USA > California > California of the South: Being a Complete Guide Book to Southern California > Part 18
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"The above, of course, is the best side of the picture, but these are enough successful cases to test fairly the remedial value of these waters.
" Thus, here we have a climate dry, bracing, temperate, with a decided change through the seasons, suitable for cases of pulmonary, bronchial, and rheumatic affections-cases, probably, that do not do well under more equable and less exhilarating climatic conditions; altitude moderate, soil perfect, strong dry winds, good water, long, rolling valley, surrounded by high hills or mountains, accessible to the pine regions, and in addition medicinal springs, valuable in many chronic diseases-known to have effected positive cures in some cases. Are these not desiderata worth recording? I am far from ascribing to the hot springs region all the advantages claimed by other more vaunted and popular places; but, among the bountiful gifts Nature has given to Southern California, not the least, I believe, is the Temecula Hot Springs district.
238
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
" The subjoined table was kindly given me by Dr. A. M. Law- rence, who lives within three miles of the hot springs at Murietta :
Elevation, 1,090 feet ; latitude, 33° 32' 24"; longitude, 117º 10' W.
DATE.
Mean tem-
perature.
Highest
tempera-
ture.
Lowest
tempera- ture.
Mean hn-
midity.
Prevailing
Total rain
No. of days
on which rain fell.
1885.
July ..
70.94. 105
57
57.38
: S. W.
0
August
75 . 95
111
58
57.21
S. W.
0.7
September
67.48
107
45
61.10
S. W.
0
October
61.15
100
35
63.46
S. W.
0
November.
54.52
80
27
71.04
S. W.
5.15
December
49.47
80
27
70.59
S. W.
0.74
1886.
January
49.49
77
21
78.20
S. W.
10.66
8
February
51.00
80
31
72.34
S. W.
0.48
2
March
49.87
80.6
80
84.54
S. W.
5.94
8
April
54.12
78
34
79.21
S. W.
3.79
4
May
6.20
98
44
77.11
S. W.
0
0
June
64.95
98
48
76.79
S. W.
0
0
0 0 8 5 OY OO OOHO
SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.
This is the largest county in the United States. It con- tains 23,472 square miles, making over 15,000,000 acres. In other words, this one county in Southern California is about the size of the States of Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, and Massachusetts combined. If we add Los Angeles and San Diego Counties to San Bernardino, we have a territory as large as the four States just mentioned and Vermont and New Hampshire combined.
The county lies between the parallels of 34º north and 32° south. The editor of the San Bernardino "Courier," in a recent issue, says :
" The climate and productions are, of course, sub-tropical, though so varied are the soil and climate that, within the bounds of the great San Bernardino Valley almost every staple indigenous to both the sub-tropical and temperate zones is produced. Our chief produc-
wind.
fall.
---
239
SAN BERNARDINO.
tions are the citrus fruits so precious in commerce: raisin-grapes, the various berries, wine-grapes, from which great quantities of the best wine made in the State are manufactured, alfalfa-clover, the most productive plant of forage, wheat, barley, oats, buckwheat, and corn, potatoes, which yield prodigious quantities to the acre, and general farm and dairy produce.
"Oranges, lemons, pomegranates, limes, figs, quinces-in short, all the sub-tropical fruits here attain to perfection. Our citrus fruits are the best known in commerce, and beat the world in competition at New Orleans and Chicago. Orange-culture is the most profitable use to which land can be put in these latitudes; hence, orange- growing is here a leading industry. It is as facinating as it is a profitable pursuit; hence every newcomer wants an orange-grove. After the eighth year an acre in oranges may be safely relied upon to give a net profit of five hundred dollars. Other citrus fruits are generally, if not quite, as profitable, though the orange is, on the whole, more certain. The crop ripens in December. An orange- grove in bloom in the middle of January-the trees densely, darkly green, with their golden fruit standing out in contrasted relief, while the bridal blossoms, so dear to poetry, peep out in radiant purity- is one of the most beautiful and fascinating sights in Nature. What the climate is can be realized from a knowledge of the facts above given.
" Our raisins have a national reputation for superiority, and com- mand the highest prices in the California and Eastern markets.
" The productions of the temperate zone are yielded in prodigal profusion. Our mesas give fine crops of wheat of superb quality. Barley and other small grains yield largely, while we have some of the richest corn-land in the world.
