USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume I > Part 78
USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume I > Part 78
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The date has been noted from a very remote antiquity and very much prized. Its cultivation and use are described on the mural tablets of the ancient Assyrians. In Arabia it is the chief source of national wealth, and its fruits form the staple article of food in that country. The tree has been introduced along the shores of the Mediterranean but does not fruit so far north, but its leaves are used at the festival of Palm Sunday and at the feast of the Passover by Jews.
Regarding this fruit W. G. Palgrave, in his work on Central and Eastern Arabia remarks: "Those who, like most Europeans at home, only know the date from the dried specimens of that fruit shown beneath a label in shop-windows, can hardly imagine how delicious it is when eaten fresh and in Central Arabia. Nor is it when newly gathered heating-a defect inherent to the preserved fruit every where; nor does
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its richness, however great, bring satiety ; in short, it is an article of food alike pleasant and healthy."
The date palm is a beautiful tree. Although a native of a hot, dry climate, it is tolerant of a good deal of frost. In Riverside the foliage has never been touched by frost in winter and in summer it grows vigorously. In its native country the natives make from its leaves baskets and crates without any nails which are very strong.
In and around Coachella there are a great many seedling date palms set out, but as it does not grow true to seed, chances have to be taken as to the quality of the fruit. Some new varieties have been grown from seed that are claimed to be better than the best imported. Time and experiment will undoubtedly originate some good varities which will help to increase the average. There are a great many acres (50,000) around Coachella adapted to date culture. It is evident that a dry climate is necessary to raise dates for a shower may ruin the fruit in a certain stage of ripeness. Although the claim is made that Coachella alone can raise dates there have been very good dates grown near Holtville in Imperial Valley.
Coachella is adapted to a great many different kinds of fruit, vegetables and grain. Where onions are grown, corn and other feed grains can be grown the same season. Grapes are said to grow heavy crops, and as they are early they bring good prices in eastern markets. Cotton is also profitable. Egyptian and long staple varieties do well and bear heavy crops. The dry climate also produces a brighter staple bringing a proportionately higher price. Cantaloupes and watermelons bring high prices for early use and all kinds of winter vegetables are a great success. Those who with impaired health require a dry climate can get well often by a change to this climate, with an opportunity to make a good living.
INDIO. Three miles from Coachella is Indio where is the govern- ment experiment station, which is mostly devoted to date culture, under the supervision of Bruce Drummond. Here a great variety of dates can be seen and new varieties can be tested as to adaptability to the climate of the valley. Imports of offshoots are generally set out at Indio where they are under the direct supervision of the government. At fairs and farm exhibits the government is at all times ready to put on exhibits and the various papers prepared by the employes of the government can be published. The latest importation of offshoots was given to a private grower for rooting providing that the grower could retain a certain proportion of the trees, the rest to be distributed under certain conditions to outside growers. Water for irrigation is pumped from a depth of over 100 feet. It is rather singular that although the water comes from the bottom of the old sea that in the western end of the valley where it is supposed to come from the mountain streams it is very pure, both surface and artesian.
Coachella has a fine country newspaper, called the Coachella Valley Submarine.
PALO VERDE VALLEY AND BLYTHE, BY GEORGE S. IRISH. Palo Verde, with Blythe the principal and (but for the recent addition of Ripley, the new railroad town a few miles further down the river) the only town, is a district that has been for a long time ( forty or more years) well and favorably known as a district that was destined at some time to come into prominence as a large producer.
