USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > The beginnings of San Francisco : from the expedition of Anza, 1774, to the city charter of April 15, 1850 : with biographical and other notes, Vol. I > Part 18
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A great change has been wrought in this desolate region. The waters of the Rio Colorado have caused the desert to bloom as the rose; grains and grasses, fruits and flowers cover the once glistening sands, and the mesquite and cactus have given way for the date, the fig, and the olive. But the genius of the desert was not to be overcome without a struggle. By the advancing forces of reclama- tion and civilization the mighty power of the great river had not been sufficiently considered and suddenly the Colorado asserted itself; it deserted its channel and poured its flood through the canal opened to convey a portion of its waters to the arroyo of the Alamo river and thence to the irrigating canals. The force of the river soon widened the intake to a channel of six hundred yards and the entire flow of the Colorado went racing down
*30th Cong. Ist. Ses. Ex. Doc. No. 41.
+Bartlett: Personal Narrative.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
the comparatively steep incline to the Salton sea. Des- perate attempts were made to dam the new channel. A channel was opened between the Alamo and the Rio Padrones in an effort to divert the flood through the Rio Padrones, Volcano lake, and Hardy's Colorado to the gulf; but just north of the lake the water cut a channel for itself from Rio Padrones through to New river and flowed thence northwest to Salton sea, which began to fill under the flow from two channels; the Alamo and New rivers. The water rapidly eroded the soft silt of the desert forming deep channels and cataracts which, progressing up stream, threatened to result in conditions that would not permit of the waters being diverted into the irrigating canals, being from sixty to eighty feet below the surface of the surrounding country.
An appeal was made to the Federal government and on January 12, 1906, the president sent a message to Congress asking for an appropriation of two million dollars to con- trol the Colorado river and save the homes of the settlers of the Imperial valley of California, as it is called; but it was not until February 1907 that the stream was finally subjugated.
In December 1908 I visited the valley and plucked a delicious orange from a four year old tree in a grove in the midst of the terrible desert. The so-called rivers of the Colorado desert are but dry channels through which the waters of the Colorado flow when the river is in flood. The flow is northward, and in times of great freshet the waters have reached and filled the Salton sea, a depression in the northern part of the desert lying some three hundred feet below sea level. There are two of these rivers, the Alamo or Salton river, and the New river. The Rio Padrones connects the New river with the Colorado. It takes the overflow of the great river at a point six or eight miles below the boundary line and conveys it
317
NOTES
through several channels to Volcano lake, thence through New river to Salton sea, and also through Hardy's Colorado to the gulf. The waters of the Colorado have reached Salton sea several times within the memory of the present generation; the depression is now filled to a depth of nearly eighty feet and the water covers an area of about three hundred square miles.
Hardy's Colorado is another of these overflow rivers- in this case being supplied by the flood from above. In May 1826 Lieutenant R. W. H. Hardy of the British navy, traveling in Mexico, chartered in the port of Guaymas a twenty-five ton schooner, El Bruja, and sailed to the head of the gulf. Encountering a good deal of trouble in high winds and shoals he finally reached a vein of reddish water which he surmised came from "Red" river and at two o'clock of the same day he saw an opening ahead which he took to be the mouth and he sailed into it and anchored for the night at half past six. At midnight he cast the lead and found but a foot and a half of water. He got off without damage at the next rise of the tide but next day he broke his rudder and continued his exploration for some distance upward in a small boat. He thought the mouth of the Gila was below him, but what he took for the Gila was the Colorado itself. He was in a bayou or flood water channel from which he finally extricated himself. This channel is still called Hardy's Colorado.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
NOTE 16 RIO DE SANTA ANA
To those who have only seen the dry bed of the Santa Ana river in summer Anza's account of the passage will seem strange. Some one has said that the bed of a southern California river is on top; and the Santa Ana is a typical river of southern California. The visible water supply is not by any means all there is if one of these streams. A great part of the flow is under the surface, and though the bed of the river may be dry, abundance of water may be generally found by sinking. Where the rock approaches the surface, as in the entrance to a cañon, the water rises, only to sink again as the rock recedes. The Santa Ana river, the crossing of which was so serious a matter to Anza's expedition, shows to most persons passing through San Bernardino valley but a dry bed of sand; yet this river forms one of the most important and valuable water supplies in the south. Rising in the San Bernardino mountains (Sierra Madre) it comes out of a broad cañon at the east end of the valley where its surface flow in summer is all taken by the ditch companies supplying the Highlands and Redlands districts. The San Bernardino valley, bed of an ancient lake, receives at its edge several streams, tributary to the Santa Ana, which promptly disappear. The subter- ranean flow of the river, probably spread out through the basin of the valley, is gathered with the water of the tributaries and thrown to the surface again by the rim of the basin as the stream passes from the valley through the gap between Slover mountain and the Riverside mesa. Here the water is taken for the Riverside district. Ten miles below, the stream rises to the surface again as it
319
NOTES
enters the head of its cañon through the coast range and during its passage through this cañon the ditches supplying Orange county take their water .* Emerging from the cañon the waters again seek their underground channel and flow onward to the sea, spreading through the land and in some places creating large cienegas. In one of these cienegas, on Las Bolsas rancho, an important industry was begun some years ago-the raising of celery. From this rancho there is shipped annually two thousand carloads of celery.
