USA > California > California of the South: Being a Complete Guide Book to Southern California > Part 28
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100 ten-year-old and upward walnut-trees, 100 pounds per tree, at 6 cents a pound $600
60 prune-trees, averaging $2 a tree 120
100 pear-trces, averaging $2 a tree. 200
40 orange-trees, averaging 83 a tree. 120
100 fig-trees, averaging $3 a tree 300
180 apricot-trees, averaging $1 a tree 180
1} acre of grapes 150
Total
$1,670
I think there will be no question but that these estimates are low enough for an average. This leaves six hundred and seventy dollars for expenses ; and I have also left out of the account the family supply of vegetables, the proceeds from the cow and poultry, and all of the fruit from the blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, guavas, two lemon-trees, twenty-five quince-trees, one olive, one almond, two pears, twenty-five peach, five plum, and twelve apple trees.
374
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
RAILWAY TABLES. STATIONS ON THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILWAY. Distances are given from Los Angeles, with altitude of stations above sea- level.
STATION.
Miles' Altit'de
STATION.
Miles Altit'de
To Santa Barbara.
Feet.
To San Francisco.
Feet.
Los Angeles.
=
Tunnel
26
1,401
San Fernando
21
Newhall
39
1,265
Newhall
31
Lang
43
1,681
Camulos
46
South Side
50
2,350
Fillmore
56
Acton
55
2,670
Santa Paula
66
Alpine
65
2,822
Saticoy
73
Lancaster
75
2,350
Ventura
83
Tehachapi (
ummit).
120
4,025
The Loop
130
3,500
Sumner.
162
415
San Francisco
482
12
Los Angeles
(
293
To Santa Monica,
0
293
Monte
1%
286
Park Station (Univer-
3
Spadra
30
705
Santa Monica (sca- side)
18
0
Ontario
38
To San Pedro.
Cucamonga
43
932
Colton*
58
965
Florence
6
151
Beaumont
78 2,560
Compton
11
76
Banning
87
2,317
Cabazon .
93
1,779
Dominguez
14
61
Seven Palms (Palmdale)
109
584
Long Beach (seaside).
21
Indio.
130
20+
Salton
155
258+
San Pedro (harbor) ..
25
Volcano Springs
169
225+
To Santa Ana.
Flowing Well
179
5
Los Angeles
0
293
Cactus
216
395
Vinvale
10
Yuma
249
140
Downey
13
111
To San Francisco.
Norwalk
17
92
Los Angeles.
0
293
Anaheim.
27
133
Sepulveda.
8
461
Orange
32
127
San Fernando
21
1,066
Santa Ana
34
134
9
409
Savanna
12
296
Los Angeles.
100
2,751
Carpenteria
100
Santa Barbara
110
To Yuma.
Puente
20
323
sity)
Pomona
33
837
Los Angeles
0
293
Wilmington (seaside).
22
* San Bernardino.
t Below sea-level.
-
Mohave.
San Gabriel Mission .
375
APPENDIX.
STATIONS ON THE CENTRAL CALIFORNIA RAILWAY.
STATION.
Miles.
STATION.
Miles.
To San Bernardino.
Los Angeles ·0
Downey Avenue
1.6
Murrietta
106-7
Morgan
3.4
Temecula
112.5
Sycamore Grove
4.2
Ranchita
120.0
Highland Park. 4 6
Fallbrook 124.0
De Luz 130.5
Lincoln Park 6.8
Ysidora 139-0
South Pasadena 7.6
Oceanside
143.7
Raymond
8.6
Carlsbad 146.8
California Street 9.2
Stewart's
149.2
Pasadena
9.9
Encinitas 155.8
Olivewood
11.3
Del Mar 162.4
Fair Oaks
12.2
Cordero 164.0
Lamanda Park (S. M. Villa).
13.4
Selwyn.
171.0
Chapman.
14.6
Old Town
180-7
San Diego
184.2
Arcadia
17.2
Twenty-second Street
186.0
National City
189-2
To Barstow.
