USA > California > San Bernardino County > Ingersoll's century annals of San Bernadino County, 1769-1904 : prefaced with a brief history of the state of California : supplemented with an encyclopedia of local biography and portraits of many of its representative people > Part 32
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285
HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
THE GEOLOGY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.
By George R. Robertson.
It is not the purpose of this article to give an exhaustive treatment of the geological features of the Imperial county of San Bernardino. A volume would be required to deal with the varied rock structure, historical development and dynamical forces, which have left their mark on the desert, mountain and valley.
The county of San Bernardino com- prises a large territory and covers three well defined geological fields. The first includes the San Bernardino Basin-a valley south and west of the mountains, coming under a high state of cultivation, and possessing a most intelligent, well-to- do class of people who are bound to make this valley the Athens of America and of the golden west ; the second division com- prises the noble mountain chain which cuts the county in two; the third division embraces all that portion east of the Sierras, under desert conditions and ex- tending to the Colorado River.
GEO. R. ROBERTSON
Since the mountains are by far the most important geological part of the county, we will notice the San Ber- nardino Sierras first.
The San Bernardino mountains lie between Cajon Pass on the west and Mill Creek Divide on the east. Two noble peaks crown the range, namely, Gorgonio (Greyback) whose elevation is 11,485 feet and the highest point in Southern California and San Bernardino, elevation 10,630 feet. West of the Cajon Pass, Cucamonga, 8,911 feet, and San Antonio, 10,080 feet, are striking landmarks but they lie in the San Gabriel range. The general range averages from 7,000 to 8,000 feet and possesses geological history full of interest. Like all other mountain ranges the San Bernardino Sierras arose from an old sea margin. During the long ages preceding the Jurassic era, the Pacific coast line was east of the Sierras. The Plateau Basin region had been contributing great quantities of sediment to its western sea margin now occupied by these mountains. When the Plateau sediment became a deposit under the sea, of 30,000 feet, its weight caused the sea-floor to give
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way. Rock crushing and lateral pressure eastward and upward set in. Old Baldy, San Bernardino and Greyback first appeared as islands. There were no cataclysms. . Slowly by mighty forces the elevation continued; new island peaks were born and in time formed a noble part of a grand mountain chain 600 miles long, extending from San Jacinto in the south to Mt. Shasta in the north. The Sierras average from fifty to eighty miles wide. The eastern escarpment by reason of a great fault of 10,000 feet, is precipitous, while the western slope descends more gradually to the plain.
The age of these mountains is determined by the latest strata lying on their slopes. The last deposit on the old sea-margin elevated into the San' Bernardino mountains, must have been the Jurassic. The reason why there are no Cretaceous, Eocene or Miocene rocks found on these Sierra Nevadas has but one answer: the Sierras were born before these ages came. In fact these mountains were dying during these eras, because the cretaceous and later sedimentary deposits are found on the foothills.
The appearance of the continent at the time Highlands, Mentone and Yucaipe were the extreme western margin of the Pacific, is suggestive. Then Florida was sleeping under the sea : a mighty mediterranean sea divided the continent ; the cretaceous sea flowed between the Rocky mountains and the great-lake region. From the Pacific shore near Arrowhead, looking west- ward, all the present fruitful valleys were a melancholy waste with the ex- ception of an occasional island. It was during the Cretaceous, Eocene and Miocene ages that erosion deposited nearly 30,000 feet of sediment on this new sea floor. This caused the earth's crust under the sea to give way, so giving birth to the Coast range. Could the reader have stood on Mt. San Bernardino at the close of the Eocene age and cast the eye westward, he would at first have seen an occasional island rising out of the deep, then a sea of islands and finally a mountain range, pushing the sea further west. The equilibrium of a mountain can only last as long as its own weight over- balances its marginal sea deposit. When erosion causes the mountain to be lighter than the mass on the sea floor, a new elevation of the mountain takes place. This is what happened at both elevations of the San Bernardino mountains. At the close of the Miocene age when the Coast range was formed, a second elevation of these Sierra Nevadas took place. The fused material under the mountain crust, being squeezed by tremendous force sought freedom. The weaker points of the mountains seemed to be in the north and eastward slopes. At these points lava poured forth from funnels and fissures. Great faults, dykes and fissures displayed in outcroppings, are monuments of that stormy age. Since the lava covers tertiary beds, we can fix the volcanic flow as preceding the glacial period. The mountain slopes facing the San Bernardino valley, contain but scant volcanic material.