Portolá reached the neighborhood of the river July 26, 1769, Saint Anne's day, and crossed it on the 28th, giving it the saint's name, by which it is still known. Crespi named it Rio Jesus de los Temblores, because of an earthquake they experienced there.
*Hall: Irrigation in California. 119 et seq.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
NOTE 17 SANTA BARBARA
On August 18, 1769, Portolá came to a large lake of fresh water, on the bank of which was the largest rancheria they had yet seen. They were courteously received by the Indians who supplied them with an abundance of fish both fresh and roasted. Crespi says that the fish given them as a present amounted to four cargas (1100 lbs.) The lake appeared to be a permanent one, fed from springs, and the mesa near by was covered with great oaks. They named the lake Laguna de la Con- cepcion; the pueblo being called the Pueblo de la Laguna.
On the 15th of April 1782, Felipe de Neve, governor of California, accompanied by Junípero Serra and a large company of soldiers, arrived at Laguna de la Con- cepcion where they were handsomely received by the chief, Yanonolit, ruler of thirteen large rancherías. The advantages of La Laguna and those of Mescaltitan, two and a half leagues to the west, were considered and it was decided to establish the presidio and mission at the Laguna. The presidio was formally founded April 21, 1782, when Father Junípero said mass and chanted an alabado. Ortega was given the command with José Darío Argüello as ensign and fifty-five non-commissioned officers and men. Thus was established the presidio of Santa Barbara, the strongest military post in California. Eight of the company, including Lieutenant Ortega and Sergeant Pablo de Cota, were veterans of Portolá's expedition.
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321
NOTES
NOTE 18
MESCALTITAN
This was the largest group of rancherías the Spaniards found in California. The Indians of the Santa Barbara channel were superior to all others seen in California and the large and populous towns of this group Portolá called the Contiguous Rancherías of Mescaltitan. The marshes surrounding the estero have been mostly drained and contain some of the finest walnut groves in California. The four rancherías of this group were called Salspalil, Hello or the Islet, Alcas, and Oksbullow; while the group was known as the rancherías of the Mescaltitan. Around the estero and marshes are numerous mounds containing the remains of a large population. These rancherías were on the Goleta and Dos Pueblos ranchos. The map of Santa Barbara county has the island designated as Mescalititan, but the quadrangle of the geological survey (Goleta special) has it "Mescal" island. The matter has been represented to the director of the survey but he has not seen fit to notice it. Thus are our historic names destroyed through the ignorance and carelessness of the public servants.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
NOTE 19 JUNIPERO SERRA
At Petra on the island of Mallorca there was born November 24, 1713, Miguel José Serra, son of Antonio Serra and Margarita Ferrer, his wife. The boy early developed religious tendencies and his favorite reading was the lives of the saints. He took the Franciscan habit at Palma September 14, 1730, and made his pro- fession a year later, at which time he assumed the name of Junípero. He was an earnest and proficient student and taught philosophy in the chief convent of Palma for a year before his ordination. He was noted for doctrinal learning and for sensational preaching, and often bared his shoulders and scourged himself with an iron chain, extinguished lighted candles on his flesh, or pounded his breast with a large stone, as he exhorted his hearers to penitence.
