USA > California > California of the South: Being a Complete Guide Book to Southern California > Part 21
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30
This is a great center for the oil-business, and there are three refineries. A visitor was recently being escorted through one of these refineries when he innocently asked the manager as to the quality of the oil. The answer was : "The very best, the very best, sir ! 150° fire-test. If you don't believe it look on the head of the barrel." Sure
277
VENTURA.
enough the proof was there ; "150°" was stamped on the head of every barrel.
During the year ending March 31, 1880, there was shipped by sea from San Buenaventura 1,400,000 pounds of wheat, 4,000,000 pounds of corn, 900,000 pounds of bar- ley, 1,100,000 pounds of beans, 35,000 pounds of canary- seed, 87,000 pounds of flax-seed, 56,000 pounds of potatoes, 47,000 pounds of flour, 100,000 pounds of soap-rock, 400,000 pounds of wool, 29,000 pounds of seaweed (used in soups by the Chinese), 11,000 pounds of butter, 37,000 pounds of honey, 35,000 pounds of hides, 405 barrels of asphaltum, 1,700 barrels of petroleum, 12,600 hogs, 2,000 boxes of eggs, and 165 coops of fowls.
During the year ending March 31, 1887, there were the following exports from this port :
Hogs
4,973
Sheep
1,173
Sheep-pelts, packages
150
Oil, barrels.
31,670
Potatoes, sacks
1,806
Hides, packages
696
Wheat, sacks
16,384
Wool, bales
403
Barley, sacks
30,461
Citrus fruits, cases
2,528
Corn, sacks
35,060
Dried fruits, packages
634
Beans, sacks
113,703
Eggs, cases
613
English walnuts, packages.
1,171
Asphaltum, packages
1,369
Butter, boxes.
27
Mustard-seed, sacks
11
Fowls, coops
28
Flax-seed, sacks.
7,150
Honey, cases
6,830
Canary-seed, sacks
1,638
Tallow, packages
38
Flour, sacks
616
From these statements an excellent idea can be gained of the varied products tributary to this harbor. Since that date the fruit interests have steadily increased, and to-day form a large proportion of Ventura County's exports.
Ventura County is rich in rivers and creeks, and the town of San Buenaventura has an excellent water-supply. The water is brought several miles from the Ventura River.
A street-railway is being constructed, two very large
278
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
hotels are building, and everything indicates that San Buenaventura has thrown off its Rip Van Winkle lethargy. There is a well-selected public library. This library is quite large, and if some one of the numerous wealthy men who have made their fortunes in Ventura County would endow it with fifty dollars a month, in order to have it well cared for, its field of usefulness would be greatly ex- tended.
This town has excellent public schools. In coming down the rich Santa Clara Valley, however, the tourist will see a number of school-houses that are, with their surround- ings, a disgrace to civilization.
As a rule the public schools and school-houses of South- ern California are above the average in the Middle States, but, aside from the school-house at Santa Paula, there is not a respectable school-building to be seen between New- hall and San Buenaventura.
Besides her excellent public schools, San Buenaventura is now moving to have a branch preparatory school of the University of Southern California. The arrangements have just been completed, and a twenty-five thousand-dollar building is to be erected on the Southern Pacific Railroad, four miles east of the town. San Buenaventura has the typical coast-climate of Southern California. It is health- ful and invigorating. Drs. Bard, Curran, Patten, and Hill-the resident physicians-report numerous recoveries from lung-diseases in people who have come to Ventura from the East.
Twelve miles south of San Buenaventura is HUENEME, where there are extensive wharves and the largest ware- houses on the California coast south of San Francisco. The wharves were built by Hon. Thomas R. Bard in 1870. Hueneme has a natural harbor, and will doubtless eventually prove a place of considerable importance. The wharf has paid a good interest on the investment from the start.
279
THE OJAI.
The following is a statement of the exports for the year ending March 31, 1887 :
Barley, sacks
394,024
English walnuts, sacks 81
Eggs, cases.
427
Sheep
7,650
Hides, bundles
276
Beans, sacks
1,286
Hay, bales
139
Corn, sacks
23,426
Tallow, barrels
44
Wheat, sacks 80,174
Butter, cases
40
Wool, bales
1,352
Potatoes, sacks
2,880
Mustard-seed, sacks
1,004
Honey, cases
2,083
Hogs.
