Fresno County

History

SOURCE:  Memorial and Biographical History of the counties of Fresno, Tulare and Kern, California - Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1892

HISTORY OF

CENTRAL       CALIFORNIA

 
                                                                                                                                                                        

DISCOVERY         

                                                                                                 
      The discovery of California was directly the result of a belief entertained in the early part of the sixteenth century that there was a direct passage from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Seas.  This  highway was sought for by various navigators of that time, and when Hernando Cortez landed in Vera Cruz in April, 1519, he was confident that he had reached  Asia.  It was his intention to settle the shadow of doubt by following the coast around to India, and this resolution in succeeding years resulted in the discovery of California.
      Cortez founded the town of Zacatula, 180 miles north of Acapulco, Mexico, where he built  a fleet and a few years later, in 1532, sent out the ships in search of lands then unknown to previous travelers.  The voyage was a disastrous one, and in 1533 he sent out two ships in search of the missing vessels.  these ships were under the command of Hernando Grijalva and Diego Becerra de Mendoza, the latter a cousin of Cortez.  Grijalva soon abandoned the search in despair and returned to Zacatula;  Mendoza was murdered by the crew of his ship, headed by one Fortuno Jimenez, a pilot;  and the mutineers followed the coast northward until a beautiful bay, since called La Paz, was reached.  This bay is on the western side of the gulf of California, 100 miles north of Cape St. Lucas.  Jimenez and nearly all of his crew were here murdered by Indians, and the leader of the mutineers was not aware, at the time of his tragic death, that he possessed the proud distinction and would be credited in history as the discoverer of California.
       Cortez landed at Santa Cruz, then known as Jimenez Bay, May 3, 1535, but owing to the hostility of the Indians he was compelled a year later to abandon his possessions.  In 1539, he sent Captain Francisco de Ulloa to the gulf, which he explored nearly to the mouth of the Colorado, and then, rounding the point, sailed up the outer coast to Cedros Islands.
 

THE NAME "CALIFORNIA"

 
      It was Ulloa who on this voyage applied the name of California to the peninsula, the source of the christening being an old romance by Ordonez de Montalvo, a great favorite among the Spanish, from 1510 to 1526, in which he describes an "island of California on the right hand of the Indias very near the Terrestrial Paradise," peopled with Black women, griffins and other creatures of the author's imagination.  While there is no historical proof of the application of this name, the coincidence is so striking that authorities generally agree that the title "California" was derived from this source.

FURTHER DISCOVERIES

 
      The honor of first sighting New, or Upper, California was reserved to Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, one of the pilots of Cortez, who in1542, under instructions from the viceroy of Spain, Antonio de Mendoza, sailed from the port of Navidad in Mexico, on an expedition of discovery of the coast toward the north.  He anchored in San Diego bay, to which he gave the name of San Miguel, and in October, 1542, visited the Santa Catalina Island.  After touching at the Indian town of Xuca, in the vicinity of what is now known as San Buenaventura, Cabrillo made his way northward until he reached Monterey bay, where the brave navigator a short time after died.
       He was succeeded by Bartolome Ferrello, a Levantine pilot, who continued northward until he arrived at the region between Humboldt and Trinidad bays, after which he turned south again.  No further efforts were made to discover the mysteries of the upper coast for thirty-five years following.
      In 1577, Captain Drake, the famous navigator, started on his great buccaneering expedition along the Spanish coast, and in 1579 he determined to make for England by way of the Cape of Good Hope.  Contrary winds drove his ship northward, but finding himself in the arctic latitudes he headed south again until he reached the latitude of thirty-eight degrees, where he discovered a country which from its white cliffs he called New Albion.  Here he found a bay in which he anchored, and formally took possession of the country in the name of Queen Elizabeth.  Some diversity of opinion exists as to the identity of Drake's anchorage, some assuming that he reefed sails in Bodega bay, others that he stopped in the waters now bearing his name , and others still that he had reached the bay of San Francisco.  The general inference, however, is, that Drake anchored in the bay that now bears his name and did not discover San Francisco.  Several years later, voyages were made by Francisco Gali, Carmenon and Sebastian Viscaino.
     Neither of these voyagers accomplished much more than there predecessors, and between the years 1615 and 1668, eight separate and fruitless efforts to make further discoveries were advanced.  The glaring accounts of these explorers excited the public mind for many years.  There were visions of a magnificent country, golden sands and pearls of great price, but gradually the adventurous spirits of the conquering Spaniards waned, and for more than 100 years there is a blank in the annals of California.

CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES 

 
       Resuming the second historic period of California, we find the Jesuit regime inaugerated by the Spanish Court at Madrid, in 1677, when it was decided that the survey, conquest, and settlement of the new country should be undertaken on a new basis.  The instructions were accordingly sent to Enrique de Rivera, then Viceroy of New Spain, as well as Archbishop of Mexico, and the prosecution of the enterprise was entrusted to Admiral Don Isidro Otondo.  The plan was, that the undertaking should be conducted at the expense of the crown, which was to supply Otondo with a body of priests and a sufficient number of soldiers to protect the missionaries.  The spiritual government of the expedition was conferred on the jesuits, then the most powerful priestly organization in Mexico, with Father Eusebio Francisco Kuhn - a German by birth and called by the Spaniards Kino - at their head.  The party left Chacala in May, 1683, and sailed up the gulf, landing at various Indian towns on the peninsula and preaching their gospel to the (so called) heathens.  In later years Kuhn associated himself with Fathers Salvatierra Picola and Ugarte, and these pioneers of Christianity and civilization, filled with a pious zeal which urged them on against every obstacle, - the unwillingness of their own society, the indifference and backwardness of the court, the delay of officials, and their own limited finances as well as the small number of their coadjutors, - pursued their labors to a glorious end.  In 1691, Kuhn and Salvatierra reached the modern Arizona line, and afterward explored the country as far as the Gila river.
      Later on the Jesuits began to lose their influence, a feeling of enmity grew up against them, and they became involved in vexatious controversies;  settlers and miners began to advocate secularization;  hatred to the priests was fomented, and in 1766 Charles III summarily put an end to all the strife by an ordinance for the instant and general expulsion off the Jesuits from all the Spanish dominions.  Early in 1768, the decree went into effect, and California was again left to the savage tribes which had peopled it from remote ages.
      We find the next historic period of civilized invasion of California was by the Franciscan friars following the expulsion of the Jesuits.  Their instructions were to take possession of the missions in peninsular California, and also to establish new missions which should protect the country further north against seizure by the English or French.  The convent of San Fernando, the principal establishment of the Franciscan monks in New Spain, was given charge of the work, and the head of the convent selected Junipero Serra as the head of the proposed establishments.
       In 1768, Serra, with fifteen friars, arrived in Lower California, and San Diego - the San Miguel of Cabrillo - having been decided on as the objective point, two expeditions by land and two by sea were started for that place.  Experiencing many hardships, privations and diseases, the expeditions arrived at their destination, and on July 11, 1769, the mission of the San Diego was founded.   Three days later Captain Portola, who afterward became first governor of the territory, set out in company with friars Crespi and Gomez, with forty-five other whites and a few Indians, with a view of occupying Monterey.  The object of this expedition was not accomplished, but resulted in the discovery of San Francisco bay; and January 24,1770, a second attempt to find Monterey was made.  June 23 the mission of San Carlos and the presidio, or fort, of Monterey was founded, and a formal declaration of the possessions of the country in the name of the King of Spain  was made.
      The foregoing events were the subject for hearty congratulations and prayers in Mexico, and immediate and liberal provision was made for the establishment of other missions.
      The mission of San Antonio was founded at the foot of the Santa Lucia Mountains July 14, 1771;  that of San Gabriel, on the river of the same name, in August, 1771, and that of San Louis Obispo in September, 1772.  Four years later, in 1776, the missions of San Juan Capistrano and San Francisco were founded.  Subsequently the following missions were founded:  Santa Clara, 1777; San Buenaventura, 1782; Santa Barbara, 1786; Concepcion, 1782; Soledad, 1791; Santa Cruz, 1794; San Fernando, 1797; San Miguel, 1797; San Juan, 1797, San Jose in this same year, and San Luis Rey, in 1798; those of Solano, San Rafael, and Santa Ynez being built in the present century.

CALIFORNIA DIVIDED

 
      The division of California into two district provinces was projected in 1796, but it was not effected until 1804, when a royal order from Spain, in which the official names of the new provinces were fixed as Antiqua and Nueva California, was received.  The fixing of the boundaries of the two provinces was left to the Franciscans, and Arrillaga was made political and military governor of Nueva California, at a salary of $4,000 a year.  The first years of his term were devoted to interior explorations, during which time the river San Joaquin was named, and the Tulare, Mariposa, King's, Merced and Tuolumne rivers were visited.

