USA > California > Imperial County > The history of Imperial County, California > Part 27
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
The Coachella Valley Ice and Electric Company is incorporated un- der the laws of California, with an authorized capital stock of $300,000- .00, all of which is issued and outstanding. The company is controlled and managed by the same interests that own The Southern Sierras Power Company and Holton Power Company, its headquarters also being located at Riverside.
THE IMPERIAL ICE AND DEVELOPMENT COMPANY
Upon the acquirement of the Holton Power Company by the present management, it was deemed advisable to segregate the ice business from the electric operations in the Valley. Previous to that time the ice plants which served a large part (if not all) of the ice consumed in the Valley were owned and operated by the Holton Power Company. In June, 1916, The Imperial Ice & Development Company was incorporated with a capitalization of $1,000,000.00, for the purpose of taking over the ice-
284
HISTORY OF IMPERIAL COUNTY
manufacturing interests of the Holton Power Company and the Coach- ella Valley Ice and Electric Company, the latter company at that time owning and operating the ice plant located at Coachella. The Imperial Ice and Development Company not only enlarged the ice-manufacturing plant of the Holton Power Company, but the increased demand for ice (particularly for the refrigeration of produce shipments from the Val- ley) necessitated the construction of additional plants. One plant with a rated output capacity of 30 tons per day and a storage capacity of 5000 tons was constructed at Brawley and completed January, 1917. The plant has an actual manufacturing capacity of about 40 tons per day.
The company not only supplies the general public throughout the Valley with ice, but also is under contract to supply the Pacific Fruit Express with a large proportion of the ice required by that company for refrigeration of shipments from the Valley. The main office of The Im- perial Ice and Development Company is also located at Riverside and under the same management as the other companies. The company also operates the ice plant located at Coachella, with a daily capacity of 30 tons.
THE EL CENTRO FIRE DEPARTMENT BY JOS. F. SEYMOUR, JR.
IT IS the consensus of opinion of the people of El Centro that the El Centro Volunteer Fire Department is a live organization, a credit to the community and to itself. It has a membership limited to twenty-five members. The membership consists in the main part of business and professional men, the majority of whom have been members of this department for more than five years.
The department has grown from one wherein the sole equipment was a little, old two-wheel cart to one which is now equipped with a com- bination automobile hose and chemical wagon and an auto pump and hose truck, together with a hook and ladder truck. The department is housed in spacious quarters and has elegant club rooms, the furnishings of which are among the finest in the entire state, the same being owned by the members of the department.
The department has furnished its quota of men to the national army, together with hundreds of dollars in cash to the government patriotic
285
EL CENTRO
associations, among which were liberal cash donations to the Red Cross and $700 for an ambulance.
The citizens of El Centro at all times exercise the privilege of calling on the department to aid the community in those things which are for the betterment of all concerned, and the department always responds in a way that guarantees success.
One of the most notable efforts of the fire department was when, on the last day of the second Liberty Loan drive, members of the depart- ment collected in the neighborhood of $150,000 from the city of El Centro.
The department has a business organization in connection with its fire department organization. The fire alarms are sounded by whistle, the town being divided into districts. Officials of the city and people familiar with fire departments and organizations throughout the United States have been very liberal in their favorable comment as to the effi- ciency and equipment of this department. A spirit of co-operation ex- ists between this department and departments of other towns in the Valley, all of which departments are volunteer organizations, equipped with modern apparatus, and it can well be said that the entire member- ship of all the departments represents the best citizenship of the Valley.
CHAPTER XXV
SEELEY
BY J. B. TOLER
WHEN the traveler starts out to visit the great Imperial Valley, enter- ing it from the west, his eyes rest first upon the fertile lands adjacent to Seeley, the western gateway into this wonderland. Seeley is favor- ably located on the California State Highway, which has been com- pleted from the San Diego County line to the county seat nine miles east, and also on the San Diego and Arizona Railway, which, in March, 1918, lacked only about twelve miles of completion. It is the largest town on the west side, nearest the cooler mountain breezes and also to the San Diego harbor.
