,500 feet, many invalids who suffer from pulmonary troubles, and fail to find relief nearer the ocean, are greatly benefited.
There are also in this township a number of mineral springs, the most noted being the iron sulphur springs at Lang Station, forty-three miles from Los Angeles, and at an elevation of 1,681 feet. These springs have quite a local reputation for curing rheumatism. There is a comfortable hotel for the accommodation of invalids.
San Fernando Township.
San Fernando Township is just south of Soledad, from which it is separated by the San Fernando Mountains. The Southern Pacific Railroad, in going from the town of San Fernando in this township to the town of Newhall in Sole- dad Township, passes through a tunnel one and one-third mile long, with two exceptions the longest on the Western Continent. This township was formerly a ranch of nearly
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SAN FERNANDO.
125,000 acres, and belonged to General Andres Pico, who made the treaty with General Fremont at Cahuenga in 1847. General Pico sold the ranch in 1846 to Eulogio F. de Celis for $14,000, and in 1853 he repurchased one-half of it for $15,000.
This ranch has ever since been one immense wheat-field, and although subdivided and belonging in tracts of a few thousand acres, to a number of owners, yet it has still re- mained almost exclusively a wheat-producing territory, a twenty-thousand-acre wheat-field being no rare sight.
These tracts are now being subdivided into farms of from five acres to one hundred and sixty acres, and, as a consequence, the products will be much more diversified. The subdivision of the large ranchos into small farms has hitherto insured a thorough and economical cultivation of the land, and this, more than any one other cause, has operated to make Southern California the most prosperous and progressive section of the United States.
In about the center of this township is the Mission of San Fernando Rey, founded in 1797 at the joint expense of Charles IV of Spain and the Marquis of Branceforte, Vice- roy of Mexico, in honor of- Ferdinand V, King of Castile and Aragon.
The old church is now a complete but an interesting ruin. Formerly the mission-buildings aggregated over a mile and a half in length. Many of them have been leveled, but some are yet in an excellent state of preservation.
Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson, speaking of this town, said : "San Fernando is one of the places I desire to see twice." There are around this mission some fine old olive-trees, of which a correspondent of the "New York Times " recently wrote as follows :
"Some twenty years ago I visited the San Fernando Mission, twenty-four miles from Los Angeles, in company with Generals Jefferson C. Davis and Stoneman, and we sat long, one delicious
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evening in December, under the olive-trees at that place, smoking cigarettes rolled by Stoneman, chatting about the war, and getting slightly boozed upon aguardiente furnished by General Andreas Pico, who commanded the Mexican forces which had defeated the Americans some twenty years before, only a few miles from where we were sitting and inhaling the perfumed air. I visited the same old trees in January last, which still stand up against the storms of one hundred years, for all around the ancient inclosure, built by the Franciscan Fathers a century ago, stand the olive-trees which they planted with reverent hands before the Constitution of the United States was adopted. Like that Constitution they have borne fruit for the good of mankind. These old trees of the San Fernando Mission, owing to a legal contest of title about the land on which they stood, were neglected for about ten years and left unpruned, while the land was left untilled. Still the grand old trees main- tained their living but with limited fruitings. About three years ago, after the title had been settled, P. Cassanave took charge of the grounds and plowed them thoroughly. He then pruned the trees judiciously and awaited results. These have been most gratifying and surprising. Without delay these centenarians commenced sending out hundreds of thousands of new branches and loaded both young and old with precious fruit, while all around the heavy crop of bar- ley thrives, and the trees, though they have received no irrigation, each year produce a glorious crop of handsome olives that make rich returns from thrifty labor. On the bending branches of these ancient trees the fruit, under the sunny sky of San Fernando, will soon be maturing again, and furnish ten thousand gallons of olives for oil or pickles, as may be desired by the owner. Mr. Casanave is now building on the new Fernando colony grounds the largest olive-oil factory in the State, so that he can use up all the olives grown in Los Angeles County."
The town of San Fernando is located on the Southern Pacific Railroad, twenty-one miles from Los Angeles ; it has an elevation of one thousand and sixty-one feet. The climate is delightful and the situation beautiful. Between this town and the mountains, one mile away, is a grand, rolling plain, that is now being occupied by cozy homes. Hon. Charles McClay laid out the present town of San
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Fernando in 1874. In April of that year a free excursion train was run from Los Angeles to attend the first auction- sale of town-lots. The lots were twenty-five by one hun- dred feet, and sold at prices ranging from six to twenty dollars.