"Potatoes, beets, cabbages, turnips, beans, sweet-potatoes, and garden-stuff thrive most luxuriantly. In many sections of the valley Irish potatoes can be had fresh from the ground every month in the year. Garden-stuff is perennial. So are strawberries. So is alfalfa- clover, which yields from ten to fourteen tons of splendid hay annu- ally to the acre. In midwinter we have string-beans, fresh tomatoes, 'new' Irish potatoes, green peas, green garden-stuff, and the finest citrus fruits in the world on our tables daily. Strawberries fresh from the vine were peddled in San Bernardino all winter. Grapes from the vine were to be had in the middle of January in the sec-
240
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
tions around the foot-hills. Farming, in the Eastern sense, is foi- lowed by few. The farmer here, as a rule, is, more properly speak- ing, a horticulturist. He grows potatoes, wheat, barley, corn, beets, alfalfa-two, three, or perhaps all of them-for the use of his table and his stock, but generally depends upon the sale of his fruit for his annual income. Of course, he grows his own apples, peaches, pears, and grapes. Good apples, delicious peaches, and perfect pears are produced in the San Bernardino Valley ; and all of these command a profitable market. There are a few great grain-ranches in the valley. Where water for irrigation is available, land which will here give good wheat is altogether too valuable for the cultiva- tion of the citrus fruit to be ' wasted in wheat-growing,' as the farm- ers say."
A large portion of the county is mountainous and desert, but the mountains are rich in minerals, and the deserts lack only water to be fertile. As the other lands become occu- pied, the writer fully believes means will be at hand for irrigating these barren wastes. The soil is excellent, and in the near future water from artesian wells, tunnels, or mountain reservoirs will doubtless be developed.
City of San Bernardino.
This is one of the chief cities in Southern California. It was originally a Joe Smith Mormon town, and was planned after Salt Lake City. The town is well laid out, and that is about all that the San Bernardino people need to thank the Mormons for. So long as the Mormons were in control, the city developed slowly. The Mormon yoke was long since thrown off, and Catholic and Protestant bells ring out a new era of progress and prosperity.
The altitude of San Bernardino is 1,073 feet. It is in a fertile basin, and the visitor is at once captivated by its numerous beautiful homes and rich orchards. The neat and happy home makes any place attractive. Avenues of palms, excellent public highways, grand public buildings
--
241
SAN BERNARDINO.
are pleasant to look upon, but are no indication of the real status of the people or the condition of the country.
San Bernardino and its vicinity is composed of succes- sive avenues of homes. A fruit-growing community must necessarily mean a community of many homes. "Ten acres enough" can well be said here. The outside of a home usually indicates the character of the people inside. Orange-culture naturally develops the finer qualities of hu- manity to a higher plane than that of corn- and hog- raising.
Visitors will find fruit-growers, as a rule, people who love the good and the beautiful. They are educated, and believe in the education of their children. It seems as though it would be an impossibility for a family to grow up here, under the shadow of Mount San Bernardino, where an ordinary drive leads to mountain canons and waterfalls, surrounded by flowers and ferns, where their chief occupa- tion is among shapely trees and fragrant blossoms, culti- vating and gathering and packing the rosy-cheeked apri- cot, the delicate-skinned nectarine, and the golden orange, without having developed within them the finer sensibilities and higher attributes of mankind.
Abundance of fruit means abundance of water. San Bernardino has in its immediate vicinity over four hundred artesian wells. These never-failing fountains, bursting forth from their earthly bounds, present a novel picture.
The population of San Bernardino is about nine thou- sand. There are excellent public and private schools, and the usual complement of churches and secret societies.
There are several hotels ; the Stewart, just completed, is one of the most commodious on the coast. The city is on the California Southern and California Central Railways, and a motor-line makes trips every few minutes to the Southern Pacific Railroad, at Colton, three miles away.
Other lines of railroad are soon to be constructed, so
11
242
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
that San Bernardino will be an important railroad center. Trains leave hourly for Los Angeles, three times daily for San Diego, and twice a day for Kansas City, Chicago, and New York.
There are numerous substantial brick business blocks. The climate of the city of San Bernardino is very pleasant in winter, but its summers are rather warm. Not so but people can live, do business, and enjoy life, but the fact that the ocean at Santa Monica or Oceanside is only about seventy miles induces many to spend a few weeks where they can be fanned by the ocean's breath.