Los Angeles ·0
San Bernardino 60.5
Irvington
68.3
Cajon
79.2
Summit
85.8
Hesperia
96.6
Victor
104.9
Oro Grande
110.2
Point of Rocks
112.4
Rialto
56-7
San Bernardino
60.5
Barstow
133.5
To San Diego.
Los Angeles 0.
San Bernardino 60.5
Colton
64.0
Citrus.
67.6
Casa Blanca
74.9
Box Springs
74-7
Arlington
77.6
Perris.
85-7
South Riverside
85.1
Elsinore
97.7
Los Angeles ·0
Citrus.
67.6
Riverside.
70.9
San Dimas
31.4
Lordsburg
33-7
Palomares
35.1
Claremont. 36-7
North Ontario (Magnolia) . .
40.8
North Cucamonga 44.8
Etiwanda
49.6
Cottonwood.
121.9
Monrovia
19.1
Duarte 21.2
Azusa 24.8
Glendora
27.3
15.8
Santa Anita (Sierra Madre).
Garvanzo. 5.4
To San Diego.
Wildomar 102.1
To Rincon.
Rincon
89.0
376
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
Besides these stations the Central California Railway have nearly completed a road from Los Angeles, via Ballona Harbor, to Santa Monica. Another from Los Angeles, via Whittier, Santa Fe Springs, Ostrich Farm, Fullerton, Anaheim, Orange, Santa Ana, Tustin City, San Juan Mission, San Juan-by-the-Sea, to Oceanside ; and another road from Riverside, via Santa Ana and Orange, to Los Angeles; and still another from Perris to San Jacinto. There is also a rail- way to Glendale, a road to the Ostrich Farm, and one to Cahuenga Pass. Each of these three roads is being extended beyond its pres- ent terminus.
RATES TO CALIFORNIA.
THE rate to California, at the time of writing (December 9, 1887) averages eighty dollars for first-class ticket from New York to Los Angeles or any other Pacific coast point. Some of the roads charge a dollar or two more, and some a trifle less. This rate is for a limited ticket. The purchaser is not allowed to stop over until he crosses the Missouri River, after which he is allowed a week extra time, thus giving him ample opportunity to visit Denver, Salt Lake City, Santa Fe, and other points of interest.
There is also an unlimited ticket, costing twenty dollars more, that allows the passenger to stop as he pleases between New York and the Pacific coast, but the limited gives all the time usually de- sired.
The railroads also sell round-trip tickets, first class, which are good for six months, for one hundred and twenty dollars. This makes the fare each way sixty dollars, and is the ticket usually pur- chased by tourists.
There is also what is known as the " mixed ticket," viz., second class, to the Missouri River, and, third class, from the Missouri River to the Pacific coast.
The purchaser of a mixed ticket must carry his own blankets. The cost of the mixed ticket is about sixty-two dollars. The trav- eler by this class saves all sleeping-car expenses, which by first class is about twenty dollars. This is not a bad way to travel, and per- sons of limited means will find it worthy of consideration. The
377
APPENDIX.
rates from Kansas City, Chicago, St. Louis, and New Orleans are from twenty to twenty-five dollars less than rates quoted from New York. The Pacific Mail Steamship Company sells tickets via the Isthmus of Panama for eighty dollars. This trip by water takes twenty-eight days.
Railway rates on roads in California are usually from three to four cents per mile.
HOTELS OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
Alhambra, Los Angeles County : Alhambra.
Anaheim, Los Angeles County : The Planters'.
Beaumont, San Bernardino County : The Beaumont.
Burbank, Los Angeles County : Burbank Villa.
Colton, San Bernardino County : Transcontinental, Davis, Colton. Del Mar: San Diego County : The Del Mar. Downey, Los Angeles County : The Central.
Fullerton, Los Angeles County : The Winchester.
Garvanza, Los Angeles County : Garvanza Park. Glendale, Los Angeles County : The Glendale.
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County : Nadeau, Westminster, St. Elmo, Pico, Depot, $2.50 to $4; Natick, St. Charles, $1.50 to $2.50; Ashley, Angelo, Ardmour, Argyll, Bellevue Terrace, Clifton, Lincoln, Lindley, Marlborough, Norwood, Rosmore, St. Nicholas, Whipple, Wiswell; many private boarding-houses.