There are a neat, substantial Methodist Episcopal church, a commodious, attractive public-school building, and a very large three-story brick hotel. San Fernando is the location of the McClay Theological College of the University of Southern California. Senator McClay has endowed this institution with $150,000. He is also erecting the build- ings at a cost to himself of $50,000 more. They were fin- ished and occupied early in 1888. This institution is under the control of the Southern California Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Rev. R. N. C. Farnsworth, A. M., is the dean of the faculty.
Artesian wells and mountain streams water this section. Wheat and barley never need artificial watering, but decidu- ous and citrus fruits demand some irrigation. San Fer- nando is forty minutes by rail from Los Angeles, and there are several trains each way daily.
One of the most prosperous and picturesque mountain- resorts in Southern California is Monte Vista, situated in a beautiful, fertile valley between the Verdugo and Sierra Madre Mountains. Monte Vista is twenty miles north of Los Angeles, and four miles east of Monte Vista Station, on the Southern Pacific Railroad. Tourists desiring to visit this place for either pleasure or business, should see Mr. F. H. Barclay, No. 30 South Spring Street, Los Angeles. There are at Monte Vista the best of hotel accommodations for a limited number.
The water-supply is pure and abundant. There is quite a body of excellent fruit land in this vicinity, and it is one of the places where the search for health can be happily combined with pleasant out-door employment.
Monte Vista, a health-resort twenty miles northwest of Los Angeles (altitude, 1,500 feet).
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CAHUENGA PASS.
La Ballona Township, Santa Monica.
South of San Fernando Township is La Ballona Town- ship, which contains an area of 114,608 acres, and has forty miles of sea-coast. There are many rich grain and fruit farms throughout this township. Some portions are mount- ainous, but even high on the mountain-sides are vineyards and gardens. These mountain or rather foot-hill vegetable- farms were first occupied by very poor people, who were unable to own land in the valley, but, finding that toma- toes could be raised all the year round, their condition of poverty was exchanged for one of comparative wealth.
A grand, romantic place on the northeast boundary of the township is Cahuenga Pass. This pass is eight miles from Los Angeles, and is the spot where, in 1847, the Fre- mont-Pico treaty was made. Every tourist should take a carriage-drive to this point.
All along the mountains, near this pass, are cañons in which are the fruit and vegetable farms referred to. Here, also, are large fields of watermelons and muskmelons, and, during six months in the year, large farm-wagons loaded with melons can be seen wending their way to the Los An- geles markets, whence the melons are shipped by rail in all directions.
This township aligns the city of Los Angeles on the west, and is traversed by two railroads-one, the Los An- geles and Independence, from Los Angeles to Santa Mo- nica ; the other, the California Central, from Los Angeles, via Ballona Harbor, to Santa Monica.
The sea-coast is of continuous interest to all. Year in and year out the swelling tide rolls in on the long, smooth beach, and each time, as it recedes, leaves behind many treasures of the great deep. Often, as parties of visitors start along the sand-dunes, shell and moss gathering, one delightful surprise after another leads them on, until they
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are astonished to find themselves miles from their starting- point. Santa Monica, Santa Monica Canon, and Ballona are among the most famous resorts on this coast.
SANTA MONICA is the most popular sea-side resort. It is situated on a high bluff on Santa Monica Bay, distant about sixteen miles from Los Angeles.
The comparative mean temperature is as follows :
Santa Monica, Cal., January, 54° ; July, 70° ; Diff., 16° Jacksonville, Fla., January, 55° ; July, 82° ; “ 27°
Nice, France, January, 41° ; July, 73º ; 33
The population of Santa Monica is about fifteen hun- dred, exclusive of the thousands of visitors who resort thither every summer. Trains from Los Angeles arrive and depart about every hour of the day. There are excellent hotels, numerous boarding-houses, and a great many cot- tages that can be rented for the season. Surf-bathing is the popular entertainment. There are several churches and a public school with a number of teachers. During the summer balls are given once or twice a week.
Ballona is a new town and artificial harbor, that will be more fully described under a chapter on " Har- bors."
