USA > California > Contra Costa County > History of Contra Costa County, California, including its geography, geology, topography, climatography and description; together with a record of the Mexican grants also, incidents of pioneer life; and biographical sketches of early and prominent settlers and representative men > Part 5
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" If the mountain is made such a conspicuous landmark by its isolated position, it becomes itself, in turn, a point from which a vast area of the State may be observed and studied. Rising as it does among the Coast Ranges, these may be traced from its summit, from Mount Hamilton on the south to unnamed peaks in the vicinity of Clear Lake on the north, and from the plains of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin to the Pacific, east and west. The great interior valley of California lies spread out like a map, extending as far as the eye can reach. To the east the view seems illimitable, and it is believed that there are few, if any, points on the earth's
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surface from which so extensive an area may be seen as from Mount Diablo. This is due to the peculiar form of the Great Valley of California and the gradual rise of the Sierra, which brings higher and higher points to view as the distance becomes greater. The eye can range over an extent of four hundred miles from north to south, and back to the east, or towards the summit of the Sierra, as far as the crest of this range, the farthest northern point visible being Lassen's Buttes and the most extreme southernmost point near Owen's Lake, probably, thus affording a range over this snow-crested line of mountains of over three hundred miles in length. The whole area thus spread out can hardly be less than forty thousand square miles, not much less than that of the whole State of New York."
By an easy grade the way to the summit wends through the romantic Pine Cañon, skirted by precipitous hills, and occasionally buttressed by craggy pinnacles of rock whose shapes often assume the most fantastic forms. As the road ascends the flank of the mountain, each new curve opens up a fresh scene of beauty surpassing the one which preceded it, and the eye gradually takes in the added splendors of a panorama extending north, south, east and west, to the farthest horizon's verge. Some two miles from the summit we reach the building that formerly was used as an hotel, and near where in days of yore the toll-house stood. This point is the junction of the road from Danville, and from thence to the apex of Diablo there is but one route. As we ascend the mountain the pulse is quickened with each upward step, for each step adds a new glory to the scene, and when we reach and stand upon the summit, inhaling air,
" Pure as the icicle that hangs on Dian's Temple,"
with our vision sweeping over the vast extent of country, we feel our hearts expand, while our lips, in the language of poesy, exclaim :
" It is a land of beauty and grandeur, Where looks the cottage out on a domain The palace cannot boast of-seas and lakes,
And hills and forests, golden grain and waves 'Midst mountains all of light, that mock the sun, Returning him his flaming beams, more thick And radiant than he sends them : Torrents here are bounding floods, And when the tempest comes, It roams in all the terrors of its glory. And then the valleys -- ah ! they are The homes for hearts-the cottages -- the vineyards -- orchards -- The pastures, studded with the herd and fold !
A free-a happy, grand and glorious country !"
The view from the summit is magnificent - beyond all description" Standing there on a clear day, and overlooking the craggy precipices and deep ravines, which impart an air of wild grandeur to the immediate vicinity, around the base of the mountain you behold, in all the elegance of
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their graceful outline and the beauty of their light and shadow, the ad- mirably rounded foothills, gradually diminishing in prominence until they merge with the delightful valleys through whose groves of wide-spreading oaks and sycamores the eye involuntarily traces out the meandering courses of the sparkling waters, that, after having dashed down their rugged mountain channels, appear to delight to linger amid the scenes of dreamy beauty with which they are surrounded.
Looking north you see the rich populous valleys of Napa, Sonoma, Petaluma and Russian River, and in the distance the succession of mount- ain ranges in Mendocino. On the east you see the Sacramento and San Joaquin plains, with their great rivers coursing through them, and the snow- enveloped Sierra Nevada ; and towering high above all, at the extreme verge of the horizon, you can discern Lassen's Buttes, which, in a straight line, is distant from Mount Diablo, two hundred miles. On the south the noble San Francisco Bay, the Coast Range and Santa Clara valley form a picture of rare loveliness. On turning to the west San Pablo Bay with its numerous inlets, the city of San Francisco, the streets of which are plainly visible, Goat Island, Alcatraz, the Golden Gate, and the horizon-bounded ocean, complete a vast panorama of picturesque beauty and grandeur, which, as seen on a clear day, supasses all effort of portrayal.