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Thomas Blythe, a San Francisco capitalist, first brought it into notice mainly through his agent, George S. Irish, both of them Englishmen. The only thing that interfered with Blythe and its development was its isolation, distance from anywhere, and the almost impossible, barren, and waterless desert, to be traversed in getting there and the intense heat for the three hot summer months. Had it been alone and no other colonies in Southern California with easier possibilities to be settled, the rich lands (overflowed in high water) of the Colorado desert, with its deposits of Colorado mud could not have failed of receiving the attention it deserved. Until 1916 it was forty-seven miles from a rail- road, the Santa Fe, with the ninety mile Chuckawalla desert separating it from Mecca on the Southern Pacific Railroad. Thomas Blythe had a plan, which, if there had been population to justify it would have been feasible enough, but one man no matter how able he was financially to carry it out could not do so without population. . That was to use the Colorado River with flat-bottomed boats as a means of communication with the outside world in carrying produce to market. This at best would in the end have proved a failure without the railroad, for what could not have been then foreseen was the irrigation of Imperial Valley with a portion of Mexico that will finally take all of the waters of the Colorado River for irrigation on the places mentioned above, and on many other places further up the river in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and possibly a portion of Wyoming.
That the land is rich was proven without doubt by Mr. Irish in his experiments which were carried on under national encouragement as a sort of semi-experiment station. Corn, cotton, alfalfa, vegetables, melons, pumpkins, ramie, various kinds of fruits and sugar cane so long that it could not be put in a railroad box car but had to be carried on top.
Mr. Blythe personally had only visited the land once or twice, but he was in close connection with government officials who were very much interested in the forty acres set apart for experiment purposes.
George S. Irish came to San Francisco in 1869, and while working in a San Francisco bank his health failed and the bank introduced him to Blythe. The Mexican government favored Blythe's idea and he had con- cessions from that government. Many of the papers in relation to the Blythe operations were burned in the San Francisco fire.
PALO VERDE VALLEY ONCE INHABITED BY CAMELS
The camels are coming! The camels are coming! This was the cry that rang throughout our Southwestern desert country more than fifty years ago. And come they did.
For several years the hardy earnest pioneers had been pushing. pushing westward carrying their supplies with mules and horses and oxen. Many of these settlers had gone far west and it was necessary for them to have mail and provisions and communication with the people back east.
But the trip by team was long and dangerous. Indians were on every hand; long distances between watering places had to be covered, and many a man and team perished before reaching their destination.
Then the matter was brought to the attention of the United States Government. For some time the Secretary of the Interior puzzled over some means of relief for the situation, till in 1855, Franklin Pierce, then the President of the United States, secured an appropriation from Congress for the importation of some camels to take the long trips and carry supplies across the desert country.
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Accordingly they were imported, two herds of them. In the first herd were thirty-three camels, nine of which were dromedaries, twenty-three camels of burden and one calf. They landed at Indianola, Texas, with Major Wayne in charge. In testing them as to their strength and endur- ance it was found that three camels were equal to six mules and a wagon, and could make a trip in about half the time required by the mule team.
At Indianola the camels were tried out for their strength. Major Wayne once ordered a camel to kneel. He then had four bales of hay with a total weight of twelve hundred and fifty pounds to be placed upon it. Bystanders laughed, saying that the animals could not rise, but. to their amazement, at the command the animal not only arose, but easily walked away with his burden.
The second herd consisted of forty-one camels and was in charge of Lieutenant Porter. Lieutenant Beale was given part of this herd to open a road from Fort Defiance, New Mexico, to California. And it was these, or at least some of them which came and lived for a time in the Palo Verde Valley.
These camels demonstrated they could and did carry heavy loads, and fitness for the desert by enduring many hardships. They went over rough, rugged mountain ledges ; they pushed through tangles of brush ; they plunged into streams and swam across-all this besides carrying the heavy burdens placed upon them.
But the camel had his drawbacks as well as his virtues. While the two camels met on a narrow path they would invariably collide, spilling tons of supplies and causing the driver the inconvenience of picking up and repacking the goods. They could travel long distances without being tired, and did so, but after nightfall, when the caravans had stopped for rest it was quite unpleasant for the driver to discover that his camel had decided on a little jaunt of twenty-five miles or so and have to go for him. If the camel was not found that evening he might stray still farther and cause a day or more delay in the journey.
In the early days of the Palo Verde Valley, some of these camels- remnants of these herds-were running wild. Many of the old settlers can tell of having seen them, and of the stampedes which they caused to the horses.