The relation of San Gorgonio and San Bernardino to the history of the earth's crust is interesting. There have been four great mountain making
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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
periods in the history of the American continent. The first was the Lauren- tian ; the second, the Appalachian; the third, the Sierra Nevada; the fourth the Coast mountains, the baby mountains of the world. The latter corre- spond with the Alps and Himalayas.
During the first elevation of the Sierra Nevadas there came into the world's life, the earliest birds, giant reptiles, the first bony fishes and butter- flies. When the second elevation took place, Heilprin informs us the world's fauna was enriched by the "hedge-hog, mole, porcupine, beaver, squirrel, rabbit, tapir, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, hog, deer, giraffe, elephant, cat, dog and hyena." These, though not of the living species, were the ancestors of those of modern days. Nature like nations and races of men, has her periods of life history. Great intellectual and moral, as well as physical movements, work in cycles, spend their forces, yet the progress is ever onward and up- ward.
A striking characteristic of the San Bernardino mountain strata is its metamorphism. The granite rib and later sedimentary deposits on its slopes. have been changed. Change, the progressive order of nature, is the divine law of development. Professor Le Conte wrote: "Metamorphism seems to be universal in the Laurentian, is general in the Paleozoic, frequent in the Mesozoic, exceptional in the Tertiary and entirely wanting in recent sedi- ments." The rock exposures found east and north of the city of San Ber- nardino, in the Potato cañon, Mill creek, Santa Ana, Cajon pass and Lytle creek cañons, all abound in metamorphic rock. The granite rib is often asso- ciated with gneissic structure and contains so many well defined boulders in the crystalline mass, we see no serious objection to classifying it as meta- morphic. The rib is a mass of well developed and complete crystallization. Excepting in the case of the gneiss all lines of stratification are lost. Great beds of Hornblendic gneiss and Syenite alternate with granite. Mica and Hornblendic schist abound in portions of Mill creek rock. The later sedi- mentary deposit lying on the lower faces of the granite rib, have been greatly disturbed since it was placed. . Metamorphism made sweeping changes in this deposit. Limestone was changed to marble. The old sea cemetery was not only tilted, but heated in connection with moisture and cooled slowly under pressure. The change by crystallization unfortunately destroyed all fossils. Excellent examples of the metamorphism of limestone are found in Lytle creek, Mill creek, Colton and Potato cañon. There are extensive beds of sandstone in the county and frequently metamorphism has changed the deposit into quartzite. But not all the sandstone has been so changed. The Mill creek sandstone exposures are well preserved. The material of the Mill creek sandstone may be studied in the walls of the county Court House, San Bernardino. Fossil fragments of plant life are found between the layers of sandstone at the Mentone quarries. However, metamorphism has almost changed these fragments into coal. Metamorphism changes plant remains
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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
from wood to lignite, from lignite to anthracite and from anthracite to graphite. As an example of the latter, all vegetable remains in the Laurentian rocks have been changed to graphite. The Mill creek sandstone varies from fine to coarse, argillaceous, arenaceous, conglomerate, lving comformably on beds of shale. These sandstone beds form most excellent liquid storage reservoirs. Tertiary beds frequently occur in the Yucaipe foothills.
The granite rib as seen in Gorgonio and San Bernardino peaks, often presents great beds of porphyritic granite with large scattered crystals of flesh colored feldspar. This rock being hard and flinty would make an ex- cellent building stone. The Crafton foothills near Redlands, contain porphyr- itic rock in the later sedimentary deposit, but it is not granitic. Trap and shale are plentiful on the desert side of the mountains, but there is none of the former found on the inside slopes.