Seeley is the center of a prosperous agricultural district, with numer- ous and diversified crops. Livestock, dairying, hog raising and poultry raising are important industries. Cotton is grown quite extensively. The two gins located here have handled about 2500 bales each year for the past two seasons, and a special gin is being erected to handle the Egyp- tian varieties, of which there will be around 700 acres, principally Pima, planted here in 1918.
From a cluster of sand dunes in 1912 Seeley has made a steady growth, and now has a population of about 350 prosperous people, with schools, churches, an active farm center and social organizations. Prac- tically all trades are represented, including a bank, drug store, physi- cian, department store, grocery store, hardware store, hotel, garage, weekly newspaper, meat market, restaurant, billiard parlor, barber shops, blacksmith shops, postoffice, depot and express office. The town has electric service for light and power, telephone service, a city water system and all modern improvements, and a host of loyal citizens who are always ready to welcome new enterprises and good citizens.
أولا:
HHClark
CHAPTER XXVI
CALIPATRIA AND NILAND
BY HARRY H. CLARK
BEFORE Imperial Valley was ever heard of as a settlement the South- ern Pacific Railroad was granted every other section of land lying be- tween parallel lines for twenty miles on each side of its right of way, this grant being made by Congress to encourage the building of trans- continental railways in the days when there was no railroad across the continent. This concession included all of the district lying north of the third parallel in Imperial Valley. In order to settle up this country it was necessary to build the main canal, with its hundreds of miles of lat- erals, and as there was no way by which this could be done except by the sale of water stock, and as the owner of land could not be forced to purchase water stock unless he desired to use the water upon his land, the Southern Pacific not being willing to purchase the stock for these alternate sections, it was too heavy a burden upon the even numbered sections, they constituting only one-half of the acreage. This part of the Valley consequently lay idle until four years ago, when an association purchased all of the lands of the Southern Pacific in the Valley and immediately advanced $300,000 in cash, which, with the addition of the stock sold for the even numbered sections, permitted them to form mutual Water Company No. 3 and build the necessary canals and later- als, which were started four years ago and are now a complete unit.
Four years ago there was no land under cultivation in this district. Today we have upwards of 70,000 acres under cultivation. The soils and climate of the North End are very similar to those of other parts of the Valley, the North End lands having possibly a little more slope towards the sea, on account of being in what is known as "the neck of the Valley."
Since that time, two thriving towns have been built, Calipatria, with over half a million dollars' worth of buildings, and Niland, with many good, substantial buildings, and having at the present time under con-
288
HISTORY OF IMPERIAL COUNTY
struction the finest bank building, and seven concrete stores, in the Val- ley. The Salton Sea, later named Imperial Lake, is in this district, our lands bordering the sea. This somewhat tempers the extreme heat in the summer and also the colder winds of the winter.
As an illustration of the wonderful settlement of this North End, we have three large warehouses in Calipatria, the Balfour-Guthrie Company, the Globe Mills and Newmark's. These warehouses could hold but a portion of the barley crop harvested last spring, and the manager of the Globe Mills told me that they were now emptying their large warehouses here for the third time this season.
We have every convenience of older communities, such as electric lights, electric power, telephone system, water systems and every kind of mercantile enterprise is represented by from one to three or four modern stores. We have two strong banks and at the present time plans have been approved and material is arriving for the construction of the largest and most complete railroad depot east of Pomona and west of Phoenix. The railroad companies never build anything on sen- timent. They would not build this kind of a depot if the business of the country did not justify it.
Again, there is a vast acreage of splendid farming land southwest of here which is now tapped by a branch line from Calipatria to West- moreland, which will be later extended to a connection with the San Diego road. The rights of way have been secured and the work laid out to build another branch east and south some 23 miles, giving to that vast territory an outlet and bringing the business of both sections to Calipatria.
As an indication of how the country has improved and the possibili- ties of improving this "Valley of the Nile", some of the wonderful crops grown here might be cited. For instance, we have records here of alfalfa yielding twelve tons to the acre. W. A. Kennedy, who took a piece of raw land three years ago, sowed it to alfalfa two years ago, and recently received $5000 in cash for a hundred days' pasturage on 160 acres. There are thousands of acres of alfalfa-land here now rented from $20 to $25 per acre per year, and when we think that only three short years ago this was a desert, the mind can scarcely comprehend the possibilities for the future.