La Canada, Los Angeles County : Good hotel almost completed.
Long Beach, Los Angeles County : Long Beach Hotel; numer- ous boarding-houses.
Lugonia, San Bernardino County : Terrace Villa.
Monrovia: Los Angeles County : Grandview.
Monte Vista, Los Angeles County : Park Hotel.
Newhall, Los Angeles County : Southern.
Nordhoff, Ventura County : Ojai Valley House, Oak Glen Cottages.
Oceanside, San Diego County : Oceanside.
Ontario, San Bernardino County : Ontario, Magnolia.
378
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
Orange, Los Angeles County : Palmyra, Rochester; another very large hotel in process of erection.
Pasadena, Los Angeles County : Raymond, Carlton, Acme, Los Angeles; many private boarding-houses.
Pomona, Los Angeles County : Palomares.
Redlands, San Bernardino County : The Windsor and Terracina.
Riverside, San Bernardino County : Rowells, Glenwood; private boarding-houses; The Rubidoux, an immense establishment now building.
San Buenaventura, Ventura County : Santa Clara House, Palace, Occidental; Rose Hotel now building.
Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara County : Arlington, San Marcus, Occidental, Commercial, and many private boarding-houses.
San Bernardino, San Bernardino County : Stewart, Southern, Starkey, St. Charles.
San Diego, San Diego County : Coronado, St James, Florence, Horton, and many boarding-houses.
San Juan Capistrano, Los Angeles County : Mendelssohn.
Santa Ana, Los Angeles County : Brunswick, Taylor, Lacy. Santa Fe Springs, Los Angeles County : Santa Fe Springs Hotel. San Fernando, Los Angeles County : Hotel almost completed.
Santa Monica, Los Angeles County : Arcadia, Santa Monica, and many boarding-houses.
South Riverside, San Bernardino County : Hotel Temescal. South Pasadena, Los Angeles County : South Pasadena.
Whittier, Los Angeles County : The Lindley, The Greenleaf.
STATISTICS .*
COUNTIES.
| Population in
1880.
Population in
Increase in seven
Per cent of gain
Assessment of
Assessment of
Per cent of gain
School children
in 1886.
in 1887.
Los Angeles ... San Bernardino.
33,379 88,384 49,955
147
16,615 19,880
San Diego
8,618 21,565
12,947
150
89
4,041
5.015
Santa Barbara . Ventura.
9,522: 16,976
7,454
78
75
8,544
8.948
5,073,
8,690
8,617
71
$37,560,880 8,089,905 9,961,282 8,585,485 4,698,698
$99,796,666 15,987,995 18,712.518 15.085,982 6,872,819
84
1,869
2,021
149
155
98
4,130|
4,606
7.786 19.802| 12,020
1887.
years.
in 7 years.
1886.
1887.
in one year.
School children
* Compiled by L. M. Holt, of the "Riverside Press and Horticulturist."
APPENDIX TO THE SECOND EDITION.
BY WALTER LINDLEY, M. D.
NINE months have passed since "California of the South " was written, and already a new edition is demanded. The great tidal- wave of speculation that overran every city and hamlet, valley and canon of Southern California has receded, and in its stead the ma- terial resources of the country are being developed. Capital that was for a time diverted from its usual channels has resumed its or- dinary place. Instead of new towns and additions being laid out, we find the people busy setting out orange-groves, vineyards, and apricot-orchards ; building manufactories, working quarries, in- creasing the number of oil-wells, adding to the stock-ranches, im- proving the harbors, and in every conceivable way developing the natural resources of this southwestern corner of our country.
The speculative era just passed has been of incalculable benefit to the country : First, in attracting the favorable attention of East- ern people to its characteristic features; second, by causing the combination of capital to develop water. All this country lacked to insure a dense population was " water for irrigation." There were many great bodies of fertile land that did not have the water needed for orchards and vineyards.