Whoever has watched the coming of daylight, and seen the sun rise in ordinarily clear weather from the summit of Mount Diablo has witness- ed one of the grandest spectacles of creation. Will the reader for a moment think of standing on a point commanding a twelve hundred mile sweep of horizon, and after wondering at the huge changing shapes and shadows of the mountain piles lying below in the pale light of the moon, setting in the west, watching the growing white light of day lifting in the east and tinting the sky above the Sierra range with pale soft rainbow hues, then, preluded by a momentary intense white shimmer, seeing a burst of vivid maroon-colored flame break above the mountain crests two hundred miles away, and the sun spring up, a glowing globe of red fires, which flash with intensity, the same colors, as the rays touch the waters, spreading through the tule marshes in the track of the sun across the great valley. Turning then to the west, the shadow of the mountain from which the spectacle is seen lies softly, but plainly, defined across the western valleys and hills, with its conical shadow-peak high up in the sky above the crests of the Coast range.
But there is a much grander sight than even this. The reader may be surprised when he is informed that a dense fog, so unacceptable to the deni- zens of the lower regions, affords this grander sight. We have seen several such in different parts of the world, and think them the most impressive and grandest of natures wonders, throwing the sun's rising or setting com- pletely into insignificance. Far as the eye can reach, a slowly moving
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History of Contra Costa County.
mass of gigantic translucent vapors, traveling in stately grandeur, lies spread out hundreds of feet below, utterly obscuring hill and valley, as much so as though they had been what they much resembled, the stupend- ous billows raised by a mighty storm, and, then, as the power of the sun's rays dispersed their force, might be seen peeping through the ocean of foam first one, and then another hill-top, and the vapors, following the various inequalities of the land, might be seen tumbling over the hill-sides grand as Niagara's mighty cataract. None who have once seen this sight are likely ever to forget it.
As the mists clear away the eye first turns its expectant gaze towards the blue waves of the Peaceful Sea, and there it is; and, if the season be spring, over the greenest of valleys brilliant with myriads of wild flowers; over the Bay, and the Bay City ; over the portals of the Golden Gate, un- till one's eyes drink in the sight of the Pacific as far as the Farralones de las Grayles, twenty miles beyond where its waves thunder upon this rocky coast. We can appreciate now the feelings which made Balboa speechless, when, from the pinnacle up to which he had climbed, he first looked upon this grand old ocean. In our own vicinity, we have to the south McGreer's Cañon, Moraga, Tassajara, Green, Sycamore, and San Ramon valleys. To the north one glances over Diablo valley, Martinez, the Straits of Carqui- nez, Benicia, Vallejo, Mare Island to the horizon along which extends, as far as the eye can reach, the snow-white peaks of the Sierra Nevada. This fascinates the eye as much as the west view of the Pacific. To the east one overlooks the smaller of the two peaks of Diablo, to the San Joaquin plains and Stockton.
Mount Diablo bears unmistakeable evidence of having once been a vol- cano of some force. A portion of the crater is still well marked and can be traced without difficulty. The igneous rocks lie along its canons from base to summit. The primitive slate and granite, with intervening ledges of quartz, crop out everywhere. Much of the range north and south of it partakes of the same character and must have been elevated with it. Limestone is found in many places on the eastern slope-an indication to the mineralogist that silver will be found in greater or less quantities among its mineral deposits. The height is three thousand eight hundred · and seventy-six feet.
