USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume I > Part 55
USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume I > Part 55
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 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79
407
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
"The popular opinion prevailed that there were no fish in the Sal- ton Sea, or that if there were any, they were unfit for food. Attempts to sell the catch in the Imperial Valley were fruitless. After two weeks of effort, two fishermen loaded a small automobile with iced fish and drove to San Francisco, where samples were turned over to the hotels. Their verdict was favorable, and Salton Sea mullet began to appear on the menus. The same methods were carried out in other coast cities, and the resulting publicity soon created a market. To quote further :
"In a short time a considerable colony of fishermen began to appear on the shores of the Salton Sea. Experiments by several large pack- ing plants at Los Angeles with the canning of mullet also met with a high degree of success. Due to the terrific summer heat of the Salton basin, the temperature often going as high as 125 degrees, the fish are iced aboard the fishing boats as soon as they are taken from the water. The fishermen work in canopy-topped boats, and in the water as much as possible for the purpose of keeping cool. The fish that are now being caught are of a very large size, indeed. They attain a length up to two and one-half feet, and weigh up to eighteen pounds. The flesh is so very oily that a ten-pound fish will yield nearly a quarter of clear white oil. This oil is of delicate flavor and is highly esteemed for cook- ing purposes. It is the oily consistency of the flesh and freedom from bones that make the Salton Sea mullet a desirable food fish, and especially suitable for canning purposes.
"The receding of the shoreline of the Salton Sea has made consider- able trouble for the fishermen in the landing of their catch. A man on foot will bog down in the slime before he can make a second step, and at the same time the mud is too solid to permit the use of boats. The fish- ermen accordingly dug a series of canals across the mud-flats into which they pull their boats over the softest mud by means of picket lines, and the remainder of the distance in the canals by the construction of adobe paths, along which the boats are pulled with tow-lines.
"The mullets are entirely vegetarian feeders, their principal diet being a species of Magdalena Bay grass which grows in great abundance in shoal water. The presence of this grass in the Salton Sea has occurred only in recent years. It abounds, however, in the Gulf of California and other Mexican Pacific waters. Scientists are convinced that the grass has been introduced by birds carrying the seed. Due to its vegeta- rian habits, the mullet cannot be taken with hook and line. Anatomically they are constructed like a barnyard fowl, being provided with a muscular gizzard instead of an ordinary stomach like the majority of well-known food fishes. The fishermen have discovered that the mullets are fond of fresh alfalfa. A handful of this feed scattered on the waters attracts great numbers-a fact that is taken advantage of to attract large schools into the nets. Last year the average daily catch of Salton Sea mullet was between two hundred and fifty and three hundred pounds per fisher- man. For this catch they receive fifteen cents a pound delivered to the railroad station at Niland."
By some it is thought that a summer resort may be made within the cool influence of the Salton Sea for the people of the Imperial Valley.
Previous to the formation of the sea the old bed of the Gulf of Cali- fornia was one of the most desert and forbidding places that could be imagined. Occasionally there would be a mesquite tree with alkali lying white underneath it. At the time of settlement there was a party of government surveyors sent out to make a report on the lands as to their fitness for cultivation. The report which was published said that the greater part of the land, because of the great abundance of alkali, and
408
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
other injurious substances, was unfit for the growing of ordinary crops. This gave a great setback to settlement for a short time, but the settlers were soon laughing at the reports, for they were growing fine crops on the same lands that were reported unfit to grow any kind of crop.
The mistake that was made, perhaps an excusable one, was in judging alkali in the Imperial Valley by the rules applicable to alkali lands in the coast region of California. The lands on the coast having water near the surface permeated by alkali whenever they came under cultivation by reasons of percolation of water to the surface on evaporation, left the alkali near the surface which accumulated to such a degree that no useful seed would germinate or useful plant grow. On the other hand in the Imperial Valley there was no water in the lower strata of soil to come to the surface and evaporate and the alkali being mainly on the surface could not cause a greater accumulation of alkali from evaporation. There was a further reason which was that what alkali was one the surface could be washed off by Colorado River water into the Salton Sea and got rid of in this way. There has developed by constant use in some isolated spots by reason of continual irrigation places where alkali has accumulated and these lands become water logged and almost ruined for present use, but there does not seem any reason why these lands cannot be drained, the alkali run off and again brought into use.