In the year 1874 the board of supervisors of San Diego County, wishing to have a road from that city to Yuma, employed Wm. Callo- way, civil engineer, to ascertain if a road was feasible and if so to survey the best route. The work in those days was hard, but finally the survey was complete and a detailed report submitted. The board not only received and adopted the survey, but made Mr. Calloway a present of a fine Gurly instrument as a token of their appreciation.
The following year Mr. Calloway came up the river on a tour of inspection and camped on the bottom lands, opposite Ehrenberg, Arizona, now known as the Palo Verde. After a close examination he became impressed with the lands and the natural advantages of the water. Going to San Francisco, he worked hard to get someone to help finance a scheme for surviving and then colonization. Finally he induced T. H. Blythe, a capitalist, to help him, and in 1876 began a system of surveys, making maps of same, and I think it was in 1877 that he filed on the water rights of the Colorado River and began work in earnest.
In the early part of 1879 Mr. Blythe made me an offer to associate with Mr. Calloway and help on the project. I accepted the proposition and arrived on the lands early in 1879 with orders from Mr. Blythe to make a close examination as to soil and water and a detailed report of all work done and a general condition of the lands. This kept me
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busy for several weeks. The more we surveyed the better the project seemed, for the general fall in the river and the lands proved that the water from the river could be used with the greatest advantage. Com- plying with the request of Mr. Blythe, I forwarded to him the report covering with minute detail and care, the exact conditions of the enter- prise as it then appeared. We waited several days, for with expenses running up, it was a question whether Mr. Blythe would continue or order us to leave for home. Finally in about a week we received not only his approval of the scheme as outlined, but with orders to go ahead and forwarding to me his power of attorney to act in his place and stead. In the meantime, Mr. Calloway, under the laws of the state, had already applied for several thousand acres under the swamp land act and being granted, was known as Swamp Land District No. 310.
In the early summer of '79 the river tried to be supreme master and overflowed a large acreage. This really was a great benefit-proving that our levels were about correct. The high water prevented surveying, etc., and preparation was made for building the levees, etc. In the fall of 1879 Mr. Calloway selected part of section 18, township 22 (Mr. Murphy's ranch), as a model farm and home place. Taking advan- tage of several small sloughs, we completed the first canal running to and past the ranch, about one-half mile; taking the water from Olive Lake. Mr. Calloway had, previous to my arrival, cut a small temporary canal from the river to the lake, which kept the lake sufficiently full to supply enough water needed at the farm.
After completing temporary levees, and cleaning up section 18, and building levees for the farm, our attention was turned towards locating a permanent headgate at the river. This took some time, running the levels, examinations, etc., but we became convinced that Black Point (the present intake) was the only permanent and best place, though we felt somewhat discouraged at times by the river, steamboat men and others, who predicted that the river would surely leave us high and dry and the only way we could possibly get water into the canals would be to pack it by buckets from the river. However, Mr. Calloway said many times: "We will watch the river closely and if it attempts to form a sand-bar, we will nurse it by building a riprap of brush and gradually turn the current and so wash out any obstruction of sand bars, etc., and keep it at Point Black."
'Building this canal and blasting through the solid rock, caused much work in surveys and estimates and under the conditions of obtaining sup- plies appeared very expensive, and these conditions, with our plans, were again submitted to Mr. Blythe for approval. While waiting, Mr .. Calloway went to work with quite a force of men strengthening the levees and it was on this work, a little below Olive Lake, that he met an untimely death at the hands of an Apache Indian. This indeed was a sad blow to us, for he was a man much to be admired, not only his qualifications as an engineer, but for his general character and manly bearing. This sad incident stopped all work and threw us back for many months. Troops were sent in by the government to guard the district, as the Indians caused considerable damage, especially at the Colorado Indian Reservation.