7,005
Just back of Hueneme is a rich territory of several hundred thousand acres, a great portion of which is virgin soil, never having been utilized for anything but grazing- purposes. One of the largest of these ranches is the Simi Ranch of ninety-eight thousand acres, that has recently been purchased by a syndicate, and will soon be subdivided and placed upon the market. It is the subdivision of the great ranches of Southern California that will eventually make it rich and densely populated.
A railroad company has recently been organized at Los Angeles to build a road from that point to Hueneme. It is generally understood that this road is the work of the Santa Fé Company, and is the beginning of a coast-road to eventually extend from Los Angeles to San Francisco.
The Southern Pacific Company are about to build a branch line from San Buenaventura to Hueneme, which will make each of these places the important commercial centers.
Nordhoff-The Ojai Valley.
Every reader of this work has probably heard of the Ojai Valley, which contains the town of Nordhoff, and visitors of San Buenaventura should all take a trip to this noted resort. Nordhoff is fifteen miles north of San Buena- ventura. The Ojai Valley House and the Oak Glen Cottage .
280
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
stages meet all trains. The stage-fare each way is one dollar.
For the first few miles the road passes through the suburbs of San Buenaventura, and the orange-groves, vine- yards, walnut-groves, olive and apricot orchards that sur- round the cosy homes of the town are a delight to the eye ; but soon the scenery is more picturesque. The stage skirts the edges of the Ventura River, and now and then the horses plunge through its clear, rapid-flowing waters. On either side are gigantic hills and broad, rolling plains, dotted-in fact, almost covered-with the large, umbrage- ous live-oak, whose perennial foliage furnishes the innu- merable horses and cattle, that feed upon the wild clover, protection from the sun in August and shelter from the rain in winter. This whole ride is delightful, the only drawback being the dust which, in August and September, after five or six months without a drop of rain, is annoying. Even in these months no person will regret the ride. There is wilder and more rugged scenery in Southern California, but there is nothing more artistically beautiful.
All too soon the drive is over. A higher elevation has been reached, and between the sturdy oaks are glimpses of farms and white cottages, lawns, and fields of swaying golden grain ripe for the reaper. This is the Ojai Valley, and here is Nordhoff, its town and post-office, named for the author, Charles Nordhoff, whose writings have been read in almost every intelligent household in the United States. This valley contains seventeen thousand seven hundred and ninety-two acres, and is divided into two parts : the Lower Ojai, in which Nordhoff is situated, and which has an altitude of from eight hundred to a thousand feet ; and the Upper Ojai, which has an altitude of from eleven hundred to thirteen hundred feet.
The Upper Ojai is noted for its orchards, while the . Lower Ojai is particularly noted-agriculturally-for its
281
THE OJAI.
fields of beans and grain, but it is not for these that the Ojai Valley is most noted. Its great reputation has been derived from the curative value of its climate in cases of consumption and asthma.
Ojai is said to mean "a nest," and this little valley is indeed a nest in the mountains. It is literally surrounded, with the exception of the pass for the stage-roads, by the San Rafael and Santa Ynez Mountains. It is a mountain- pocket. These mountains shelter it from harsh winds and protect it almost entirely from the fogs that come in from the sea.
From the Ojai Valley House can be pointed numerous farms, and in each instance the family owning the farm came here for the benefit of an asthmatic. In the Ojai Valley these asthmatics live comfortable lives.
In September, 1887, eating a hearty meal at the Ojai Valley House table was a man by the name of Sacket, from Brooklyn, New York. For seventeen years he had been the usher in the right-hand gallery in Plymouth Church, but his health broke, his lungs became diseased, and hæm- orrhages brought him to the verge of the grave. As a dernier resort he came six months before to the Ojai Val- ley House, but his cough was so incessant that it disturbed the other boarders at night, and a tent several hundred yards away was provided for him. His cough soon ceased, he gained rapidly in strength, and at the date mentioned he was working twelve hours daily on a neat little cottage of his own ..
There are over one hundred school-children in this val- ley, yet during the last fifteen years there have been but four deaths among children, and two of those were ac- cidental.
Fruits of almost every kind can be raised in this valley. There are pleasant drives, interesting mountain-walks, horses that will safely carry the venturesome to the top of
282
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
the mountains, and croquet and lawn-tennis grounds under the oak-trees, where the hours can be whiled away.
Three miles away are the Matilija Hot Springs. There is the " creek road " and the " upper road " from San Buena- ventura to Nordhoff, and the tourist can go one way and return by the other.
In and near this valley are large bodies of excellent land that the point of the plowshare has never pierced. Arrangements are about completed to build a railroad to Nordhoff, and then these rich acres will be subdivided into small farms.