The New York Times is responsible for the following amusing anecdote about Mount Diablo, with which we purpose closing this portion of our subject : "In early California settlement days, it was deemed ' the cheese' for the adventurous Yankees to pay great deference to the Roman Catholic predilections of the aboriginal and abo-Mexican population. One sharp but illiterate chap, from somewhere near sunrise, happened to fix his eyes upon certain rich lands in the neighborhood of Mount Diablo; and on a tempting occasion, when some saint's festival called together on that mount-
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ain all the local dignitaries of the church, our Yankee made his 'ten-strike.' After volubly impressing upon all who would hear him his intense respect and veneration for the only true church, and his love for her ministers, (those who could convey the coveted lands, of course, being meant), he cul- minated in a brilliant idea. He had somehow learned that the Spanish Catholics were partial to the prefix 'San,' and he knew that it meant ' Saint.' So, winding up a speech intended to be eulogistic of all the saints in the calendar, he said: 'Now, venerable Fathers and laymen, allow me to propose that, on this memorable occasion, we add one more to the brilliant galaxy of sacred names in this beautiful land-one more saint to the glorious list that honors the Golden State; I propose, sirs, that the mountain on which we are now standing be hereafter and forever known as San Diablo.' It is recorded that the worthy Fathers were for a moment in doubt whether to be indignant or pass 'Saint Devil' off as a joke, and the question was never fully settled ; but the ambitious sponsor, somehow or other, never got the land, and would always insist that the priests were a stupid lot of humbugs."
CLIMATOGRAPHY .- On such a subject as the climate of a portion of the State of California, we deem it well to reproduce the mature thoughts of a scientist, as given by Dr. J. R. Howard in the Contra Costa Gazette, in the year 1876, rather than give our own ideas, which, at best, would be most imperfect, owing to the shortness of a residence, comprising but one season, in the district. The learned Doctor says :
" The climate of the county has the relation to other parts of the State that its geography and peculiarities of surface configuration would indicate. In general, it is a medium between the warm, corn-producing valleys of Los Angeles and San Bernardino and the potato and oat-producing valleys of Humboldt and Trinity. Twice in twenty years we remember to have seen an inch of snow fall in the valley. A dozen times in the same number of Winters we have seen old Diablo's pate glittering in a fleecy mantle of white for a few hours-we think never longer than forty-eight. Even then we have seen the sun shining warm upon the exposed slopes, the grass and flowers blooming, the lambs and children at play in the yards and fields, the larks and blue-birds singing from the trees and fences as in mating- time. Again, at other times in Summer, we have seen the thermometer climb to the uncomfortable height of one hundred and eight degrees in the shade, in the valleys, and preserve for days-usually about three-around that notch, receding, however, from the going down of the sun, till about seventy-five degrees was indicated by bed-time, and ten or fifteen degrees less before morning.
" The division of the seasons into wet and dry is California's distinctive peculiarity. There is nothing like it known in the older States, and scarcely
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History of Contra Costa County.
elsewhere; and the fact of the rainy season occurring in Winter in place of Summer exercises a wonderful influence over its temperature and salu- brity. Our ocean winds of Summer and southeast winds of Winter antagonize, yet harmonize, the seasons most perfectly. The northwest Summer winds, with coquettish squalls and showers, play with other points of the compass for a few days, then settle into steady purpose about the middle of April, and throughout the season until November 1st, keep faith with all who trust dry weather prophecies ; then, slowly, as if exhausted, dry winds lull into a calm, often for fifteen or twenty days, when from the opposite point of the compass begin those antagonizing winds, laden with
the moisture of the warm southeast, which, in passing over our county on their way back to the ocean, meet with the conditions to precipitate them in warm Winter rains in the various quantities that we find by measure- ment. In this way our temperature is peculiarly influenced by the winds, as well as by the amount of moisture carried upon the mountains and ele- vated valleys during the prevalence of the northwest, fog-laden winds from the ocean, most of the Summer months. For example, about June the strong northwest winds begin to come in from the sea, heavily charged with a rolling spray, enveloping hill and dale like a dense smoke all over the bay side of our county, obscuring the sun for days at times, and bringing a shivering temperature with it, even in July and August. These rolling fog- banks fall heavily against and on top of our hills and elevated valleys, over the western part of the county, and through such passes in the mountains as are in the line of direction they pour over and through into the first series of valleys with a force that is often disagreeable, and temperature that makes Winter clothing indispensable. The thermometer will indicate about from fifty-five to sixty-five degrees during these fog-laden winds, which prevail, more or less, for one-fourth of the time in Summer over the western half of the county. At times the moisture accumulates on the bushes upon hill-tops sufficient to fall and run in the roads.