SOUTH RIVERSIDE, situated on the Santa Fe road, between River- side and Orange, was in 1886 a barren plain, as dry as dust. Gov- ernor Samuel Merrill, of Iowa, and three other capitalists, bought eighteen thousand acres of land there, and then went to work to develop water with which to irrigate it.
They have laid nine miles of cement pipe, thirty inches in diame- ter, and seven miles of smaller pipe. They have already a sufficient stream flowing from the Temescal Creek, from three artesian wells, and from numerous springs. The development of this water has cost over $300,000. This is a very large sum in the aggregate, but
380
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
when spread over eighteen thousand acres amounts to $16 per acre. Thus they have taken land that cost about $10 per acre, put water on it at a cost of $16 per acre, and have made this great body of land capable of producing citrus fruits and grapes that will net the tiller of the soil from $200 to $500 per acre. What is land worth that will produce such an income ?* Already South Riverside has a population of six hundred. There are extensive orange, fig, and apricot orchards, and large vineyards. There is a porphyry-quarry with crushing-works, where this hard, purple rock is prepared for paving the streets of Los Angeles and other cities. Here is the famous tin-mine that has been in the courts long enough to become a cause célèbre equal to Jarndyce versus Jarndyce. The case has recently been decided, and some Englishmen have purchased the mine. There are in South Riverside an excellent hotel and numer- ous other good buildings. There is also one of the best schools in San Bernardino County, and a twenty- thousand-dollar school-house is now building.
WHITTIER,t twelve miles from Los Angeles, on the Whittier branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad, is another similar example. Here, at the beginning of 1887, was a barley-field. There was no apparent prospect of water sufficient to irrigate fruit-trees. In fact, the good old rancher who owned the land said there wasn't enough water to keep a sheep alive. A number of wealthy Quakers from Chicago and other Eastern religious centers bought a large body of land here and tunneled into the Puente Hills until they secured water sufficient to irrigate every acre of their land. As I write, just one year has passed since the first house was built in the Whit- tier barley-field, and to-day there is a town with a population of one thousand persons, two good schools, a weekly newspaper-the first copy of which was printed on satin and sent to John Greenleaf Whittier, the aged Quaker poet, for whom the town was named- stores, good hotels, a bank, and a large Quaker meeting-house. This combination of capital to develop water has done all this. The barley-field and sheep-range must give way to the town, the orange- grove, and the vineyard.
RIALTO, a station on the Los Angeles division of the Santa Fe Railroad, five miles west of San Bernardino, has a similar history.
* See page 318.
t See page 140.
381
APPENDIX TO THE SECOND EDITION.
Here was a tract of twenty-nine thousand acres of rich soil utilized only for stock and grain. Major George H. Bonebreak, of the Los Angeles National Bank, organized a company of moneyed men and bought the whole body of land. This company have constructed five miles of stone conduit, laid in mortar and lined with cement, with a fall of seventy-five feet to the mile, capable of carrying five thousand * inches of water. Connecting with this conduit is three miles and a half of cement pipe and an extensive system of iron pipes. The $86,000 they have thus expended in bringing water from Lytle Creek has transformed this land from a wheat and barley ranch, that would not yield an average annual income of $15 per acre, to orange, grape, fig, olive, and prune lands that will yield an annual income of from $100 to $500 per acre.
HESPERIA is another example where combined capital cut a trench for miles through solid rock, and, at a cost of many thousands of dollars, made land that would not have supported one family to a half-section now capable of furnishing a comfortable living for a family on every twenty acres.
PALMDALEt is the center of Palm Valley, a sheltered nook of four thousand acres, at the eastern base of Mount San Jacinto, on the western border of the Colorado Desert, that has long been cul- tivated in a primitive way by the Indians. Mrs. Jeannie C. Carr, author of " Trees, Shrubs, and Wild Flowers of Southern Califor- nia," # after a recent visit to this valley, says :
"The physical geography of Southern California accounts for many otherwise marvelous phenomena in its vegetation. But few are aware that the forest-belt of San Jacinto Mountain, 'like Orizaba, in Mexico, begins in a natural grove of palm-trees. There the Washingtonia filifera has reached its northern limit, and is found in several noble groups from forty to sixty feet in height. The roots, filling the soil-pockets of a rocky glen, are kept moist by copious springs; and the fruit, which hangs in immense clusters, weighing from fifty to a hundred pounds, is very ornamental from the contrast of the shining black berries with the ivory-white pedi- cels upon which they are strung. The fruit has the taste of dates, and was a favorite food of the Indians until they derived a greater benefit from its sale to collectors. The commonest and most easily
* Foot-note, page 88. t See page 264.