Old Santa Monica Cañon is a charming spot, about two miles from Santa Monica, and is well worth a day's pic- nicking. Around a luncheon spread under the protecting shadow of an immense sycamore, beside the clear waters of a mountain stream rushing heedlessly on to its own ingulf- ment, with great fern and moss-covered cliffs on each side, a merry pleasure-party, whose notes of song and laughter are in harmony with the music of the surf, may be found in this canon almost every day in the year.
* "Climatic," by E. C. Folsom, M. D., " Southern California Practition- er," vol. ii, p. 268.
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SANTA MONICA.
T
Hotel Arcadia, Santa Monica.
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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
Eucalyptus Avenue, Inglewood, Los Angeles.
INGLEWOOD is delightfully situated on the Los Angeles and Ballona branch of the California Central Railroad. It is eight miles from Los Angeles and six from the ocean. The soil in this vicinity is a deep garden-loam, and all kinds of fruit usually cultivated in Southern California thrive here. An idea of the climate may be gained from the fact that, for the past three years, there has been no frost that
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INGLEWOOD .- GLENDALE.
has damaged growing fruit and vines. D. Freeman, of Inglewood, has recently given six bundred thousand dollars to the University of Southern California, which will be used to establish the Freeman College of Applied Science. One hundred thousand dollars of this munificent gift will be used for buildings, and five hundred thousand dollars for endowment. The buildings, located at Inglewood, are now in course of erection, and it is expected that the col- lege will open with the school year of 1888.
Los Angeles Township.
South of Soledad, and east of San Fernando Township, is Los Angeles Township, which has an aggregate area of about ninety thousand acres. It is a very rich and pro- ductive township, and has many wealthy fruit-growers in its population. Los Angeles city occupies the southern part.
The Southern Pacific Railroad from Los Angeles to San Francisco crosses the southwestern corner of this township. There are several stations on the road ; but BURBANK, a new and prosperous place, fifteen miles from Los Angeles, is the principal village.
The Los Angeles River, a turbulent stream in the win- ter, but a beautiful creek in the summer, leaving its cañon in the San Fernando Mountains, flows through this town- ship.
GLENDALE, a pretty little town, with churches, school- houses, and other evidences of an intellectual population, is about eight miles north of the city of Los Angeles, with which it is connected by a " dummy " railway. In this vil- lage is one of the largest peach-orchards in the State, bc- sides numerous orange-groves and vineyards. The visitor to Southern California should see Glendale .- In West Glen- dale, adjoining the town of Glendale, is a large ostrich-
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farm. The raising of ostriches has proved a very profitable industry in Southern California. There are large numbers of these birds at this Glendale farm. The birds are kept for their feathers. The average revenue from each bird, from the sale of its feathers, is three hundred dollars per year. The young birds are hatched by " incubators."
VERDUGO CAÑON is an interesting mountain-drive, about six miles from Los Angeles. A day spent leisurely here, gathering ferns and wild-flowers, or hunting rabbits and quail, can be made very enjoyable.
Ten miles north of the city of Los Angeles is La Caña- da, a great body of mountain-land, that is extremely fer- tile, and has been divided into small fruit-farms. La Cañada has an elevation of about two thousand feet, and is a very desirable location for consumptives.
The true plan for the person who bas incipient consump- tion is to secure a small tract of land, build a neat little cottage, and make a home for himself where he can stay con- tentedly until he has regained his health.
The Tujunga Creek has its source in the northern part of this township, and flows into Los Angeles River.
Wilmington Township, San Pedro.
South of San Antonio is Wilmington Township, a great part of which is a peninsula. There are artesian wells scat- tered all over Los Angeles County, from Soledad Township · to the southern boundary ; but the northern part of this township, in the vicinity of COMPTON, is most noted for these perpetual fountains.
As a consequence, this land is remarkably well watered. In early days, the dairy-men were careless about caring for the surplus water, and the result was, stagnant water and malaria. A philanthropic gentleman, with the true Chris- tian spirit, visited Compton, and, on seeing the stagnant
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COMPTON .- WILMINGTON.
water, said to the only physician in the village, " Doctor, why don't you get the farmers together here, organize a public health association, and drain this water off the land ?" The medical man happened to be an Irishman who enjoyed startling people, and his answer was : " Do you think I am a d-d fool ? What use would the people have for my quinine and blue mass then ?"