Santa Barbara-America's Mentone.
Having returned from Nordhoff, the tourist will doubt- less take the train on the Southern Pacific road for Santa Barbara, thirty miles westward. Again will he refer to his map in order to comprehend what he sees. The hills and mountains hug the sea so closely that the railroad is obliged to run almost upon the ocean two thirds of the distance.
A more interesting ride by rail could not be conceived. For thirty miles the ocean is ever in sight. At times, on looking from one side of the car, nothing can be seen but the deep-blue sea, and it takes but a slight stretch of im- agination for the traveler to believe that he is out on the ocean sailing. The ocean-surf can be heard beating under the train as though it were against the sides of a ship, and now and then a white-winged schooner flits across the wa- tery vista. The cool saline breeze fans the forehead, and, without the nausea of a sea-voyage, the tourist has all of its pleasures.
Ten miles from Santa Barbara and twenty miles from San Buenaventura the railroad passes through the western edge of the Carpinteria Valley. This is a body of rich land about ten miles square.
CARPINTERIA is a collection of homes and farms where
283
SANTA BARBARA.
the Lima bean and the English walnut are the chief sources of wealth, although various kinds of fruits are raised.
Now SANTA BARBARA, the renowned Mentone of Ameri- ca, is reached. Well does it deserve to be so called. Really, though, it is superior to Mentone as a health-resort for Americans .* It has all the climatic attributes of Men- tone-it has the elegant hotels, delightful surf-bathing, pleasant drives, and, besides all these, it has a refined, edu- cated, hospitable American social life.
The Santa Barbara Mission is the one point that above all every tourist wishes to see. This mission was founded December 4, 1786, and was the eleventh one founded in the State of California. It is a very large tile-covered building in an excellent state of preservation. It is situated in the northern part of the city, and its belfry can be seen from the Arlington Hotel.
The founders of this mission were men of wonderful prescience. They built a stone aqueduct several miles long to supply their mission with water, and this same water-
* "The only instance of the simoom on this coast, mentioned either in its history or traditions, was that occurring at Santa Barbara on Friday, the 17th of June, 1859. The temperature during the morning was be- tween 75° and 80°, and gradually and regularly increased until about 1 o'clock P. M., when a blast of hot air from the northwest swept suddenly over the town, and struck the inhabitants with terror. It was quickly fol- lowed by others. At two o'clock the thermometer exposed to the air rose to 133°, and continued at or near that point for nearly three hours, while the burning wind raised dense clouds of impalpable dust. No human being could withstand the heat. All betook themselves to their dwellings, and carefully closed every door and window. The thick adobe walls would have required days to have become warmed, and were consequently an admirable protection. Calves, rabbits, birds, etc., were killed, trees were blighted, fruit was blasted and fell to the ground, burned only on one side ; the gardens were ruined. At five o'clock the thermometer fell to 122°, and at seven it stood at 77°. A fisherman in the channel in an open boat came back with his arms badly blistered."
284
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
system is the one that now supplies the city of Santa Bar- bara. Other means of getting water are at hand, but with its present population of 7,000 no greater water-supply is needed.
In 1812 the mission fed 1,300 people and had 4,000 head of cattle, 8,000 sheep, 250 swine, 1,322 horses, and 142 mules, and its productions for that year were 3,852 bushels of wheat, 400 bushels of corn, 126 bushels of barley, and 26 bushels of beans. In 1828 it possessed 40,000 head of cat- tle, 3,000 horses, 20,000.sheep, and 160 working-oxen.
Mrs. Jackson's description of this mission is interesting reading. The rich-toned bells were imported from Spain over one hundred years ago.
After visiting the mission the tourist should go a few steps away to the reservoir and aqueduct, and see how well the holy fathers planned for the future.
In 1850 the first roster of county officers was elected. Edward L. Hoar, a brother of United States Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts, was the first district attorney, but was the next year elected county assessor.
In the year 1851 Santa Barbara had become a place of considerable importance, and the city council entered into an agreement with Capt. Salisbury Haley, a civil engineer at Los Angeles, to lay out the city in uniform blocks 150 yards square, all streets with the exception of two to be 60 feet wide. State and Carrillo Streets to be 80 feet wide. The survey was accepted, and Captain Haley was paid $2,000 by the council. After years of litigation, this sur- vey received a final legal confirmation.