The prevalence of gravely clay deposits on the mountains at elevations of from 3,000 to 7,000 feet, often attract the attention of mountain climbers. How came this gravel to be deposited in such quantities so far above the detritus deposits of the present day? Some have ventured a solution by asserting that these mountain gravel beds were deposited by marine condi- tions. This theory is untenable, for no deposit of marine animals has been found in these gravels. Any signs of life found as yet, indicate land and fresh water deposits. Very good exposures of this gravcl deposit are seen in Lytle creek bluffs and the Santa Ana and Mill creek higher slopes. The lines of stratification of these gravels show that they were caused by detritus carried down by streams from higher mountains-mountains now unknown. Occasionally the detritus seems to have been deposited in lake-like conditions. These gravel beds are contemporaneous with the placer gravel beds of the north, so frequently covered with the lava flow. These high gravels belong to ancient rivers in existence at the close of the Miocene age. We may desig- nate these gravels at Pliocene. A good exposure may be studied at the Mill creek divide overlooking the desert. The beds of these local Pliocene rivers are now found high up on the brush covered mountain slopes. An- other feature of these gravels seems to prove that the San Bernardino mount- ains, in the age of the ancient rivers, were lower in elevation and of a more gentle slope than now. When the second elevation of the Sierras took place, the Pliocene gravel was lifted to great heighth on some of the mountain spurs. It would therefore appear that the second and last great elevation of these mountains occurred nearer the glacial period than is gen- erally believed. The Pliocene gravel is called the "auriferous gravel" of the north and constitutes the rich placer mines. No lava flows cover our mount- ain gravels ; for there were no fissures pouring forth lava in this region unless we include the desert side of the mountains.
The degredation of the granite rib and late metamorphic deposit is an- other characteristic of the San Bernardino mountains and is a subject worthy
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of a more careful study than this article will allow. The death of granite and shale gives us sand and clay. Our granite abounds in quartz, feldspar, hornblende and mica. Iron, the artist of geology, has tinted the rocks ali shades of color and made them exquisitely beautiful. The death of these rocks leaves us sand and clay-this clay, when vegetable matter is absent becomes red colored by peroxide of iron. Redlands gets its name from the color of its clay. Peroxide of iron is insoluble in water. When this red clay, coming down from the mountains, is acted upon by decaying animal or vegetable matter, it is changed to a brown or black. The peroxide of iron becomes a soluble oxide of iron, a ferrous carbonate. Red clay simply means a clay devoid of carbonaceous plant food. Bring the red clay under a high state of cultivation and it will no longer be red. There is no special virtue in red soils. Red suggests the need of humus fertilizers.
The relationship of San Bernardino mountain erosions to the valley soils is as intimate as brain and blood. The exposure of granite, gneiss, lime- stone. sandstone, shale, conglomerate and slate, are natural perennial store- houses of soil supplies. Their erosion gives us clay, sand, gravel. boulders. lime, iron, potassium and some phosphoric acid. In flood times humus and plant food are conveyed to the valley by mountain streams.
Geologically, it is of supreme importance that the attention of all should be called to the economic value and the adaptability of rock formation to store up moisture. Sandstone shale and even granite are designed to absorb moisture. This is especially true of the disintegrating rock surface of the San Bernardino mountains with their dip and joint cleavages.
During the winter rains, water percolates to great depths and seeps out long afterwards in the lower outcropping and eroded rock formations in cañons. This is abundantly evident in all of our water-bearing canons. From this evidence we are convinced that except from storage reservoirs, all the irrigation water which finds its way down mountain streams in the late months of the dry season, comes from this source. The seepage veins of water-carrying rocks are often hidden from the eye by soil, rock slides, boulder deposits and dense growth of brush, mimuli, columbines, ferns, willows and grass. Many of these rock springs issue from the flinty fissures of granite. It follows that everything which brains and money can devise, should be done to protect the pines, chaparral and undergrowth from fire. The mountain flora allows moisture to percolate rock and come out slowly to irrigate farms and gardens. Every farmer should study the principles involved in water percolating through mountain rock.
The mountain strata is wonderfully contorted. Synclinal and anticlinal structure appears in bewildering confusion. The sedimentary deposit lying on the granite ribs dips southward and westward. Not unfrequently the strata is tilted into a vertical position. This sedimentary deposit gives shape and color to the mountain spurs and foothills. As it extends into the valley
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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
it disappears under the quaternary deposit and affords an opportunity for artesian wells.
THE SAN BERNARDINO BASIN.