On March 30, 1749, he obtained his warrant to join the college of San Fernando and devote himself to mis- sionary work in America. He sailed from Cadiz in August, reached Vera Cruz December 6th, and walked to Mexico where he arrived January 1, 1750. For seventeen years he preached and taught in various places and on July 14, 1767, was appointed president of the California missions. In company with the governor (Portolá) he marched with the rear guard-always on foot-reaching San Diego July 1, 1769. He was unable to accompany the expedition on its march to Monterey but sailed April 16, 1770, reached Monterey May 3Ist and founded the mission of San Carlos June 3d.
Fray Junípero's administration of the missions was very successful and while kind-hearted and charitable
323
NOTES
he was most strict in his enforcement of religious duties. He was not always in accord with the military com- manders and the viceroy was at times put to it to maintain the peace in his new establishments of California. Serra's death at San Carlos August 28, 1784, cast a gloom over the province, for he was greatly beloved. He was buried the next day in the mission church and Palou acted as president until the appointment of Fray Fermin Fran- cisco Lasuen in 1785.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
NOTE 20
THE CLIMATE OF SAN FRANCISCO
The scrub oak which Anza describes reaches a height of from ten to twenty-five feet, though this does not indicate the length of the trunk which frequently extends some distance in an almost horizontal position. The winds of which he speaks blow regularly during the summer months from ten o'clock in the morning until ten or eleven o'clock at night. They begin about the first of May and are over by the first of October. They are practically confined to the upper end of the peninsula -the city of San Francisco. These winds, which blow from the west and have been erroneously called trade winds, are caused by a circulation established by the displacement upward of the warm air of the great valley of the Sacramento-San Joaquin which appears to move seaward at a height of about 4,000 feet probably descend- ing slowly to sea level some distance from the coast, and the cool air flowing in from the sea has its movement accelerated both by the topography and by the temper- ature gradient. From experiments which have been made by weather bureau officials the depth of the surface flow in midsummer is about 1,700 feet. It is these winds that give to San Francisco its peculiar climate and make the citizen hesitate to name the coldest month of the year. They have been much abused and afford to many inhabitants of the city a constant and fruitful cause of complaint. To persons of weak lungs and to those subject to bronchial affections they are sometimes trying. It is not the west wind, however, that exerts a baleful influence, but the north wind, and that, fortu- nately, is not frequent. The summer winds are healthful
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325
NOTES
and invigorating. A chart of mean summer wind velocity, prepared by the weather bureau, shows the increase of velocity from 8.6 miles per hour at 9 A. M. to 21 miles at 5 P. M. and a decrease to II miles at 10 P. M. These are the averages for the three summer months. The highest recorded velocity for those months in a period of thirty-nine years is forty-eight miles an hour, southwest, on June 30, 1873. With the wind direct from the ocean at a velocity of twenty-one miles, laden perhaps with fog, a mean temperature of 59° Fahrenheit, with an occasional drop to 47º, one can readily understand why summer visitors to San Francisco are advised to bring warm clothing with them. Warm weather comes but rarely, usually lasts three days, and is accompanied by north wind. A period of warm weather during the summer months is usually brought to a close at the evening of the third day with strong west winds, dense fog, and a temperature ranging from 49° to 54°. The highest temperature recorded in San Fran- cisco is 101°, September 8, 1904; the lowest, 29°, January 15, 1888; the greatest daily range recorded 43°, June 29, 1891, and the mean daily range for June, July, and August, is IIº 8'. San Francisco's pleasantest weather is after the winds cease in the fall and before they begin in the spring. This is during the so-called rainy season. People who do not know California imagine that the rainy season is one of gloom when those of the unfortunate inhabitants who are obliged to venture out do so in peril of the floods. It is, on the contrary, the most delightful season of the year. The rainfall is not excessive; the average in San Francisco for sixty years being only 22.98 inches per annum. The rains begin after the summer winds close and come with the soft southeast wind. The air is warm and springlike and as the Egyptians rejoice over the rising of the Nile, so the Californians are happy in the
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THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
coming of the rain. It means for them not only prosperity but health and a relief from the nervous tension caused by a long dry summer.'
*See Climatology of California, by Alexander G. McAdie, Professor of Meteor- ology, Bulletin U. S. Dept. Agriculture.