After a few months things quieted down and work was resumed under the care of C. C. Miller, C. E. of Riverside, who adopted the surveys of Mr. Calloway, commenced work on the headgate and the cutting of the canal through the granite. It was in November, 1882, that Mr. Blythe came down to visit the work just before the completion of the main canal. He was not only astonished at the undertaking but
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surprised to find so large a body of good land that could be easily irrigated.
The water was turned in the main canal through the new intake and we had an abundant supply running to waste, passing the ranch house, where many experimental crops were grown, chief among them being alfalfa, cotton, ramie. Egyptian corn, sugar corn sugar cane and sorghum, all doing fine and producing famous crops. Grapes, peaches, nectarines and garden stuff exceeded our expectations and just as people were coming in and inquiries being made in regard to the colony, Mr. Blvthe died in April, 1883, placing the estate in the hands of the public admin- istrator, Mr. Phil A. Roach, where it remained many years, until finally the lands were turned over to the only heir, his daughter, Florence Blythe, and some years after sold to the Oxnard syndicate.
The first step taken was to file on 40,000 acres of this land under the Swamp and Overflow Act. Then Calloway began making prelim- inary surveys to determine the most feasible irrigation system.
The brunt of the work fell on Irish, who was later joined by C. C. Miller, father Frank Miller, who is manager of the Glenwood Mis- sion Inn at Riverside. Mr. Miller was engineer on the works at the time water was first turned through the rock intake.
Though it is only within the last few years that people, many people. have taken an interest in our Palo Verde Valley, yet it has a history as old as that of other parts of California. This history is full of the struggles of hardy pioneers for a living; stories of heat, and Indian troubles and flood waters; stories filled with daring adventures and patient, long-suffering struggles, until the present time, with its wealth of prosperity and opportunities and return to the things of civilized life have been reached.
This story of the valley has passed over a period of more than fifty years and though little can be found in books about it, it lives in the hearts and minds of some of our hardy pioneers who have been here almost since the begining.
The Palo Verde Valley was given its Spanish name, which means "green wood" or "evergreen," by the pioneers of the La Paz gold dis- trict which flourished just across the Colorado sixty years ago. The valley is a naturally verdant, heavily timbered body of about 100,000 acres of river bottom lying along the west bank of the Colorado River, in the eastern part of Riverside County, California. In the early days it was a famous feeding ground for cattle and a source of wild game of various species. Its development and irrigation, which so marvelously enhanced its natural productivity, were begun by Thomas Blythe in the '70s of the last century, but its great progress only began with the opening of railroad communication in 1916. Without a railroad sup- plies were expensive and hard to get and crops suffered too heavy a haulage toll across the intervening desert to the railroads then available.
The only rail transportation then existing consisted of the Santa Fe passing forty-two miles to the north and the Southern Pacific sixty odd miles to the south, in both cases reached by soft, toilsome desert roads that involved two or three days' time for a single trip of loaded wagons. In spite of this handicap the courageous and farsighted pioneers extended canals. leveled lands and produced crops, proving for themselves and for those to come after, the extraordinary suitability of the soil and cli- mate for cotton, milo maize, alfalfa, broom corn, potatoes, sugar beets, etc. All experiments in the varieties of possible crops and a vast amount of canal and levee construction were accomplished by these men of great
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faith, who made the later development merely that of multiplying suc- cesses already demonstrated as lacking only a means of marketing.
With the completion of the California Southern Railroad to Blythe, in August 1916, accordingly, the valley has grown by leaps and bounds, a third of the land has been put under cultivation (chiefly cotton and alfalfa) with an aggregate crop value in 1919 of over $6,000,000; the population has doubled and quadrupled: the first town, Biythe, has increased from a frontier outpost of a few hundred to a population around 2,500; postoffices and schools have been established throughout the valley; and the development has demanded the extension of the railroad nine miles south of Blythe to the site of another potentially big town-Ripley.
The growth and prosperity of the valley are based on its unique advantages in soil, water and climate and their bearing on particular crops of high and staple market value.