The San Bernardino basin is a mountain valley ranging from 1,100 to 2,000 feet elevation. At the western border of the basin is an underfold of bed-rock so situated near Rialto, extending to East Riverside, that it acts as a dyke preventing the retained water from escaping to the sea. The basin at first was a lake with a circumference of twenty-five miles. All the mountain streams of the quaternary period down to the present day have gradually filled this lake with sediment. Today the San Bernardino basin is a sub- merged lake fille:l with detritus in layers, a number of which are water-bear- ing, with artesian pressure. As we near the boundaries of this submerged lake, the deposit passes from sand to gravel which grades into large boulders, piled up into wild confusion. The Santa Ana river between Redlands and Highlands has made good exposures of quaternary deposits. The banks, es- pecially that on the south side, tell a story of times when water came down the Santa Ana and Mill Creek canons in torrents.
The hot springs of this valley and mountain slopes, at Arrowhead and Santa Ana cañon, are considered by so many people as volcanic that a word in reference to them may be in place. We found the rock around the Arrow- head springs so hot that we could not stand long in one place with comfort. The water was found hot enough to cook an egg. Plants peculiar to the sea- shore were found growing near the springs. The alkalies in the water of the springs point to a chemical cause for the heat. The water in percolating through different rock formations carried different minerals in solution. Chemical action at length sets in, heat is generated, and finally the water issues hot and steaming from the rock fissures. The temperature of the springs varies from 108 to 172. The water is clear and pleasant to drink. The ab- sence of all volcanic signs points to chemical action as the perennial source of heat. The alkaline deposit accumulating in the vicinity of cach spring con- firms the theory.
We may ask a practical question. Does the geology of San Bernardino mountains promise serious earthquakes? We think not; for the rock forma- tion of the valley and of the mountains are devoid of dykes, fissures, or faults. Igneous filling of fissures or dykes does not appear in the outcroppings. True there are small seams filled from the neighboring rock, but no results of vio- lent earthquake movement are visible, at least in the deposit of the last 50,000 years. On the valley side of the mountains we would seem to have reached the period of rest in mountain making. No earthquakes, such as would cause great damage to wisely constructed buildings, need be expected. The mount- ains have entered the period of degredation by erosion in which the valley will have its Cretaceous, Miocene and Eocene deposits buried deeper and
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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
deeper under the modern deposit of clay, sand and gravel. The lake evidences may become more obscure, but the original outlet of the lake by the way of Riverside, will remain. Cretaceous and Tertiary as well as Quaternary de- posit, cover the valley and foothills. Metamorphism has destroyed the ter- tiary fossils.
THE DESERT.
The desert is a unique part of the county. The mountains abruptly de- scend to the desert by a great fault. During the second elevation of the San Bernardino mountains at the close of the Miocene age, the Sierra fault, one of the most remarkable in the world, occurred. The mountains separated from the desert portion and elevated the eastern escarpment thousands of feet. This granite rim looking out over the desert presents magnificent proportions in a similar formation in Lower California. The fault is wonderfully exposed at Canon Diablo, San Pedro Martir mountain. Standing on the western rim, or edge of the fault, the eye can trace the "lift" or "slide" down a perpendicular pitch-off of almost 10,000 feet. The numerous felsite dykes show where the rock formation cleaved, as if cut with a Titan's knife. The rock correspond- ing to that on which our feet rested, lay on the desert's edge, nearly two miles below us, to which we could all but toss a pebble. The evidence seemed clear that not only did the eastern edge of San Pedro Martir rise thousands of feet ; but also that the gulf subsided at the same time. It seems to the writer clear that the Gulf of California is a submerged mountain plateau. This may help to throw a ray of light on the relations of San Bernardino mountains to the desert. The granite rib is clear, definite and well defined on the east. There were fissures and volcanic conditions on the desert. Valuable gold mines have been discovered east of the San Bernardino and San Gorgonio peaks. But we must leave to the article on mineralogy and mining some account of the great mineral wealth of the county.
The most remarkable erosion on the desert is caused by sand driven by the wind. Mountain streams carrying sands to the valleys may be called liquid files cutting all the rock surface over which the water flows, breaks or plunges. The wind swept plains contain rock exposures carved into fantastic shapes by wind files. These wind storms bite and sting the face with their swiftly driven grains of sharp sand. All the streams rising in the mountains and flowing eastward are soon drained dry by the thirsty, sandy, porus soil. The Mojave river is a good example of the mountain stream conquered by the desert.