# See page 327.
382
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
propagated of the palm family, as usually seen in cultivation, it re- tains little of its native dignity and slender grace.
" But in Palm Valley the polished leaves unfold in perfection among the warm rocks, and hundreds of young plants are seen in different stages of growth, for here is perpetual summer in sight of perpetual snow. . . .
" There is also a remarkable spring near Palm Valley, seven miles from the station of Seven Palms, on the Southern Pacific Railroad, to which the Indians have resorted for a hundred years. It belongs to a reservation of the Cerranos, whose captain, Old Francisco, is believed to be a hundred and twenty years old. Any- where in this wonderful region, 'hid of old time in the West,' the marvel is not in seeing a hale and hearty centenarian, but that one should die at all, where the air and the waters which come from the snowy summit of San Jacinto are strained of all impurities.
" Of all the reservations this of Agua Caliente has been the most coveted by the all-conquering race, not so much from greed as in obedience to a higher law which includes wild Nature in the pro- cesses of human development."
Palmdale, with the exception of the acre here and there poorly cultivated by the Indian, had remained untouched by the hand of man until January, 1889, when a company consisting of L. M. Holt, of Riverside, and other business men, organized and purchased all the tillable land. Their next step was to get water for irrigation. This they did by diverting the contents of the Whitewater Creek, twelve miles away, into aqueducts that now carry the life-giving water over every acre of their land. This land to-day, instead of being almost entirely apparently a desert, is being rapidly covered with fruit-trees. The company has also built a railroad from Seven Palms Station, six miles away, on the Southern Pacific Rail- road. Here is a remarkable contrast in climates that I have per- sonally experienced: Seven Palms Station is in the midst of a sandy desert, where there is a constant wind. This wind blows the sand with such force that from time to time the telegraph-poles have to be renewed, having been cut through by the sharp sand beating against them. The western sides of the houses here are also being steadily ground, while the window-panes have become white and opaque; but three miles from Seven Palms, on the way to Palm- dale, the wind entirely subsides, and here for eight months in
383
APPENDIX TO THE SECOND EDITION.
the year there is a most delightful climate. Melons and fruits ripen several weeks earlier than in Los Angeles.
The great demand for land by settlers induced capitalists to de- velop water for irrigation. Isaiah said, some time ago, that "in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground sball become a pool and the thirsty land springs of water." INDIO, one hundred and thirty miles east of Los Angeles, on the Southern Pacific Railroad, in San Diego County, is a vivid fulfillment of this prophecy. . This town is situated in the midst of a wonderful region. It is in the western part of what the Ameri- cans call the Colorado Desert. For centuries the Mexican and an oc- casional adventurer had crossed this arid plain, and thought nothing of it, but in 1867, my colleague, Dr. J. P. Widney, while serving as surgeon in the United States Army, passed through this region, and noticed the innumerable shells * that cover the sand, and are inti- mately mixed with the soil for many feet below the surface. He says : "For miles and miles I traced with the eye a strange, well- defined line along the mountain-sides, always at the same level. . . . The rocks were worn and rounded up to that level as by the con- stant washing of water. . . . Above that line the rocks were sharp and jagged. The worn rocks showed that for ages the water had stood at that level." A surveying party for the Southern Pacific Railroad discovered that this was indeed a great basin in the des- ert, and that it lies two hundred and fifty feet below sea-level.