SOIL .. The soil is the gift of the American Nile, the Colorado River, which for ages weaved back and forth within a bend about thirty miles
BUSINESS BLOCKS OF BLYTHE COTTON COMPRESS
long and ten miles across, until it had deposited successive layers of silt and decayed vegetable matter to a depth varying from ten to eighty feet and had rimmed itself off to the eastern edge of the basin. As rich as the lands along the Nile, and for the same reason, it is also further enriched or replenished with rich irrigation by the silt-laden waters of the canals.
This annual re-fertilization has been held by scientists to insure inex- haustible fertility and to be worth in actual cash more than the annual cost of putting water onto the land.
No uncertainties of weather nor of water ever trouble the Palo Verde farmer. An average rainfall of less than three inches means practically no rain at all, to come at caprice of cloud or wind and interfere with the farmer's plans, or by failing, to ruin him. Rain is no more a factor in Palo Verde Valley than it is in a covered green- house. Primary water rights (established by Thomas Blythe in 1877) on the Colorado, impregnable, rock-bound head-gates and a universal system of main and lateral canals, bring water to the farmer when he needs it, in whatever quantity he needs it and for as long as he needs it. Vol. 1-38
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The water is owned and controlled by the farmer himself, through a mutual water company, whose only expense is the upkeep of the system and the extension of the laterals.
Cloudless skies, freedom from disastrous winds and rains and the mellowing warm of the crop-forcing sunshine every day in the year make the farmer's ideal climate. Though hot, the summers bring no sun strokes nor prostrations. neither man nor animal ever suffer nor lose a day's work, for the heat is dry and the nights comfortable.
The growing season is practically the whole year, planting goes on at all times; two crops are common and three crops may be raised on the same land each year. The most frequent combination is cotton followed by milo maize. The value of the latter crop alone would be considered ample return on an Eastern farm.
The principal crop at present is the "white" or short-staple cotton, to which about 20,000 acres are devoted. The production averages higher than any other district in the United States. Two bales an acre are not unknown, one and a half are frequent, one and a quarter are common and the average runs about a bale to the acre. The variation depends on the individual farmer, his land and the way he handles irrigation and cultivation.
RIPLEY. The new settlement of Ripley, a few miles further down the river, has a very promising future, as the railroad has been con- tinued to that point. In 1920 cotton was grown at that point but the vicissitudes of that time overtook those who had cotton on heir hands. The new settlement is in the hands of a company that has cleared the land, laid off streets and laid the basis of a good settlement. In 1921 there were but few inhabitants.
Ripley, situated about twelve miles south of Blythe, is being built in the most permanent manner and will be near the geographical center of the valley. Its new $100,000 hotel is nearly ready to open and will be one of the finest buildings of its kind in Riverside County.
The new hotel at Ripley is one of the most substantial buildings of its kind in Southern California. It is built of reinforced concrete and is of two stories, being built in an "L" shape, with an arcade extending along both lengths of the sidewalk.
On the first floor are big lobbies, big dining room, kitchen, laundry, barber shop and one store-room; on the second floor are thirty-two guest rooms, each with running water, half with private baths, all with showers; two sides of the building with 12-foot screened sleeping porch, onto which half of the guest rooms open but which can be used for emergency crowds so as to accommodate 150 guests. The hotel has full electric equipment and is heated by electricity and cooled by electric fans. The best modern equipment is used throughout.
It is the only hotel (meaning complete hotel service) between Phoe- nix and Riverside and between Needles and El Centro and will be with- out a competitor in an area of forty or fifty thousand square miles. Responsibility is felt toward the cross-country traveler to whom Ripley will be the first California welcome. It will cost between $100.000 and $125,000 when finished and furnished, complete about May 1, 1922.
For 1922 the Palo Verde country planned many improvements in consequence of improved railroad accommodations, among which was a large planting of grape vines for the early markets of the East. Everything grown in the Imperial Valley ought to succeed in the rich sedimentary soils of the Palo Verde section.
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