DR. WOZENCRAFT. Although the old sea bed was a very forbidding place for settlement there was not wanting men who foresaw the possi- bilities of future cultivation. Among these was Dr. Wozencraft, an Ohio man who came to California in 1849 and found himself on the banks of the Colorado River near the Salton Sea basin. Describing his experience with the party of exploration he got up, he found a great many impassable sand-hills caused by drifting sands during high winds. Having found a passageway through them for his several men, riding mules and pack train in May, 1849, he says: "We were three days-or more properly speaking nights-crossing this desert. The extreme heat in the daytime compelled us to seek shelter under our blankets. The heat was so intense that on the third day two of my men failed. It occurred to me, as there was nothing I could do there, to mount my gentle and patient mule and at a distance of some eight miles I reached the border of the desert and water, with which I filled a bag and brought it back to them."
"It was then and there that I first conceived the idea of the reclama- tion of the desert."
Ten years later a bill was introduced in Congress and favorably reported on, giving Dr. Wozencraft a grant of some 1,600 square miles in the Salton Sea basin on condition of reclamation by bringing the waters of the Colorado, but being introduced late in the session it was delayed in its passage. Meantime before anything could be done Fort Sumter and the Civil war took up the attention of the country and the bill was lost sight of.
Again in 1887 Dr. Wozencraft was in Washington pushing his plan of reclamation before Congress, but sudden illness and death before his relatives from San Bernardino-where his home was-could reach him, again put a stop to the reclamation of the Colorado desert.
His daughter writing up some of her recollections of her father says, in 1910:
"It was his own idea and no ones' else. You ask how much he spent? Shall I say it? My dear father lost a fortune on it: He defrayed all the expenses of many trips with capitalists, law-makers and others : he spent large sums for traveling to Washington and home again
409
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
and for heavy burden of expense while at the capitol. His last sacrifice was a beautiful home in San Francisco. Everything went for the desert. Dear father was confident of success: he gave his life to achieve its reclamation."
The north end of the Salton Sea, comprising probably one-fifth of the sea, lies somewhat different and in places has a different soil for the soil contains not only deposits of silt from the Colorado River, but sand and dust from the mountain slopes and sand washed down by the Whitewater River which has its source in Mount San Gorgonio or Grey- back as it is usually called, the highest mountain in Southern California, nearly 12,000 feet in height. Some very fierce winds blow at times through the San Gorgonio Pass carrying billows of sand that in the course of time eat into the base of the telegraph poles on the Southern Pacific Railroad so that they have to be re-inforced to keep them from being worn off near the surface of the ground.
Like the others rivers of Southern California the Whitewater River does not run very far until it is lost in the sands. In flood times it runs a little further, but not into the Salton Sea. It never comes to the surface again, but is lost forever, but is supposed to be the source of supply of the various artesian wells and pumping plants that irrigate the lands in and around Indio, Mecca and Coachella. It is a singular fact that some of the wells below Mecca in the old sea-bed furnish warm water.
It has been asked where all the salt went to that was in the ocean waters of the Gulf before the bottom was partly filled and the cut off formed between the present head of the Gulf and its ancient head one hundred or one hundred and fifty miles further inland. The only reason- able supposition is that the waters of the Colorado emptied into the basin of the Salton sea after the fill was made across the Gulf and in the course of ages carried out most of the salt through an outlet into the Gulf and torrential rains carried the deposit of salt at Salton from the sloping surface to the lowest point where it was gathered up and marketed. The higher ground east of the sea and on to the Colorado River forms what is called the Chuckawalla desert, a distance of ninety miles. is said to be of a very ancient formation and to have undergone no material changes for many ages. This desert was a formidable barrier for travelers in earlier times on account of the absence of water. Travel coming across the continent found a crossing in the Colorado about four feet deep in low water. This ford or crossing was near Yuma. The Southern Pacific had to haul water when first built, from the mountains to Yuma, but after a time there was found artesian water at Thermal which altered the situation. Some of the lands from Indio to Mecca were very rich and water was comparatively near the surface causing a heavy growth of vegetation.