THE PERIOD   1811-23

 
      The period 1811-23 was characterized by a period of strife growing out of a revolution by which the colonies sought to throw off the Spanish yoke.  On July 24, 1814, Colonel Don Jose Joaquin de Arrillaga died at Soledad mission, at the age of sixty-four years.  He was succeeded by Lieutenant Governor Pablo Vicente de Sola.   It was during his term that the first invasion of a foreign foe, led by Captain Hippolyte Bouchard, commonly known as the "pirate Bouchard", occurred.
      Sola made great preparations to receive the unpleasant visitor, and on November 20, 1818, a sentinel on Point Pinos, reported that Bouchard's vessels were approaching Monterey.  A few hours later two large vessels anchored in the bay and began firing upon Sola's forces, which lined the shore.  Nine boats, containing 400 of the invaders, succeeded in landing.  Sola, seeing the hopelessness of resistance, spiked his guns, burned his powder, and retreated to the Rancho del Rey, fifteen miles distant, where Salinas City now stands.  The invaders killed all the cattle they could find, looted the stores, burned the guns and set the fort and presidio on fire.
      Leaving Monterey, Bouchard sailed down to the Santa Barbara channel, where he plundered the buildings of the Refugio ranch, killed the cattle and carried away some prisoners.  On the 6th of December he stopped at Santa Barbara briefly, exchanged some prisoners, and sailed away - out of the history of California.
      February, 1821, Iturbide proclaimed the independence of Mexico.  This valiant royalist became regent of Mexico in September of that year.  This information reaching Sola, he immediately called the commandants of the four presidios to a junta, or council, at Monterey, together with Father Payras as representative of the missions and neophytes.  The junta met on the 9th of April, and it was resolved to acquiesce in the regency, to obey the new government, to recognize the dependence of California on the Mexican empire only, and to take the prescribed oath.
      Iturbide followed up his past success by proclaiming himself Emperor of Mexico and California under the title of Augusta I., and sent a commissioner to California to learn the feelings of the people, to obtain an oath of allegiance, to raise the new national flag, and in general to superintend public affairs.  This commissioner was Fernandez de San Vicente, a canon of the Durango Cathedral.  He went to Monterey on September 26th, and there obtained the oath of allegiance, and on November 9, 1822, organized the first legislature of California, presided over by Governor Sola, and of which Francisco de Haro was secretary.  Sola was chosen as deputy to the Mexican Congress, and Captain Luis Arguello was elected to the office of acting Governor.  Two days after Sola's departure for Mexico, Arguello assumed the cares of government, November 20, at Monterey. 
      The Iturbidian dynasty came to an inglorious end in March, 1823, when he was forced to abdicate and be banished from the country.  One of his last official acts was to appoint a governor to succeed Sola, choosing for the position Captain Bonifacio de Tosta.  He held the office but a short time, and the only official act he performed was the collection of money at Gaudalajara, on salary account.
      Then came the death of Iturbide, July 19, 1824, and the formation of the Mexican Republic, the constitution of which formed New Spain, Yucatan, the Internal Provinces of the East and West and the Californias, into a federation of nineteen States and four territories.  The executive power was vested in a president and vice-president, and the legislative in a senate and chamber of deputies.   The States were recognized as free, independent and sovereign, and the territories, of which Alta California was one Baja California was another, were to be administered by a governor appointed by the president and a legislature to be elected by the people.
      From this time forward California was no longer a royal or imperial province, but a republican territory.

THE PERIOD BETWEEN 1823 AND 1836

 
      The period between 1823 and 1836 was noted for many changes, unrest, disaffection and revolts in the territory of the young republic. 
      In 1825, Victoria, then president of the Mexican Republic, decided not to confirm Arguello in office, and in February, 1825, appointed Lieutenant Colonel Jose Maria de Echeandia, Governor of both Californias.  He met Arguello at San Diego, October 31, 1825, and received the government at his hands.  Arguello resumed his former office of Commandante of San Francisco, from which office he was removed in 1829, owing to his dissipated habits.  He died March 27, 1830, at the age of forty-six.

