California of the south : its physical geography, climate, mineral springs, resources, routes of travel and health-resorts, being a complete guide-book to southern California

Preface To Third Edition

Nearly eiglit years have passed since the first edition of this work was published. Nine months later a second edition was issued containing an appendix, but no change was made in the main body of the work. The remarkable growth of Southern California during the past seven years, and the exceptional favor with which this book has been received by the public, have induced the author to prepare this thoroughly revised edition, in which all facts relating to Southern California are brought down to the latest date.

In the closing months of 1887, when the first edition of "California of the South" was prepared, the remarkable real-estate boom which swept over Los Angeles and Southern California during the years 1886 and 1887 had just culminated. We did not see it then, but can see it clearly now, that the fall of 1887 marked the beginning of the end of that wild era of speculation which did much good as well as evil in pushing forward Los Angeles and the surrounding country within three or four years to an extent which they could not have otherwise reached in three times that period.

It was prophesied by many that after the subsidence of the real-estate excitement this section would relapse into a moribund condition. It might have been so in any other section of the United States, but the marvelous iv CALIFORNIA OF THE SOUTH.

resources of Southern California— the charms of its unique climate and the valuable products of its fertile acres — were sufficient not only to tide this section over the natural reaction from a period of crazy inflation, but to establish it on a path of still more remarkable and permanent progress.

After the real estate excitement was over a period of planting and building and general improvement set in, which has continued until the present time, growing in force from year to year. The census of 1890 gave the city of Los Angeles a population of fifty thousand. The population to-day is not less that eighty thousand. Three great systems of electric street railroads have been constructed, an ocean outfall and internal sewer system built, one hundred miles of streets graded and paved, buildings to the value of over twenty million dollars erected, and a good commencement made in establishing a manufacturing industry, to which the discovery of petroleum within the city limits has lent much assistance.

In the country the progress has been no less remarkable. On every hand orchards of citrus and deciduous trees have been planted by thousands upon thousands of acres. A beet-sugar factory which utilizes the product of live thousand acres of land is in successful operation. Boom cities which were laid out merely on a real-estate basis — such as Monrovia, Whittier, Fullerton, and others — have grown to be flourishing, productive centers of population. Towns which had scarcely had an existence when the first edition of this book was published — such as Pasadena and Redlands — are now cities with brickblocks, banks, and other appurtenances of modern business life.

The wonderful growth of Southern California during the ten years between 1880 and 1890 is told in a graphic manner by the figures of the United States census for those two years. Between 1880 and 1890 the counties of

PREFA CE. V

California showed an average increase of population of 39.72 per cent. Of the fifty-three counties in existence at the latter date, twelve showed a decrease in population, while the highest percentage of increase shown by any county outside of Southern California was 64.90 per cent, San Francisco showing an increase of only 27.80 per cent.

Now, as against those figures, take the following remarkable record of the six southern counties (Riverside County not having then been formed). These six counties showed the following percentage of increase in population for the ten years:

Per cent increase.

Los Angeles and Orange 244.63

Fresno 237.90

San Bernardino 227 . 47

Ventura 98.52

It should be noted that most of this remarkable advance was made during the closing half of the decade, from the middle of 1885 to the middle of 1890, when the census was taken.

It is evident to the most superficial observer that the progress of the past ten years in Southern California is but an index of that which is in store for this favored section. In no period of its history has the outlook for Los Angeles and Southern California been brighter than it is to-day. On every hand one sees activity, enterprise, progress. The eyes of many thousands in the East are turned to this promised land, and the immigration to this section of health, pleasure, and home seekers promises to be greater than it has been in any previous year since 1886, with the difference that those who come now do not come for the purpose of gambling in town lots, but of making for themselves productive homes, or, in the vi CALIFORNIA OF THE SOUTH.

case of those who have a sufficiency of this world's goods, of passing the closing years of their lives in a balmy climate where every day in the year a man may " sit under his vine and fig tree, with none to make him afraid."

It was for the purpose of giving authentic information regarding this much-talked-of section of the country to those who are thinking of coming this way, either for a visit or to reside, that California of the South was written. From the warm reception which it has received, the author believes that it has fulfilled its mission, and that the present revised edition will be welcomed by thousands who desire to learn the truth about Southern California as it is.

In the work of revising the book for the third edition I have been materially assisted by Harry Ellington Brook, of the editorial stafT of the Los Angeles Times, author of the Land of Sunshine and other works on Southern California, which have had a wide circulation.

Walter Lindley.

Part 1. Climatology Of The Pacific Coast

By J. P. WIDNEY, A. M., M. D., LL. D.

PAGE

Two Californias ........... i

The Pacific Coast of America as contrasted with the Atlantic Coast . 2 Seasons ............ 8

Topographical and Climatic Features in which the Different Portions of the Pacific Coast are unlike ...... 13

Rainfall -33

Fogs 37

Atmospheric Humidity ......... 37

Sunshine -38

Winds 38

Temperature 43

Agriculture 46

Commercial Development -51

Transcontinental Roads -53

Harbors • 56

Type of Civic and Country Life 58

Education 61

Diseases 62

vii viii CONTENTS.

Part II

LOS ANGELES. ORANGE, SAN DIEGO, SAN BERNAR- DINO, VENTURA, SANTA BARBARA, AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES.

By WALTER LINDLEY, M. D.

PAGE

The Overland Trip — How to enjoy it ...... 69

The Arrival in Southern California ....... 72

A Century in Lcs Angeles ......... 73

The Los Angeles of To day ........ 83

What to see in Los Angeles . . . . . . . .85

The Los Angeles Crematory ........ 103

Los Angeles a Cosmopolitan City ....... 104

Religious and Educational 107

Parks 113

Manufactures in Los Angeles ........ 117

Trade and Commerce of Los Angeles ...... 121

Climate of Los Angeles ......... 124

Los Angeles County, Soledad Township ...... 128

San Fernando Township ......... 132

La Ballona Township, Santa Monica 136

Los Angeles Township ......... 140

Wilmington Township, San Pedro ....... 141

San Antonio Township ......... 144

Los Nietos Township, Long Beach, and Santa Fe Springs . . 144

San Gabriel Township ......... 148

El Monte, Azusa, and San Jos^ Townships . . . . .158

San Antonio Caiion .......... 168

Anaheim Township — Westminster, Santa Ana, and San Juan Townships ..... 172

Orange, Santa Ana, and Tustin ........ 178

Mineral Springs in Los Angeles and Orange Counties . . . 183

Helen Hunt Jackson and the Mission Indians ..... 188

San Diego County .......... 208

City of San Diego .......... 215

From San Diego East and North ....... 2ig cox TEXTS.

IX

I'ACiE

Climate of San Diego County 224

Mineral Springs of San Diego and Riverside Counties . . . 225

San Bernardino County ......... 230

City of San Bernardino . ........ 232

East San Bernardino Valley ........ 239

Mineral Springs of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties . . 245

Riverside County .......... 252

Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties 270

The Riviera of the Pacifie 270

Nordhoff — The Ojai Valley 275

Santa Barbara — America's Mcnlone 278

Along the Coast 2gi

The Islands of Southern California ....... 294

Mineral Springs of Santa Barbara and \entura Counties . . . 301