Volcanic material and shale abound. Frequently the shale is beautifully marked by dendrites, the fern-like tracings of oxide of iron and manganese. By mistake these are often collected and sold for fossil ferns. True fern impressions are so different from dendrites and so easily distinguished by a pocket microscope, that no one need make the mistake the second time.
The desert portion of the county is closely connected with the Plateau region, the ancient store house of material from which the San Bernardino mountains first came.
SAN BERNARDINO CITY HIGH SCHOOL
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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
CHAPTER XI.
THE SCHOOLS.
Probably the first school in this county was taught in a tent at the foot of the Cajon Pass, while the Mormons waited for their leaders to select a location for their new "Zion." The teacher of this school, Rupert Lee, was later known as "Lazy" Lee, be- cause he refused to do his share in building the stockade around the buildings. This school was suc- ceeded by another, also in a tent, in the Old Fort taught by William Stout. About the same time, Mig- uel Ochoa, gathered a few children together in the little New Mexican settlement of La Placita and in the Spanish tongue, instructed them.
A. S. McPHERRON County Superintendent of Schools-1901-
The first official record of our schools that we now have is a report of the School Commissioners of San Bernardino, November 17, 1853. Theodore Turley, James H. Rollins, David Seeley, School Commission- ers, report as follows : "Whole num- ber of children between 4 and 18 years of age in Districts No. I and 2, 263. Number of boys, 142, girls, 121.
"Amount raised by subscription and paid teachers, $1.438.00. Names of teachers employed : District No. 1, William Stout, 8 months, $60.00 per mo. ; W'm. N. Cook, grade No. 2, 6 months, $60.co per mo. ; Q. S. Sparks, three months, $76.00 per mo. : Sarah Pratt, 3 months, ten days, $50.00 per mo.
"District No. 2, Ellen S. Pratt. 4 months, $35.00 per mo .; Lois Pratt. Assistant (Primary grade) one month, $27.50; M. S. Mathews, I month, $27.50.
"Number of pupils taught in first and second districts, 206; daily average
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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
attendance, 160; amount expended for school library and apparatus, $300 ; amount expended for renting or building and furnishing school house, $291.50. Total amount of all expenditures on account of schools, $2,029.50.
"The whole of the above was raised by subscription. The above Com- missioners excuse themselves by saying that the County Superintendent of Common Schools for Los Angeles County was a defaulter, therefore their report did not reach headquarters last year, etc. V. J. Herring, County Superintendent of Schools."
Two adobe rooms served as school houses in the town of San Bernardino, after the tent school house and were used until the erection of the brick school house in 1872, on Fourth Street. between C and D Streets.
In 1855, the Commissioners report: "Oct. ist-Received school report of Francis Clark, teacher in District No. 1, 27 pupils, school from June 18th to Sept. 8th. The same school commissioners as in 1853.
"Nov. ist, 1855-Went with the Board of Trustees of the City District No. I, as a committee chosen by the City Council, to select for the use of the city as school lots ; selected as follows: Lot 2, block 5; lot 8, block 7; lot 6, block 28: lot 2, block 8: lot 7, block 19: lot 4, block 64. Reported the same Nov. 3rd, 1855." In 1856, the city paid $600.00 for the lots thus selected. On page 19, of the first Book of Records of the County Superintendent appears the following: "Received the report of the County Clerk for the amount of taxable property in this county for the year 1855, $312.778.19. C. A. Skinner, County Superintendent."
On Oct. 1, 1857, a meeting of the school trustees was called by the Board of Super- visors to elect a County Superintendent and to fix the boundaries of school districts. The trustees duly met and fixed the boundaries of six districts, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. These boundaries are now so indefinite that they cannot be followed, but they were evidently City, Mt. Vernon, Mill, Mission, Warm Spring and Jurupa or San Salvador. R. B. Pierce was named as Superintendent.
In 1853 or '54 an adobe school house was built near the little church of Agua Mansa. This was replaced in 1863 by a frame building lo- cated on two acres of land donated by W. A. Conn in the S. W. corner of San Bernardino ELLISON ROBBINS Rancho. Mr. W. R. Wozencraft is mentioned as the teacher in both of these buildings. About 1855 a log room was used as a school house in Mill district. The walls were chinked with mud in good Missouri style and the building was surrounded by a live willow hedge.
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