Here we are successfully growing cotton, alfalfa, barley, Milo maize,
289
CALIPATRIA AND NILAND
potatoes, onions, cabbage, lettuce, cantaloupes, and all the vegetables grown in a semi-tropical country, and growing them very profitably. Men are even known to raise crops in one season that sold for more money than the land cost them.
Calipatria is an unincorporated town, controlled by a business men's association, comprising forty-three active business men as members. We have three churches, a Catholic, a Congregational and a Seventh Day Adventist. We have a $35,000 schoolhouse and the trustees are now securing plans for an addition to it, as we have 193 scholars en- rolled and our buildings are not large enough to accommodate them. We are also at the present time putting out petitions for a union high school.
The North End comprises a territory about eighteen by twenty miles, of which Calipatria and Niland are the two towns. Niland is located at the junction of the Imperial Valley branch and the main line of the Southern Pacific, and is destined to be a good town in the no distant future ; and Calipatria, situated in the center of this enormous agricul- tural district, is destined to be one of the largest towns in Imperial County within the next five years.
Our water system of the district is probably one of the most perfect in the United States, as for every delivery-ditch, or lateral, there has been built a corresponding drainage ditch, which forever prevents this land from becoming water-logged, or raising the water level to a dan- ger point.
If three short years of settlement have brought about all these things mentioned, what can we expect this to be in ten years from now? With more intense cultivation, with the large tracts being cut up into small acreage (140 ten-acre tracts have been sold around Calipatria) it will mean a population in ten years from now greater than the entire Imperial Valley at the present time.
Land values have doubled and trebled in three years, some of the lands having sold as high as $300 an acre that three years ago could have been bought for from $75 to $100.
Imperial County is blessed with one particular thing, and that is good health. There is only one practicing physician in the North End of the Valley, and if it were not for the visits of the stork he says that he would have to move out. We have no malaria, typhoid or malignant
290
HISTORY OF IMPERIAL COUNTY
fevers, and while we do have the ordinary hot summers of the low elevations, yet having no humidity, it causes no bad effects, but on the contrary makes vegetation grow prolifically.
We are feeding upwards of 15,000 head of cattle now in the North End of the Valley, about 12,000 head of sheep, 3000 head of goats and thousands of head of hogs. It is the paradise of the poultry raiser, on account of the dry climate and abundance of green feed the year around. Imperial County is one great big family, all working in har- mony for the whole Valley, and is destined to be the greatest agricul- tural community in the world; and while only an infant, it has already taken the lead in the state as the greatest producer of butter, hogs, cat- tle, turkeys, alfalfa, cotton and Milo maize, and this all in the short time of seventeen years.
CHAPTER XXVII
THE MUD VOLCANOES
BY GAREY HAMLIN
THERE is probably nothing quite so actively real to be found in Califor- nia today as the numerous little mounds on the verge of the Salton Sea, which are in a state of continual eruption. In reality, they are minia- ture volcanoes, which, like warts on a cucumber, prominently dot the earth's surface at the southern end of the lake. They vary in height, ranging from one to ten feet, and in formation may be likened to Vesu- vius itself-crater, escaping gases, steam and all.
From the lip of the crater a brown sulphurous slime runs down the hot rugged sides, while within there is a steady rumbling, and at min- ute intervals a discharge of hot mud is shot from twenty-five to seventy- five feet into the air. The roar may be heard many miles. They are on what was a few months ago the bottom of the Salton Sea, and are 270 feet below sea level. It is only with great difficulty that they can be approached, owing to the fact that the land has not yet dried sufficient for traffic.
Although the historic mud-pots were perhaps discovered eons ago, it has been but recently that certain intrepid parties have had courage enough to venture to the brink of these fiery kettles of steaming clay for the purpose of photographing volcanoes, so to speak, in their na- tive haunts.