The area covered by the Salton Sea at its highest stage was estimated to be about 2,100 square miles or considerably over 1,000,000 acres. The major part of this above the Salton Sea is susceptible of reclamation and successful cultivation and growth of ordinary crops and in favored loca- tions to the date palm.
When the New Liverpool Salt Company found that the river over- flow had ruined its works, suit was commenced and damage collected.
THE GAGE CANAL
One of the three wonders of Riverside is the Gage Canal. That a man with comparatively not a cent of money and with no experience in irrigation or the culture of fruit could conceive and carry to a success-
410
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
ful termination a canal twenty-three miles long and the planting and cultivation of thousands of acres of orange groves involving the outlay of over two million dollars is a something that California alone could bring to a satisfactory conclusion.
The great desideratum in Southern California has always been water. Several promising sites (sites that have become since then a success) were rejected by those (in the first days of Riverside) in search of a suitable location for a colony because of the apparent lack of water. An experimental well sunk in Riverside about the head of Seventh Street in search of artesian water with no promise of success was rather a dis- couraging feature of early days in Riverside and the Southern California Colony Association had appropriated all the water in sight not previ-
MATTHEW GAGE
ously appropriated with a hope and assurance that a settlement of 10,000 population would be about the limit of attainment in the Riverside Valley. In spite of that original calculation five or six years after the founding of the Southern California Colony Association there came into the settle- ment S. C. Evans, Sr., and the formation of the Riverside Land & Irrigating Company with an addition of several thousand acres more of land and another canal to still further tax the water resources of the Santa Ana River and its drainage basin.
Serious doubts had been expressed by those who assumed that they were competent to decide whether there was enough water to meet all the assumed demands upon the water resources of the valley.
This was the situation when Mr. Gage cast longing and prophetic eyes on the fine level, fertile lands east and southeast of the City of Riverside. The Southern California Colony Association contemplated the
411
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
location of the present Riverside Canal from a half to a mile higher up and did some work on it, but threatened litigation and a possible lack of water compelled a location at a lower level just high enough to reach the east line of the Rubidoux ranch as it passed the town site. Riparian rights were also secured on Warm Creek, where it entered the Santa Ana River, which were later taken advantage of by conveying it at a higher level in a flume across the Santa Ana River and thence by a tunnel and a drop of forty feet, giving a water power of two or three hundred horsepower before passing into the canal. Had there been any thought of the possibility of enough water the original water system of the River- side Water Company might have been carried higher up and embraced several thousand acres more of government and other lands that have since been embraced in the Gage system. Still a higher system has been built under the Chase system, embracing some of the choicer and com- paratively frost free sections of the foothill lands called the Highland Water Company, showing that there was much more water in the San Bernardino Basin than was ever contemplated by the pioneers of San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Artesian water supplemented by pumping plants have produced a marvelous increase in the available water for irrigation. Much of the increase of later years would not have been possible except for the discovery of crude oil, gasoline and electricity in connection with improved pumping machinery.
Such was the condition of affairs when Matthew Gage filed a claim on Section 30 lying two miles east of Riverside, consisting of 640 acres of fine lying fertile land belonging to the government to be reclaimed from desert to fruitfulness by the application of water. By reclamation in this way in which Mr. Gage was given three years to complete his purpose he was to get a good title to the land by paying a nominal sum for the land, together with some necessary conditions. At the time of this filing land like this with water was selling for $400 to $500 per acre. So here was practically a prize valuable enough when converted into money to pay all the expenses of bringing water on to the land provided the water was readily available, but it was just in this direction, namely, in getting a supply of water, that the difficulty lay and in which the abilities of Mr. Gage were taxed to the utmost.