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NOTES
NOTE 21 LOS DOLORES
There has been much discussion over the original location of the mission of San Francisco and to what stream or body of water was given the name of Los Dolores. Franklin Tuttle says: "The first site chosen for the mission was near the 'lagoon' back of Russian Hill, but the winds were so bitter that it was soon removed to the spot on the creek where the crumbling old church and some of the houses that surrounded it still stand" (Hist. of California, p. 86). Soule, Gihon, and Nesbit say : "On the 27th of June, 1776, an expedition which had started from Monterey arrived on the borders of a small lake, the same which is now called 'Washerman's Lagoon, ' near the sea shore from which it was separated by low sand-hills. This was situated towards the northern extremity of the peninsula of San Francisco and the surplus waters of which discharge themselves into the strait that connects the bay with the ocean and which was afterwards called the Golden Gate .* The neighbor- hood of this lake promised the best place for a mission, though it was subsequently planted about two miles to the south" (Annals of San Francisco. 46). General M. G. Vallejo says : "The lake of Dolores was located and could be seen to the right of the road coming from the presidio to the mission, between two hills" (Dis- curso Historico. Centenial Memoir, p. 107). The editor of the memoir (p. 25) identifies the spot as the San Souci valley, immediately behind the hill on which the Prot-
*Washerman's Lagoon was never connected with the bay. The conformation of the land forbids it.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
estant Orphan Asylum now stands. John W. Dwinelle
says: "I have been to the mission of Dolores and had an interview with a lady resident there, Doña Carmen Sibrian de Bernal. She was born in Monterey in 1804 was married in 1821 to José Cornelio Bernal, and came here to reside the same year. She is a woman of great vivacity and intelligence, and states that the tradition is that when the missionary Fathers came here to establish the mission, they encamped at a pond which existed where the Willows now are, and to which a great tide creek made up from the bay. I also visited the site of the 'Willows,' and found that although the soil had been filled in there several feet during my own recollection, the fresh water was still flowing out towards the bay" (Colonial History of San Francisco, p. xiii). "The Willows" was a resort of the early fifties occupying what is now the block between Valencia, Mission, 18th, and 19th streets. Judge Dwinelle was correct in his location of the Laguna de los Dolores. Bancroft says: "It will be remembered that Anza applied the name Dolores to an ojo de agua, a spring or stream which he thought capable of irrigating the mission lands, making no mention of any laguna" (Hist. California, i, 294). Bancroft is mistaken. Anza wrote on March 28th that at a little more than half a league to the southeast of Laguna Pequeña there was a rather large laguna that appeared to be permanent, on the margin of which garden stuff could be raised; and on the 29th: "I again went to the Laguna de Manantial spoken of yesterday and also to the ojo de agua which I called Los Dolores." Palou says: "He (Anza) followed a course along the inside of the port, going around the land, coming out on the shore of the estero or arm of the sea (bay of San Francisco) on the southwest and arriving at the shore of the bay which
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NOTES
the mariners (Ayala's men) called Los Llorones,* crossed an arroyo where a great lake empties itself which (lake) he called Los Dolores, and the site seemed to him a good one for a mission" (Noticias de Nueva California iv, 142). Father Palou established the mission of San Francisco and administered it for eight years, and when he took the name Anza gave to the ojo de agua and applied it to the Laguna de Manantial, it stuck.
I have spent a good deal of time over the location of the Arroyo de los Dolores and the Laguna de Manantial. The oldest inhabitant of the Mission has no tradition of there ever having been a lake there. It had been filled up by the natural wash from the mountains long before the oldest resident appeared, and had left no memory behind. Dwinelle however, writing in 1865, found those whose memory went back to the early part of the century and whose knowledge of the traditions, then fresh, of the foundation of the mission, was full and accurate. To-day the memory even of the "Willows" is dim and fading. On the United States Coast Survey map of 1857 there appears on the Mission road continua- tion, about in the neighborhood of Eighteenth street, a piece of land two hundred by three hundred and fifty feet, planted with trees and marked "Willows" -- a roadside house with stables, sheds, etc. This was the place referred to by Doña Carmen and was about the center of the laguna. The only map I have seen which shows the Laguna de los Dolores is that of La Perouse. This map shows a large lake near the shore of Mission bay (Ensenada de los Llorones) and immediately west of it is shown the mission, which agrees with Palou's account of the founding of the mission. La Perouse was a com-
*The Weepers. The name being given by Aguirre, second mate of the San Carlos, because of some Indians weeping on the shore.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
modore in the French navy commanding an expedition sent to explore the coasts of the Pacific. He was in Monterey in 1786.