January 24, 1869, the Santa Barbara "Press," which is now also a daily, was established as a weekly. September 23 of that year Hon. William H. Seward visited Santa Bar- bara and made a felicitous speech.
In 1876 Santa Barbara celebrated the Centennial with great enthusiasm. Col. N. A. Covarrubias, now of Los An-
285
SANTA BARBARA.
geles, was president of the day. Rev. Stephen Bowers, D. D., the noted scientist and editor, now of Ventura, was orator of the day, and Col. H. G. Otis, now of the Los An- geles "Daily Times," commanded the military division of the procession.
The Princess Louise and the Marquis of Lorne spent a part of one season here, and were profuse in their praises of Santa Barbara's climate, products, and society. Santa Bar- bara prides herself on being more æsthetic and cultured than her somewhat plebeian sisters, San Diego and Los An- geles, and the impress of royalty that the Princess Louise gave the city had a very expansive and exhilarating effect. Santa Barbara's citizens are noted for their politeness. A curious, idle tourist watched two of the city's leading pro- fessional men for one day, and in that time they met on the street and elsewhere twenty times, and each time raised their hats and shook hands with each other. Such virtue carries its own reward.
After visiting the mission the tourist should visit the home of Mr. Dibblee, on the point above the city. This is without exception the grandest residence in Southern Cali- fornia, and commands a complete view of the city and harbor.
Santa Barbara takes great pride in her public library, and gives each year a rose carnival or fair for its benefit. Mrs. E. A. Otis, in closing a description of this festival in 1887 for the Los Angeles "Daily Times," says : "This fair has been a rare success. It will close this evening, and add one more to the floral triumphs of Southern California, where-
' Winds are hushed nor dare to breathe aloud,
Where skies seem never to have borne a cloud.'"
Santa Barbara has several banks and three daily news- papers-" Press," "Independent," and "Herald." It has numerous churches and secret societies. There are fruit-
286
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
canneries, brick-yards, and other manufacturing establish- ments on a smaller scale.
In this work allusions in detail to hotels have been very infrequent, but the Arlington of Santa Barbara must be men- tioned. It was built in 1875 by a joint-stock company, at a cost of $170,000. After the climate the Arlington has done more than any other agency toward giving Santa Bar- bara its favorable reputation as a health-resort. The peo- ple of Santa Barbara should look with great pride and gratitude on this hotel and its beautiful grounds. The writer of these lines has always paid full rates when he stopped at this hostelry, but there was a satisfaction in it. The hotel is well furnished and well managed. Santa Bar- bara has a south frontage on the ocean and slopes gently to the foot-hills back of the town. It is brilliantly lighted by electricity, and has a good system of street-cars. Its prin- cipal business is done on State Street. The following table of monthly mean temperature of the sea-water is conclusive proof of the advantages of Santa Barbara for surf-bathing :
Comparative temperature of sea-water.
MONTHI.
Santa Barbara, Cal.
- Santa Cruz Cal.
--- New- port, R. I.
MONTII.
Santa Barbara, Cal.
Santa Cruz, Cal.
New- port,
January ...
60'
52°
32°
August
65?
60°
70°
February. ..
61
58
32
September.
66
60
65
March
61
52
34
October.
63
56
58
April .
61
57
43
November.
61
55
44
May.
61
57
52
December ..
60
53
36
June
62
58
62
July.
64
60)
66
Mean.
62
56
46
. .
... '
. ..
.....
MONTECITO, three miles away, should be next visited. Rev. E. P. Roe, the noted author, speaks of Montecito as "a villa region of blossoming gardens and green lawns." Mr. Roe visited Montecito January 1st, and says :
"The orange-trees were each laden with from one to two thou- sand golden-hued oranges, in addition to the green ones not to be
287
SANTA BARBARA.
distinguished from the leaves in the distance. Even so early in the season there were sufficient number of blossoms to fill the air with fragrance, the brook babbled with a summer-like sound, and the illusion of summer was increased by the song of birds, the flutter of butterflies, and the warm sunshine, rendering vivid the gold and glossy green of the groves. Rising near and reflecting down the needed heat were the rocky and precipitous slopes of the Santa Ynez Mountains. Turning on one's heel, the silver sheen of the Pacific Ocean, gemmed with islands, stretched away as far as the eye could reach. Could this be January ?"
NA
0
Santa Barbara Grape-vine.
288
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
This is to Santa Barbara as Pasadena is to Los Angeles. There are homes here that would be an ornament to the suburbs of any city.