" The middle valleys, lying parallel to the coast have a higher tempera- ture, except just at or about some of the low divides in ranges of hills toward the coast, where the fog-charged winds come in like water over a precipice. In these valleys the fog from the passes eddies and falls, while over the crests of the parallel hills may be seen and heard the roaring, rolling fog-banks, breaking and losing the largest portion of their burden, while the higher and lighter portions are broken up into fleecy fragments to pass on to the next highest point in line, which, in our county, would be Diablo and its spurs.
" From the peculiar configuration of surface the middle portion of the county has a coast-wind brake in its western hills, sheltering it from fog and force of the heavy winds, giving a modified Summer temperature under the fog-banks without its disagreeable feature. The average range of the ther-
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mometer in Summer for the middle valleys would be from seventy-five to eighty-five degrees, with an occasional scorching spell of about three days. The Winter's temperature varies from forty to seventy degrees, with an occasional fall to the freezing point, and in rare instances four or five de- grees below. Frosts occur during about six weeks in the months of December and January. On the northern boundary, along the water lines of bays and rivers, the coast winds blow unobstructed through the Carqui- nez straits, and over the great eastern valley of San Joaquin with a force and freshness that gives this part of the county a temperature about ten degrees lower than the middle valleys, but from fifteen to twenty degrees above the western part. This current carries but little fog beyond the straits or opening of the middle valleys of the bay, and passes over the eastern half or great San Joaquin valley hills dry and rarified by the re- flected rays of the sun, from a surface that has had the lightest rainfall of the county.
Rainfall .- "The rainfall of the different parts of the county is also peculiar-depending upon altitude, course of the wind, currents and timber, the Winter temperature being considerably affected by the fall of rain in each of the three divisions. Thus, over the western part, that is, the moun- tainous, the rainfall is about twenty-three inches annual average; the middle valley about nineteen ; the eastern valley and north spurs of Diablo about fourteen ; and each having a relation in rainfall and temperature peculiar to itself. To condense in a few words, the temperature and rainfall may be compared thus : The western half of the county, taking the west line of the great central valleys as the division, has about the same temperature and rainfall that San Francisco has-being elevated, timbered and exposed to the same ocean influences ; the eastern hills and valleys have nearly the rainfall and temperature of the great interior valleys of the State-Sacra- mento and San Joaquin ; the middle valleys and hills between Mount Diablo and spurs and west San Ramon hills is the medium in rainfall and temperature that its situation would indicate.
Salubrity .- " In a country like this whole State, with its peculiar surface, seasons and situation, we should expect to find health and longevity the rule, and such is the case-always excepting the windward side in Summer of the tule deltas of the rivers and bays, which is a small exception in a great State like this. With a situation lengthwise, parallel to the ocean ; a sharp, shedding water surface from abrupt mountains and sloping valleys ; comparatively light rainfall, the absence of heavy forests over the largest portion of the State, and the very fortunate peculiarity of its rainy season occurring during the Winter months; its steady northwest sea-winds of Summer, all distinguish it as the sanitarium of all known lands, and statis- tical tables show our cities with a less mortality in proportion than any
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History of Contra Costa County.
others. Our county, holding that happy mean of location and climate in general with its own peculiar local variety in temperature and moisture, would naturally be supposed. to follow the same rule of health; it is so; there is no healthier county than Contra Costa in this State, or any other; with the exception of some spots upon the leeward margin of the overflowed land in the northeast corner, there is no malarial cause in the county, no pestilential marshes, no decaying forests, no stagnant pools of stinking water, simmering under a Summer's sun, to sorrow the land with sickness.
"For an out-door life, to an active, vigorous constitution, the western half of the county is the place to seek. Its open, pleasant Winter, and cool, moist, bracing, fog-shaded Summers, just meet the needs of the toiling mass in field and shop. In the central valleys locations are found that are shel- tered by crest and mountain peak from the harsh winds and fog of the west in Summer, and the driving southeast gales and rain of Winter. Such 'places as Clayton, all the upper portion of Ygnacio Valley, and a portion of San Ramon, are examples of this particular excellence. The eastern portion, with a less rainfall, a dryer soil, rapid drainage, a dry, bracing wind over it in Summer, and a sheltered situation for Winter, would naturally have all the essentials to health.