This basin is called the Conchilla Valley,t on account of its great wealth of shells. It is about sixty miles long and eighteen miles in wiath. Standing like plumed sentinels at the base of the mountains on the north side of this valley are the native date- palms, some reaching eighty feet in height, and plainly perceptible from the railroad at Indio. Some enterprising gentlemen found there were forty thousand acres of good soil in the vicinity of Indio and Walters, and they bored artesian wells, and are now raising mel- ons, vegetables, and several varieties of fruits, all of which ripen much earlier than in San Bernardino or Los Angeles. Indio is on
* "The Colorado Desert," by J. P. Widney. See "Overland Monthly " for January, 1873.
+ " Below the Sea-Level," by Rev. Stephen Bowers, A. M., Ph. D. (See "The Golden State," March 3, 1888.)
384
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
the edge of this basin, and is but twenty feet below sea level, but Salton, twenty-five miles farther east, is two hundred and forty feet lower. At Salton are the salt-works of Phelps and Durbrow. Ilere is a crust of snow-white salt ten miles square, and from two to eight inches thick. When the writer walked out on this vast field of salt it was near midday in midsummer; the mercury indicated 104° in the house, but in the direct and reflected heat of the blazing sun it must have been over 120°, yet nobody suffers from sun- stroke. Hundreds of men work here digging the salt with pick- axes, loading it on cars, running it through the mill, and finally put- ting it in the little bags in which table salt is marketed, and a more cheerful, healthy lot of men I never saw.
The tourist, except, perhaps, from June 1st to October 15th, would enjoy stopping at least a few days at Indio, where there are good accommodations, and he can from there make interesting ex- cursions to the palm-forests, the salt-works, the gold-mines, and the mud-volcanoes. It is also interesting to the ethnologist to study the language, habits, and religion of the CAHUILLA INDIANS, who live here.
Dr. Bowers, in a paper read before the Ventura County Society of Natural History, March 5, 1888, expressed the opinion that these Indians are of Aztec origin, or that they have at some time been in contact with that race. They dress like the whites and are good farm-hands. Their principal article of food is the mesquit-bean, which they triturate in mortars of wood or stone, after which the meal is sifted, the coarser portion making food for their horses and cattle, and the finer is made into cakes for family use. They also roast for food the base and roots of the agave or century plant- indigenous to this region-which has, according to Dr. Bowers, a flavor like stewed or baked turnips. They believe in the transmi- gration of souls, and that their departed friends sometimes enter coyotes.
Indio, and in fact all of this basin, is noted for the extreme dry- ness of its atmosphere. The relative humidity has only been ob- served for the winter months when the mean was 46°, but during the balance of the year it must be much less. Invalids, es- pecially asthmatics, claim to get almost miraculous relief here. The valleys of the river Jordan and the Dead Sea are twelve hundred and seventy-two feet below sea-level, and Lake Assal, in Eastern
385
APPENDIX TO THE SECOND EDITION.
Africa near Abyssinia, is seven hundred and sixty feet below sea- level. It is claimed that, on account of the great atmospheric pressure in these depressions, persons suffering from bronchial affec- tions experience decided benefit from the increased quantity of oxy- gen inspired and the ease with which respiration is accomplished. It is an experiment yet, but I would advise persons suffering from asthma or bronchitis, who are coming to Southern California, to give this paradoxical region a few days' trial at least. If not bene- fited, a few hours' ride will carry the valetudinarian to San Ber- nardino, Riverside, or Los Angeles.
The great flume, thirty-nine miles long, that carries a stream of water from the mountains to San Diego, is another example of the way in which capital responds to the demand for water.
Bear Valley Reservoir* is another wonderful instance, and in beautiful Santa Ana,t with her three banks, three railroads, three newspapers, fifteen miles of street railway, and six thousand people, is yet another illustration of the way in which money distributes water, and water develops orchards and cities.
Ontario # was five years ago nothing but the desolate home of the jack-rabbit and the coyote. Some wealthy men from Canada examined the soil and found it excellent, and, finding prospects for water encouraging, they organized a company, spent $172,000 tun- neling in San Antonio Canon," and laying twenty-five miles of cement pipe and many miles of iron pipe, and to-day there is that rich cluster of beautiful and prosperous homes.
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