His first move in connection with getting a supply of water was to purchase 160 acres of dry land east of Riverside with a view of getting a water supply from this source, but this plan, which contemplated pump- ing, did not prove a success. Meantime, time, which was an object in this instance, was passing and other sources of supply had to be bought and tested and a canal built, and the San Bernardino Valley was looked to as a source of supply where some minor water rights were secured and negotiations entered into with J. Alphonse Carit for the purchase of 1,000 acres of promising land south and east of San Bernardino and the Santa Ana River, which was bonded for a long enough period to test the water possibilities of the land.
The problem grew on Mr. Gage's hands both as to water and land, for there were several thousand acres of government and railroad lands over and through which any proposed canal would pass which could all be covered with water in addition to several thousand more beyond Section 30 which promised a rich return to anyone who could supply them with water. Water was king in this instance, and without it all the dry lands under the flow of the proposed canal had only a nominal value. It can be imagined how much these lands would be worth as a basis of credit. In addition to all of these difficulties was the army of scoffers and prophets of evil. But Mr. Gage was a man of vision and proceeded on
412
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
his way to build his canal, for by this time artesian water was struck on the Carit tract. In the meantime the Iowa Development Company, con- sisting of S. L. Herrick, ex-Governor Merril, State Senator Arnold and others, came to California. Under the guidance of A. J. Twogood there were found several sections of railroad lands under the flow of the pro- posed Gage Canal. Cyclones and other untoward climatic disturbances showed some of these Iowa men that there were more pleasant climatic conditions in California and several sections of land were bought from the railroad company. Mr. Gage being hard pressed for money or credit, took a trip to Iowa in company with Mr. Twogood and made a bargain to furnish 335 inches of water on a basis of one inch of water to every five acres of land at $100 per acre. In addition to this, Mr. Gage got a contract to furnish (with one or two exceptions) all of the government lands under the flow of the canal with water on the understanding that as compensation for furnishing water at the rate of one inch to five acres he would get one-half of all the lands thus furnished with water which would amount to about 800 inches in all from Eighth Street to Highgrove, then known as East Riverside. This furnished a good basis for credit at the banks and the canal was built to Section 30 and water furnished as agreed on and the lands settled on in small tracts and planted mainly to oranges. But as Mr. Gage got ahead and his vision materialized so did the possibilities, for by this time in spite of many almost insur- mountable difficulties some of them in prospect and some of them over- come, there was the fact that there was a large body of water under the Carit tract that would be available and the only question now was to get it on to these lands to which it was pledged and the cost of getting it there. Twelve miles was the first estimate for a canal. It must not be forgotten that one of the difficulties in building a canal lies in getting a right of way which comes at times to be expensive, but in the case of Mr. Gage much was saved because the canal ran through lands that were to be supplied with water and this was one of the conditions of water supply that the supply carried the right of way for the canal.
Beyond the Terquisquite Arroya lay 6,000 acres southeast and above the flow of the Riverside Canal, which to Mr. Gage seemed very desir- able, and this he secured from Mr. Evans and planned his canal accord- ingly. Surveys showed that there would be necessary about one-half mile of tunneling in the canal as surveyed and under that survey water was brought to Section 50 in sufficient volume to irrigate all of these lands as originally agreed upon, some 800 inches in all, not including Section 30, which lay under Mr. Gage's own supervision. Unfortunately for Mr. Gage the time limit on the desert filing on Section 30 run out before he could get the water to the land, for immediately after the time expired there were four parties ready to file on the lands which technically had lapsed to the government. This caused some litigation, but in the end Mr. Gage got his title confirmed and all to whom he had promised water were satisfied, but there was this further 6,000 acres bought from Mr. Evans and a costly canal to be built and the lands to be surveyed and put on the market, but Mr. Gage was equal to the emergency, for he went to England, where he succeeded in forming a company that was financially able to carry all his plans to completion. The result of this was the formation of the Riverside Trust Company, Limited, in which Mr. Gage's interests were all merged and the lands laid off and planted. Mr. Gage retaining the management for several years, to be succeeded in management by William Irving, formerly engineer of the company. Before all the plans were carried out an outlay of something like $2,000,- 000 was incurred, showing the final magnitude of the enterprise to be
413
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
twenty-three miles of canal, not to speak of laterals, with Victoria Avenue a wide street, with a double drive planted on each side to ornamental and shade trees, the center being also planted to a double row of orna- mental trees and shrubs with a space wide enough for a street car line.