San Bernardino will ultimately be a large city. The writer of these lines has had ample opportunity to study the situation and channels of trade in Southern California, and he has no hesitancy in predicting that San Bernardino is destined to be a solid commercial city. To the east is the San Gorgonio Pass, with San Bernardino Peak twelve thousand feet high on one side, and San Jacinto Peak nine thousand feet high on the other side, through which the Southern Pacific Railroad enters California, while a few miles to the north is El Cajon Pass, through which the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe reaches the Pacific coast.
As to the climate of San Bernardino, Dr. B. D. Collins, a graduate of the University of the City of New York, is a living witness. The doctor was sent here four years ago with incipient phthisis. He is now one of the healthiest- looking practitioners in that city.
The reader will probably note throughout this book the great proportion of physicians mentioned who have come to Southern California pronounced consumptives or asth- matics. Their testimony is freely quoted, because they are the most careful and competent observers.
The other towns in San Bernardino County are Bar- stow, Calico, Dagget, Hesperia, Ontario, Redlands, Lugonia, Banning, Colton, Rialto, South Riverside, and Riverside.
243
ONTARIO.
BARSTOW is a mining and railroad town eighty miles north of the city of San Bernardino. It is in what is known as the desert. It looks bleak and desolate, but there is an excellent hotel, and two or three days can be pleasantly spent here visiting the mines, collecting minerals and oth- er curious rocks. The atmosphere is very dry, and cases of phthisis where there is no tendency to bleeding of the lungs would probably derive benefit from a brief visit here. Any lengthened visit would result in ennui. Barstow is a capital place to get a good idea of life on the desert.
Nine miles east of Barstow is DAGGET, another mining- village, where there are immense beds of salt ; while seven miles north of Dagget is-
CALICO, the mining-center of Southern California. The silver-mines of this section are a perpetual source of wealth, and employ a large number of men. It is esti- mated that the output from these mines is two million of dollars in bullion annually. The tourist who wishes to visit these mines can do so without undergoing any hard- ships. The nearest station to Calico is Dagget.
Now, the reader will in his mind leave the arid desert, come on the Santa Fe road through a rich tract of country- Hesperia-through El Cajon Pass back to San Bernardino, then west ten miles on the California Central Railroad to-
ETIWANDA .- This is a collection of homes and orchards. A charming place ! Although Etiwanda is not ambitious to become a great town, yet they have centrally located one of the best public-school houses in San Bernardino County. Nines miles farther west on the California Central is-
NORTH ONTARIO, a prosperous and progressive young town. South of this point, two miles on the Southern Pacific Railroad, is-
ONTARIO, probably the most artistically developed place in Southern California. From this station to the base of the mountains, seven miles away, extends an avenue two
244
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
hundred feet wide, lined on each side with pepper-trees, eucalyptus, magnolia, orange, and palm trees.
Setting back a short distance from the avenue are ele- gant villas surrounded by lawns, orchards, and flower-gar- dens. The beauty of this scene can be best comprehended when it is known that the altitude at the station is fourteen hundred feet, while at the end of the avenue, at the base of the mountain, the altitude is twenty-one hundred feet. Thus it is to the tourist on the Southern Pacific train like a picture hung on a wall. Just think of an avenue seven miles long, with trees, gardens, lawns, and elegant houses for a picture, and a mountain for the wall upon which the picture is hung !
At the Southern Pacific station, Ontario proper, there is an excellent hotel, stores, newspaper, and several church organizations. There are no saloons at Ontario. The peo- ple are liberally educated and refined. Besides the excel- lent public schools, there is a large, substantial structure- the Chaffey School of Agriculture of the University of Southern California. This institution, like the branches of the university at Escondido and San Fernando, is under the general supervision of the Southern California Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Five hundred and twenty-four tons of raisins were shipped from Ontario in 1886.
There were erected in Ontario during 1887 one hundred and ten buildings, at a cost of $205,000. The growth has been at a much more rapid rate the present year owing to the advent of the California Central, which crosses. the avenue half-way between the Southern Pacific Railroad and the mountains. Ontario is a choice resort for invalids. From Ontario to Colton, on the Southern Pacific, is nine- teen miles east.
COLTON is situated at the crossing of the South Pa- cific and the California Southern Railroads. It is fifty-
245
COLTON.
eight miles east of Los Angeles and three miles south of San Bernardino. From thirty to fifty trains pass through Colton daily. Almost all kinds of fruit are profitably raised here, the orchard of Dr. W. R. Fox, the leading physician of the county, being particularly noted.