"This is so over the dry valleys and hills, but in this portion is the one hundred and ten square miles of overflowed land of the county, and in some seasons generate miasmatic fevers among those living on the wrong side of such locations. But the suffering from such causes is mild compared with that produced in other climates, where summer rains and a high temperature encourage the growth of vegetation, where the water stands and dries, and the winds blow from no certain quarter, and scarcely from any, and a stench arises from ponds and fens suggestive of drugs and doctors, pills and bills. In a twenty years experience in the middle and eastern portion of the county we have seen about three years when a mild typhoid type of fever prevailed to a considerable extent in the Summer and Fall, but with a very small percentage of mortality. To persons predisposed to throat and chest weaknesses, all the windy portions are unfavorable-but there are the sheltered dells and fringed rifts of old Diablo that will give them a home for their needs, under the shade of the evergreen oak and fragrant buckeye. To those needing a warm, dry climate, the San Joaquin Valley portion of the county is at hand, with its mineral waters, boiling springs and rarefied atmosphere.
"Contagious diseases introduced into our county refuse to spread. We have known cases of small-pox, measles, scarlet-fever, etc., brought to the county from elsewhere, that have not cast their dreaded shadow over a second threshold. We never saw an epidemic contagion in the county. Children born in this county are more vigorous, better developed physically, and freer from the pests of vermin, scabies, an eruption of childhood, than
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in any other part of the world-we say this without fear of successful con- tradiction. With such a start in childhood, in a favorable location of the earth's surface, there must grow up a healthy, contented, intelligent man- hood about the base of the old central mountain that will keep us in the van of progress."
General Remarks .- In concluding our subject of the climatography of Contra Costa County, let us quote from Lieutenant Maury, that eminent scientist whose fame is world-wide. He says: "The calm and trade-wind regions or belts move up and down the earth, annually, in latitude nearly a thousand miles. In July and August the zone of equatorial calms is found between seven degrees north and twelve degrees north ; sometimes higher ; in March and April, between latitude five degrees south and two degrees north. With this fact, and these points of view before us, it is easy to perceive why it is that we have a rainy season in Oregon, a rainy season and a dry season in California, another at Panama, two at Bogota, none in Peru, and one in Chili. In Oregon it rains every month, but about five times more in the Winter than in the Summer months. The Winter there is the Summer of the southern hemisphere, when this steam-engine is working with the greatest pressure. The vapor that is taken by the southeast trades is borne along over the region of northeast trades to latitude thirty-five or forty degrees north, where it descends and appears on the surface with the southeast winds of those latitudes. Driving upon the high lands of the continent, this vapor is condensed and precipitated, during this part of the year, almost in constant showers, and to the depth of about thirty inches in three months. In the Winter the calm belt of Cancer approaches the equa- tor. This whole system of zones, viz: of trades, calms and westerly winds, follows the sun ; and they of our hemisphere are nearer the equator in the Winter and Spring months than at any other season. The southeast winds commence at this season to prevail as far down as the lower part of Califor- nia. In Winter and Spring the land in California is cooler than the sea air, and is quite cold enough to extract moisture from it. But in Summer and Autumn the land is warmer, and cannot condense the vapors of water held by the air. So the same cause which made it rain in Oregon makes it rain in California. As the sun returns to the north, he brings the calm belt of Cancer and the northeast trades along with him; and now, at places where, six months before, the southwest winds were the prevailing winds, the northeast trades are found to blow. This is the case in the latitude of Cali- fornia. The prevailing winds, then, instead of going from a warmer to a cooler climate, as before, are going the opposite way. Consequently, if under these circumstances they have the moisture in them to make rains of, they cannot precipitate it. Proof, if proof were wanting, that the pre- vailing winds in the latitude of California are from the westward, is obvious to all who cross the Rocky Mountains or ascend the Sierra Madre."
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