The whole tract irrigated by the canal embraces about 12,000 acres, mostly planted to oranges and lemons, with the water all piped to the highest point on each ten-acre tract, while the main canal is all cemented and on a uniform grade, with all provision for carrying storm water either above or below the main canal. Two minor reservoirs in the lower course of the canal are used as storage for temporary surplus and night water to take care of any temporary overplus. There is also a large storage reservoir across Mocking Bird Canyon, which was built in recent years, completed in 1915 at a cost of $100,000. Into this reservoir is discharged all surplus and in the non-irrigating season all water from whatever source is here stored for use in the irrigating season.
There are several systems supplied by the Gage Canal. Six hundred and ninety inches of the Gage Canal water is used by the East Riverside water system. The Mocking Bird Canyon reservoir has a capacity of 60,000 inches, or about 350 inches per day for the irrigating season, but it is only in a wet season and under favorable conditions that it can be filled to its capacity. Ordinarily about 150 inches per day for the irrigat- ing season can be run. The whole system is now known as the Gage Canal Company.
Referring further to the Gage Canal system and of Mr. Gage's con- nection therewith, lest the impression might have got out from the detail of the many difficulties he encountered in his efforts from private individ- uals who when they could "held him up," as it were, as well as from law suits in a measure forced upon him and the immense efforts in connec- tion with the preliminary arrangements before he was able to show enough water as a justification and a basis for the construction of the canal, it must not be supposed that he was without friends, who stood by him and encouraged him, not only with advice but even in a more sub- stantial way.
Among them who stood by him none were more noted than Dr. A. H. Woodill (one of the best known and prominent physicians of those days). not merely with advice, but in a more substantial manner. Dr. Woodill was one of those physicians who (noted in his profession) looked on it as a means of doing good and his fee merely as an incident of his life, bene- ficent and benevolent and even on his deathbed when the mortal was slowly but surely separating from the immortal, but as it were strength- ening the mental vision, still sent words of encouragement to Mr. Gage, and Doctor Woodill's vision has been far more than realized and a far greater result has been achieved than even Mr. Gage himself anticipated, but it is a comfort to know that in part they realized their hopes before they passed away.
Speaking of the water systems of Riverside itself, with its three main and important systems, the base and foundation of wealth and prosperity, there are some minor systems which individually do not amount to very much, but in the aggregate make up a considerably large acreage.
Water is, of course, the foundation of the wealth of the whole of Southern California and without it we would have the comparative desert which prevailed before the American occupation, but which gradually faded away under the changed conditions and aims of the newer element. Although commercialism has played an important part in the develop- ment of Southern California, it is not true that that was the prevailing sentiment among the pioneers from 1870 to 1880, which may be called
414
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
the dividing line between the old and the new. As stated by Doctor Greves, the first settlers came first of all with the "view of founding homes," and second, for the "raising of semi-tropical fruits," and in pursuit of these two objects four months were spent looking for a suitable location, water being the first essential, and it was thought at that time there was in the valley enough for the settlement of 10,000 people. But at that time no one had the least idea of the great developments that would take place in the line of artesian wells, pumping, reservoirs or of the immense undertaking entered into by the City of Los Angeles whereby she would go hundreds of miles to the Sierra Nevada Mountains and bring a great many thousand inches of water to be used for light, heat and power before it was used for domestic and irrigation purposes, nor of the enterprise of the Southern Sierras Power Company, which takes the power above, transmitting it for two hundred and fifty miles over rugged mountains and almost impassable canyons to populous centers, where it is used in ministering to the comfort of the home, for lighting, heating and taking away the drudgery of labor in and around the home itself, everywhere on its way pumping the water and invading the desert, converting it into a paradise, a Garden of Eden in its best estate. The aspects of the water question were in embryo for years and until science and experiment made many things possible (not thought of before), and now comes up the mighty vision of the great Colorado River itself and its wild and almost unknown great canyon which is to be tamed and put into harness for the benefit of seven states and a portion of Mexico, of which there is a fuller account elsewhere.
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.