The Colton Packing Company has a mammoth cannery here, and employs two hundred persons. The capacity is 1,500 three-pound cans of fruit per day. Brick-kilns, lime- kilns, lumber-yards, and stone-yards do an extensive busi- ness. There are in Colton good hotels, schools, churches, and the usual number of fraternities.
As to the climate of Colton, the following interesting information from the pen of Dr. G. L. Hutchinson, a prac- titioner in Colton, who came to Southern California sev- eral years ago (through the advice of Dr. B. F. West- brook, the throat and lung specialist of Brooklyn, New York) on account of rapidly-developing disease of the lungs, is valuable : *
" While Los Angeles is usually the objective point for tourists from the East, those coming by the two southern routes pass a point that experience is demonstrating possesses peculiar advantages for the health-seeker.
"Colton is a town of about 1,500 inhabitants, located sixty miles from the coast, near the center of the beautiful San Bernardino Val- ley, and at the junction of two of the great transcontinental railroads, the Atlantic and Pacific and the Southern Pacific. About twenty miles distant can be seen the snow - capped peaks of the highest mount- ains in Southern California, while down in the valley are some of the finest orange-groves in the State.
" A large portion of the town is built upon a broad, sandy slope or 'wash,' which seems to be the bed of a mountain-stream that was long ago diverted to other channels. It is about one half mile from and seventy feet above the Santa Ana River. If a dry, porous soil is desirable, here it is. The well-digger goes down seventy feet for
"Southern California Practitioner," p. 42, February, 1887.
246
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
water, fifty feet of which is through dry sand and gravel. With slight modifications, the relation between elevation above sea-level and temperature holds good in Southern California as elsewhere. Colton has an elevation of about 1,000 feet; slight frosts sometimes occur, but not enough to injure orange or lemon trees. Fog is rare; . when it occurs it is only at night, and is so thin that it disappears with the first rays of the morning sun. Protected by some low mountains to the southwest, the heavy sea-fog drifts by to the north and south, and rolls up in fleecy masses against the mountains sev- eral miles away.
"Lying out in the valley several miles from the mountains, the cold winds which rush out of the canons and through the passes subside in the warm air of the valley, like turbid streams flowing into a placid lake, and one often hears the remark made by visitors who are spending the winter nearer the mountains, 'How still it is here in Colton.' This does not apply to the northers, for the high- est mountains and the deepest valleys can only afford partial protec- tion from them.
" A large proportion of the rain falls upon the mountains; many days in succession the mountains will be shrouded with dark storm- clouds, while out in the valley is unbroken sunshine. There is dur- ing a part of the year a sudden fall of temperature at sunset, ranging from fifteen to thirty degrees. Theoretically, this has been consid- ered unfavorable for phthisical patients; but with the important elements of elevation, dry air and soil, it is practically the reverse.
"Pure water is at all times of the greatest importance, and especially in a warm climate. Heretofore water has been supplied by deep wells, but now water is brought in iron pipes, from artesian wells several miles away.
"Six miles south of Colton is Riverside, and three miles north San Bernardino; with these cities we are closely connected by steam and horse cars, and while we have many of the advantages, we escape the dangers incidental to a dense population.
"Of the advantages of Colton as a winter home for invalids, there can be no question.
"Its freedom from fog, rain, and wind; its elevation and pure water; its remarkably dry soil and air; conditions which, taken together, are almost the antithesis of those which develop phthisis.
"Its proximity to neighboring cities and the mountains by sev-
247
HESPERIA.
eral lines of railroad, give it peculiar advantages. During the sum- mer months the thermometer ranges at midday from 90° to 115°. During the day there is a strong sea-breeze, but the nights are still and cool. To one who has not seen the fact demonstrated it is in- credible that such a burning heat could be either grateful or bene- ficial ; but, in this dry heat, where the functions of the skin are at their maximum, and the heat-producing forces of the body at a minimum, phthisical patients often do well, and it seems that at this season, more than any other, the alterative influence of climate is most marked.
"Invalids with almost any disease, especially rheumatism and phthisis, do well at Colton throughout the year ; but those suffer- ing from diseases of the nose, pharynx, or larynx, characterized by scanty secretion, find the winters very pleasant, but the summer the reverse, and should not remain here during the heated term."