Compton was laid out in 1869, and named for G. D. Compton, then the only resident. It is a prosperous town, with churches, school-houses, stores, about all the secret societies, and the other institutions of a California village. It is ten miles south of Los Angeles, on the Wilmington branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad. The distinctive industry is butter- and cheese-making. Corn and barley are profitable crops, but the most profitable crop to raise for stock is alfalfa. This is a variety of clover that is raised in every county in Southern California. W. L. Cook, of Santa Ana, in a paper on " Alfalfa," read before the Los Angeles County Pomological Society, said : " In this part of the State we usually cut four times the first year, after that from six to eight times during the year. It is usually cut when fairly in the blossom ; should it begin to lodge, it may be cut sooner. The yield depends very much on the amount of care given. The average crop is from one and a half to two tons per acre at a cutting." It is an excellent food for all kinds of stock, hogs not excepted. Fields of alfalfa present a rich, velvety-green appearance that delights the eye.
Deciduous fruits and berries are also raised successfully here, but citrus fruits are not profitable. A visit to this section will interest all who enjoy seeing fine hogs, cattle, artesian wells, creameries, and cheese-factories.
On the coast is the town of WILMINGTON, twenty-two miles from Los Angeles, with which it is connected by the Southern Pacific Railroad. This town was founded by
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the late General Phineas Banning in 1858, whose name is intimately associated with the development of Los Angeles County.
Like Compton, it has its schools, churches, etc. Three miles beyond Wilmington is SAN PEDRO, the location of wharves, custom officials, and the point where vessels with freight and passengers for Los Angeles unload. A full description of San Pedro Harbor will be given in the chapter on "Harbors." While it is not the most popu- lar sea-side resort, yet many families go there from Los Angeles every summer, and all who spend a few weeks there are delighted. There are as yet no satisfactory hotel accommodations, and the only pleasant way to do is to rent a cottage.
Concerning the boating and fishing, General D. B. Hen- derson, member of Congress from Dubuque, Iowa, says, "San Pedro beats the world as a fishing-place." Boats can always be rented at reasonable figures.
San Pedro is the terminus of the Wilmington branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad. It also contains one of the largest lumber-yards in the world. There are three trains daily to Los Angeles.
One mile farther out on the peninsula is Point Firmin, on which is situated the lighthouse. Courteous keepers are always in charge, and an hour can be pleasantly spent here.
In the northwest corner of this township, on the coast, are the salt-works .* A popular drive from Los Angeles for picnickers who wish to spend a day on the coast is to visit these salt-works. The large ranches in the southern part of this township are now being subdivided, and the town of Broad Acres has been established ; so that soon the immense grain-fields will give way to small farms.
* This beautiful place is now the scene of great activity. A hotel is being erected at a cost of $250,000, and the name is Rodonda Beach.
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SEWAGE FARM.
San Antonio Township.
East of La Ballona and the southern part of Los An- geles Township is San Antonio Township. It is a rich body of land. With an area of about thirty-five thousand acres, much of the township is given to the cultivation of wheat, barley, and beets, but there are also many fruit- farms. There is one vineyard of twenty-seven hundred acres known as the Nadeau Vineyard. This vineyard, situ- ated about four miles from Los Angeles, is crossed by two lines of the Southern Pacific Railroad : one going to Ana- heim, Santa Ana, and San Diego ; the other to Compton, Long Beach, and San Pedro. The most satisfactory way of visiting it is by carriage or on horseback. The latter is a very popular way of traveling in Southern California, and excellent saddle-horses for such trips may always be found in livery-stables. In the eastern part of this township is a single barley-field containing eleven thousand acres. It is the Laguna Ranch, and is owned by Colonel R. S. Baker.
For fifteen years the rich sewage of the city of Los An- geles has been used as a fertilizer. A company of fruit-grow- ers own a body of about two thousand acres of land called the Sewage Farm, and upon this the main sewer of Los An- geles discharges its rich contents. This sewage is conducted from the outlet of the main sewer by ditches-one day to one orchard, vegetable-garden, or vineyard, and the next day to another. As fast as it is received upon the land it is to enrich, it is plowed under and thus covered with earth, the best-known disinfectant.
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