There is probably nothing quite so actively real to be found in Cali- fornia today, or elsewhere in the United States, for that matter. The volcanoes were well known to the early residents of the Valley. With the pouring of the water of the Colorado River into the Salton Sink, these volcanoes were covered with water and finally subsided. During the last year their activity has been resumed and they have proven an extraordinary sight.
Incidentally, they are going to saddle these obsteperous volcanoes and make them useful to man. By adopting the plan used at Laradello,
292
HISTORY OF IMPERIAL COUNTY
Tuscany, by which live steam from subterranean depths is used to op- erate turbines and generate electricity, water may yet be conducted to additional hundreds of thousands of acres of land in the Imperial Valley.
Experts show that, with the use of cheap and abundant electricity, water may be pumped to new high-line canals, far above the present system. It is entirely possible that, by use of powerful pumps and a comparatively short pipe-line, many square miles of land on both sides of Salton Sea may be irrigated.
The feasibility of the plan of using steam compressed below the earth's surface has been demonstrated to be practical. In the Italian plant, operated with steam from a distance of five hundred feet below the surface in the geyser district, power is obtained to generate elec- tricity that moves the wheels of industry over a wide countryside. By sinking a casing in the heart of one of these volcanoes, to a depth of a few hundred feet, it will be entirely possible to uncover sufficient live steam at high pressure to operate a turbine of the same kind used in the big plant in Italy.
The possibilities of such a plant are almost limitless and the experi- ments will be watched with interest. Should they prove successful, it is highly probable that efforts will be undertaken to utilize the vast area of live hot springs and geysers at Volcano Lake, twenty-five miles south of Calexico.
Daily W Brooks
CHAPTER XXVIII
LIVE-STOCK
BY PHILIP W. BROOKS
ATTENTION is first directed to Imperial Valley with reference to live- stock in early part of the second half of the last century. In the extreme southeast part, or that portion of the Valley extending into Mexico, and to the extreme point of the delta of the Colorado River in Mexico, range grasses and overflow growth have furnished feed for wandering herds of cattle for many years. In the years when unexpected rains had, during the winter season, moistened the desert loam, short-lived grasses sprang up and furnished temporary feed of considerable luxuriance to stockmen and their herds from the Coast Range hills lying between our Valley and the Pacific shores. Aside from this, no hope or anticipation suggested itself to a living soul, with reference to live-stock, except the promise of irrigation from the spectacular but, as yet, useless Colorado River.
In 1900 and 1901, when the first water was diverted for agricultural use, the future for live-stock on an entirely different basis was an as- sured fact.
A veritable stockman's paradise, in which the question of feed would never rise as an uncertainty, but to know with the accuracy of a factory manager the output of his plant. Fertile soil, water and sunshine con- tinuous forever, with judgment and attention to recognized scientific principles of agriculture. In the earliest days of agricultural effort our first crop was barley, due to simplicity in planting and propagation and harvest.
From the green, rich fields of the growing grain thousands of "feed- ers" were shipped direct to the packers, after which the grain was har- vested. This was the first form of live-stock activity, and eminently suc- cessful it is followed to the present day, mostly by large stock owners shipping their immense herds into the Valley in the fall, to be finished by spring or before the summer heat.
294
HISTORY OF IMPERIAL COUNTY
Next followed extensive planting of alfalfa. A very natural corollary to this was the importation of dairy herds, either by owners or tenants. If one branch of live-stock activity more than another could be classi- fied as most successful, that distinction should belong to the dairy in- dustry. More than a few farms have been paid for entirely from the dairy proceeds, and in an extraordinarily short time. The by-products and customary side lines-hogs and chickens-have accomplished al- most unbelievable results, and it should freely be urged on the prospec- tive farmer of small means to follow this line if he is in any degree qualified.
Sheep deserve prominent mention, and have always been fairly iden- tified among the live-stock statistics of Imperial Valley, although not until recently, since the prices of wool and mutton have leaped beyond the wildest dreams of the most sanguine, have the sheepmen truly come into their own. Two shearings of wool per annum, and milk lambs in February and March, is all the experienced sheepman need hear in order to believe anything of our Valley.