Hesperia Valley consists of thirty-three thousand acres of land-a silicious loam-twenty-five miles north of San Bernardino, along the line of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fé Railway. This valley is noted for its abundant supply of water for irrigating purposes, which is taken from Hesperia Creek. The altitude of this valley is three thousand feet above sea-level. Its climate is especially adapted to persons suffering from asthma and bronchitis.
East San Bernardino Valley.
The tourist who visits the city of San Bernardino will want to take a carriage for a day's drive in the East San Bernardino Valley.
First, there is for four or five miles what is known as Old San Bernardino one continuous panorama of beautiful homes and rich orchards. The one the illustration repre- sents is typical-neither better nor worse than the average. This is the home of Mr. Frank Hinckley, in Old San Ber- nardino, four miles from the city of San Bernardino. The hedge that is in front of the house is entirely of roses.
Residence of Frank Hinckley, Esq., Old San Bernardino.
249
REDLANDS .- LUGONIA.
There are over two hundred varieties, and there is never a day in the year but some portion of this California fence is in bloom. Here are lime, lemon, and orange trees loaded with fruit, and the tourist will find Mr. Hinckley ready to show all of these semi-tropic treasures in a hospitable manner.
Driving on east, one soon reaches the ruins of the San Bernardino Mission, that was founded in 1820. Now high- er ground is reached ; and here is seen a picture of elegant houses and young orchards.
This is a new community. Here is a soil of surpassing richness, a climate that is of great benefit to the invalid, and a people of wonderful enterprise. Soon after driving through a roadway between two lines of palms a prosper- ous town is reached. In September, 1887, there were be- tween forty and fifty brick storerooms and over four hun- dred other houses, where nine months before there was not a house. This is the town of-
REDLANDS, seven miles east of the city of San Bernar- dino. Here the orange-tree bids fair to reach the acme of productiveness. People of wealth are rapidly coming here and building homes where they desire to spend the balance of their days away from the trials and dangers of the win- ter cold or the summer heat of the Atlantic coast. One half mile north of Redlands is-
LUGONIA, a flourishing new town. In both of these places there are banks, churches, school-houses, hotels, etc. North of Lugonia three miles is the section of country known as the Highlands, right up at the base of the mount- ain-a section of the country which is to San Bernardino what the Monrovia and Sierra Madre country are to Los Angeles. Highlands is also an excellent fruit-country. The altitude is from 1,500 to 2,000 feet.
From here is but a short drive to Arrowhead Springs, where there is an excellent hotel. After getting a good
250
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
lunch the tourist should drive back to San Bernardino by way of the Rabel and Harlem Hot Springs. Nowhere in Southern California can a day be spent more pleasantly than in taking this drive. Motor lines will soon be com- pleted to all of these places, but even then it will be pleas- anter to make this round in a carriage with a driver who is posted. If a longer drive is desired,
CRAFTON, a few miles east of Redlands, will be found a romantic spot, well worthy a visit.
BEAUMONT is a town on the Southern Pacific Rail- road, twenty miles east of San Bernardino. The fol- lowing, from Dr. J. W. Root, a graduate of the Uni- versity of New York, who resides there, is full of valu- able information. Dr. Root came to Southern California from Pennsylvania in 1884 suffering from phthisis. On his arrival he was unable to walk; but from within six months of that time up to the present date he has been in active work :
"Nearly every town in Southern California possesses some cli- matic differences from its neighbor, either to its advantage or dis- advantage. My intention in this brief paper is to give the reader, and seeker after health, some idea of the climate of Beaumont and vicinity, formerly San Gorgonio. Beaumont is situated in the San Gorgonio Valley, on the S. P. R. R., eighty miles east from Los An- geles, twenty miles from San Bernardino and Colton, and about thirty miles from Riverside.
" This beautiful and fertile valley, twelve miles in length and six miles in width, lying between the San Bernardino Mountains on the north and the San Jacinto Mountains on the south, is in a situa- tion peculiarly adapted by nature to healthfulness of climate. We are entirely free from all miasmatic diseases. The altitude of this valley is moderate, ranging from 2,500 to 3,000 feet; northward the San Bernardino Mountains loom up to a height of 11,800 feet; in the southeast San Jacinto rises 9,000 feet; and looking westward the snow-capped peak of 'Old Baldy' is distinctly seen. Truly, our mountain scenery can not be surpassed in beauty-one visitor re-
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