It was at Montecito that the big grape-vine grew that was cut down and taken to the Centennial at Philadelphia. This vine's trunk was eighteen inches in diameter, and its foliage covered an area equal to 10,000 square feet. It has produced in one year 12,000 pounds of grapes. There is now another vine growing here that bids fair to equal the parent vine.
Another trip to be taken is a day's picnic drive to the Hollister and Cooper places, twelve miles west of Santa Barbara.
The farm of the late Colonel Hollister consists of 4,800 acres. There are 10,000 almond-trees, making it the largest almond-orchard in the world. There are also 1,200 orange, 500 lemon, 500 lime, and 1,000 olive trees. There are also 4,000 English-walnut trees, and 200 Japanese persimmon (a rich, luscious fruit) trees. In 1872 Colonel Hollister sent to Japan for twenty-five bushels of seed of the tea-plant, and at the same time imported two Japanese tea-growers. He raised 50,000 plants about eight inches high, but they failed to reach perfection. The date-palm groves form an elegant shade for picnic grounds.
Adjoining Colonel Hollister's place is the noted ranch of Ellwood Cooper, consisting of over 2,000 acres. Mr. Cooper was the first to introduce the eucalyptus into South- ern California, and he is said to have 200,000 of these trees, including over fifty varieties, on his place. Mr. Cooper is most noted as an enthusiastic olive-grower and manufac- turer of olive-oil. He began planting olives in 1873. The olive-tree flowers in June, and its fruit ripens in January. Twenty gallons of berries give three gallons of first-class oil. Mr. Cooper also has large orchards of citrus and de- ciduous fruits.
289
SANTA BARBARA.
On these two great fruit-farms irrigation has proved to be the great factor. It is a curious fact that in the occa-
Irrigating an Orange Orchard.
sional years of drought in Southern California the mountain streams that supply the water for irrigating have not failed.
13
290
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
The climate of Santa Barbara is admirably delineated in the following paper by Dr. C. B. Bates,* a practitioner of that city :
"My object in this paper is to give a few facts with regard to the climate of Santa Barbara, and also to the therapeutic benefits to be expected from a residence in such a climate, benefits which, in my experience during a continuous practice of seventeen years in that place, have been realized in many instances. The following remarks apply only to that portion of Santa Barbara County about sixty miles in length, from one to five in width, lying between the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Ynez Mountains and extending from Point Con- ception southward to Point Rincon. The city itself, forty miles south of Point Conception, is situated on a gentle incline running from the ocean back to the foot-hills to an elevation of about three hundred and fifty feet. Its aspect is decidedly southeastern owing to an abrupt change in the direction of the coast-line. In the latitude of the Mediterranean, shut in on the land side by the Santa Ynez Mountains, some of which are three to four thousand feet high, sheltering it from the northwest winds which prevail on the Pa- cific coast during the greater portion of the year, protected sea- ward from the southeast winds by the Channel Islands twenty-five miles away, with the summer's heat and winter's cold tempered by the ocean at its feet, how can it fail to have an equable and pleasant climate ? Within the bounds allowed me in this article it is out of the question going into any elaborate analysis of temperature tables, nor is it necessary.
"It will suffice for all practical purposes to give a few striking figures. Records kept during a period of thirteen years show average for January 53.25°, for July 68.45°, and for the entire year 61.43°. Averaging the days upon which the temperature exceeds 82" we find but fifteen for each year and but eight for the same period upon which it falls below 42°. Although so near the ocean, Santa Barbara has for a coast town a remarkably dry atmosphere. The yearly mean of humidity is 693°, while a few hundred miles north of us and in cities on the Atlantic coast, 80° and even more are reached. Indeed, the dryness and purity of the air are shown
* "Southern California Practitioner," January, 1887.
291
SANTA BARBARA.
by a custom of the natives who preserve their beef by 'jerking,' hanging long strips of meat in the open air till dry enough to keep for future use. This is done even in midwinter and frequently within a few hundred yards of the ocean. The average yearly rain- fall for fifteen years was 17.31 inches, hardly more than would fall on the Atlantic coast during the showers of a summer. The rainy season extends from November to May ; the remainder of the year is practically rainless. During the winter months, at intervals of three or four weeks, the rain falls in heavy showers, lasting perhaps a few days; then comes bright sunshine with charming weather till the next storm. Owing to the porous character of the soil, decom- posed sandstone, clay and alluvial, we are not annoyed with mud; walking is pleasant within a few hours after the storm has ceased.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.