Fowl of every description thrive without restraint; dampness and chill -deadly to chicken turkeys - entirely absent, thus removing the greatest element of risk ; Los Angeles market quotations on everything pertaining to poultry ; many farmers' wives are yearly clothing them- selves and families, to say nothing of the summer vacations and new flivers, on the proceeds from their chickens. No expensive chicken houses or shelters ; a certainty of maximum results on an infinitesimal outlay.
Hogs! Nothing promises more. Although contrary to the accepted idea, probably more equipment and care are necessary to successful hog growing than to any other branch of live-stock production. Twelve months outdoors in the sunshine-God's greatest prophylactic-then with provision for cleanliness and reasonable sanitation the bugbear of the hog game-cholera-disappears, not to mention the recommenda- tion of the United States Department of Agriculture concerning vac- cination with the virus and serum process for cholera immunization. On every acre of land a crop of corn and a crop of barley each year- two crops of grain per annum ; six to nine crops of alfalfa. No place on earth but suffers from comparison. Farm labor shortage, and the crops can be harvested by the hogs themselves-both grass and grain. Every
295
LIVE-STOCK
antagonistic element practically under control-Nature working with man to accomplish an unbelievable production.
Stockmen from every part of the United States have invested and settled in Imperial Valley, and, without exception, have done so with the basic idea of permanent insurance. If all else fails, Imperial Valley will save me and mine.
CHAPTER XXIX
THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF LOWER CALIFORNIA BY HECTOR GONZALEZ
ONE can say that there have been two northern districts of Lower California-the old and the new. I call old the one centering about En- senada along about 1890, and new the one whose center is Mexicali- that is, the present district. The period in which the old district reached its culmination coincided with the discovery and exploration of placer gold at El Alamo, or Santa Clara; and as this rich mineral reached the market through Ensenada, this place was the one that realized the greatest benefit from the gold which the earth so abundantly furnished.
Then Ensenada enjoyed its most brilliant epoch, and today it is still a beautiful town, surrounded by fine plantations of corn and beans. With the falling off of the exportation of gold came naturally the decadence of Ensenada, and this at the time when Mexicali and its surroundings, or the Mexican portion of Imperial Valley, began to show its first signs of prosperity.
The political events of the year 1914, which put Colonel Esteban Cantu at the head of the government, coincided with the downfall of Ensenada and the evident manifestation of the development of the Mex- icali region. Perhaps the realization of this fact was what determined Colonel Cantu to establish the capital of the district at Mexicali. This was a wise move, because under his constant and intelligent watchful- ness this section has been able to develop itself to as great a degree as might be expected-so much so that Mexicali is the storehouse (caja fuerte) of the district ; the open strong-box that contains the means by which other regions, at present less productive or less wealthy, are able to weather their financial crises.
A mining country needs less of the initiative of human talent than an agricultural region. Ensenada was the capital of a mining region ; Mex- icali is the head of an agricultural community. In the development of
297
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF LOWER CALIFORNIA
Mexicali more than at Ensenada has intervened the human element with its initiative and its genius. This element has been directed and en- couraged by Colonel Cantu, the man to whom this section of Lower California owes most.
From the first the Colonel's policy of government has proceeded to- ward the development of the northern district of Lower California, and, as this district was almost nothing when he began to govern it, he is in reality its principal promoter.
This accomplishment may be divided into several parts ; namely, (1) The development of the different regions of the district, principally of Mexicali; (2) Communication between the various regions; (3) Com- munication by all of these regions with the continental part of Mexico by an all-Mexican route. As can be seen at first glance, some points in this program are intimately related to others.
It would be impossible in a few paragraphs to give a complete résumé of the political labors of Colonel Cantu, but in general terms we shall refer to his many activities.
Since, due to the general situation of the republic and to that pro- duced by the diverse mining laws, mining must remain paralyzed, Col- onel Cantu has given his attention to agriculture, providing every facil- ity for opening new lands to cultivation. These facilities have served to the extent that cultivated lands that before 1914 were confined to those farms adjacent to the irrigation canals from the Colorado River now extend many miles from these canals.
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.