The Laguna de los Dolores covered the present city blocks bounded by Fifteenth, Twentieth, Valencia, and Howard streets, now closely built up with residences. It was on this filled land of the ancient laguna that the earthquake of April 18, 1906, did such damage, wrecking buildings and causing loss of life. The Arroyo de los Dolores had its rise in Los Pechos de la Choca (The breasts of the Indian girl)-now Twin Peaks, and flowed down about the line Eighteenth street into the laguna. Bayard Taylor who saw the Mission valley in 1849 says: "Three miles from San Francisco is the old mission of Dolores situated in a sheltered valley which is watered by a perpetual stream fed from the tall peaks towards the sea. * * Several former miners in anticipation of a great influx of emigrants in the spring, pitched their tents on the best spots along Mission creek and began preparing the ground for gardens. The valley was surveyed and staked into lots almost to the summit of the mountains" (Eldorado pp. 64, 298-9).
The mission was established on the spot designated by Colonel Anza and was never changed. The mission church, which was finished in 1784, is still in use as a parish church.
LI ZATÝ
20 TH.
BT :
15TH
HETH
-
DDLCE
ST
ST.
LAGUNA DE MANANTIAL (DE LOS DOLORES)
VALEN
T
MISSION
CAPP
ST.
H
SHOT
ST.
FOLSOM
ST
ST
HARRISON
.....
T .
madore ux the French navy commanding an expedition col ID explore the coasts of the Pacific. He was in ·Monterey in 1786.
The Laguna de los Dolores covered the present city blocks bounded by Fifteenth. Twentieth, Valencia, and Howard surgery, mony closely built up with residences. It was or The Med land of the ancient laguna that the earthquake of April 18, 1906, did such damage, wrecking buildings and causing loss of life. The Arroyo de los Dolores lind its rise in Los Pechos de la Choca (The breast of the Indian girl) -- now Twin Peaks, and flowed down about the line Eighteenth street into the laguna. Bavard Taylor wlib saw the Mming valley in 1849 says: "Three miles from San Francisco in the old mission of Dolores situated in w sheltered voll kb i watered by a perpetual stream fed front i Lowards * a great influx of emigrants in the spring, pitched their tents on the best spots along Mission creek and began preparing the ground for garden. Tim valley was surveyed and staked into jodt almost to the summit of the mountains" (Eldor 64, 298-9).
The mission was ablished on the spot designated by Colonel Anza and was never changed. The mission church, which was hei hed in 1784, is still in use as a parish church.
L
13 TH .
ST.
ERIE
ST
CREEK LANE
ST.
14 TH.
ST.
MARKET
15 TH
ST.
ST.
ST
ST.
ST.
16 TH.
ST.
ST.
ST.
ST.
ST.
17 TH.
ST.
AIR RO
103
ST.
AGINA
ST.
ILFINIT
SANCHEZ
CHURCH
DOLORES
GUERRERO
VALENCIA
MISSION
HOWARD
SHOTWELL
20 TH.
ST.
LIZATY
ST.
21ST
ST
r
J
1
r
FOLSOM
HARRISON
ST
MISSION
DE MANAN
ST.
DOLORES
18 TH .
19 TH.
ST.
CAPP
331
NOTES
NOTE 22 SAN JOSÉ DE GUADALUPE
The royal order for the establishment of San Francisco also included a pueblo in the vicinity under the juris- diction of the presidio. The site selected was on the Rio de Guadalupe. Under orders of Governor Neve, Lieutenant Moraga took nine soldiers, skilled in agri- culture, from the presidios of San Francisco and Monterey, five settlers (pobladores) and one servant, numbering with their families seventy-eight persons, and with them founded, on November 29, 1777, the pueblo of San José de Guadalupe, the first pueblo established in California.
I have found no record of the names of these fifteen heads of families. Some of them evidently did not remain, for when, in 1783, the citizens were formally invested with the title to their lands, there were but nine who received the grants. Each settler received a solar (house lot) of thirty-three varas, and four suertes (planting lots) of two hundred varas each. Surrounding each solar was an alley of ten varas in width, and around each suerte one of four varas. Each also received a yoke of oxen, two horses, two cows, one mule, two sheep, and two goats, together with the necessary implements and seed, all of which was to be paid for in farm products delivered at the royal warehouse. Each settler was to receive ten dollars per month pay and soldiers' rations. In addition to all these rights, privileges, and emolu- ments, each settler had the use of the common lands, ejidos-the four leagues provided by law for pueblos de razon in the Indies-for the pasturing of his cattle; and for the common use of all were the rights of the woods and waters.
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