THE AMERICAN IMMIGRATION

 
      The first Americans reached California overland during Echeandia's administration, in 1828.  These were a small company of hunters and trappers commanded by Captain Jedediah S. Smith.  The party were treated with signal cruelty by Echeandia and forced to leave the country.  Following this event came the insurrection headed by Herrera and Solis, two appointees of the government, on the night of November 12, 1829.  The insurgent's were arrested and sent to Mexico, where in a short time they were liberated.
      Next came a revolt of the San Jose and Santa Clara Indians; the rise of Santa Ana in Mexico; the successive appointments as Governors of Manuel Victoria, Jose Figueroa (who founded the village of Yerba Buena), Colonel Gutierrez and Colonel, Mariano Chico.
      Just prior to the American conquest of California came, on November 6, 1836, the revolution of Alvarado, which ended in placing him  in the Governor's seat, and also placed his uncle, Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, in military command of the State.
      The state was then divided into two cantons and an independent system of government was adopted.
      The steady flow of Americans into California caused the Mexican government some anxiety, and in 1840 Alvarado was instructed to take a census, - the first ever taken within the boundaries of the State.
      This census developed 148 foreigners scattered about over the various missions, not including hundreds of others who had settled without permission.  In his report Alvarado stated that the condition of California was helpless, and that Americans were literally pouring into the country.  No sooner did Santa Ana, who was once more in power, hear of this, then he appointed a new governor in the person of a brigadier general of the Mexican army, by the name of Jose Manuel Michektorena, who assumed office at Los Angeles, December 3, 1842.
      A few weeks prior to this event Commodore Jones, in command of the American squadron then stationed at Callao, receiving erroneous information that war had been declared between the United States and Mexico, repaired to Monterey in the frigate United States, and took possession of the town in the name of the American Republic, October 19, 1842.  Subsequently ascertaining that there was no war between the two governments, he drew down the American flag with many apologies, and went on board his vessel with his marines.
      The incident so exasperated the Mexican authorities that in 1843 an order for the complete expulsion of Americans from California was issued.  This resulted in the formation of two factions, - Governor Micheltorena and J. A. Sutter, of Sacramento, on the one  side, and Alvarado, Pico and Castro on the other.  Each party gathered around them their coherents, and the opposing forces met on the plains of Cahuenga, near San Fernando, February 15, 1845.  Scarcely had the battle begun when it was ended, by Micheltorena's capitulation, and Pico, the last of the Mexican governors, was once more placed at the head of affairs in California, February 22, 1845.
      The same year, in the month of May, a United States expedition of a scientific character for the Pacific coast was organized, and John Charles Fremont, an officer of the United States Topographical Engineers, placed at its head.  This expedition, which numbered sixty-two men, reached California in January, 1846.
      Fremont met Castro at Monterey and explained to him the object of his expedition, to which Castro did not apparently object.  In March, however, Castro wrote Fremont that he would have to leave the country; but instead of doing so Fremont moved to a commanding ridge of the Gabilan mountains, back of San Juan Capistrano, where he threw up works for defense and defiantly waved the stars and stripes over his fortifications.  Castro gathered his men, numbering 200, and prepared to assail Fremont's position.  The latter withdrew, however, and marched off toward Sonoma.  Castro did not attempt pursuit, but issued his proclamation of March 13, in which he declared Fremont and party a band of highwaymen.
      The first event of importance to the Americans in California was the capture, on June 14, 1846, of the military post of Sonoma, commanded by M. G. Vallejo.  Fremont had just been informed of hostilities between Mexico and the United States, and of the determination of the United States authorities to capture and hold California.  After several consultations with Fremont, William B. Ide  and Ezekial Merritt, two American settlers, with a number of men captured the post without a struggle, with eighteen prisoners, nine brass cannon, 250 muskets, and public property valued at $1,200.  Two days later, a piece of coarse white cotton cloth, about two yards long, and a yard wide, was procured, and along the lower edge of it was sewed a narrow strip of red woolen stuff, cut from a worn-out undershirt of one of the men.  On this was painted a single star, and also a figure of a grizzly bear.  Beneath the whole was painted the inscription "California Republic."  As soon as it was completed it was run up, amid the shouts of the Americans assembled, in place of the Mexican colors.  This event took place June 14, 1846, and such were the origin , composition and raising of the "Bear Flag" of California.

THE MEXICAN WAR

 
      May 13, 1846, the United States Government declared war with Mexico.  About this time Fremont had joined forces with the Bear Flag men, and was arrayed before the forces of Castro, near San Rafael, where a conflict ensued, and a number of Americans were killed.  Commodore John D. Sloat, on board the United States ship Savannah, then lying at Mazatlan, was instructed to seize what ports of Alta California he could, and he at once set out upon his mission.  He arrived at Monterey July 2, 1846, and on the 7th he demanded the surrender of that place.  There was no opposition, the Mexican colors were hauled down from the customhouse, and the American flag hoisted in their place.  From that moment the Mexican Government in California ceased and the sovereignty of the country passed to the United States.  Four days later the American flag waved triumphantly at San Francisco, and throughout the country north of the bay, and it was everywhere hailed with unfeigned satisfaction.
      The incidents that transpired in California during the war between Mexico and the United States are so familiar to the reader that it is not necessary to recount them here.  The acts of Kearny, Johnston, Stockton, and Fremont during this campaign were with a few unimportant exceptions characterized by good judgment, valor, and patriotism; and on May 31, 1847, Colonel Richard B. Mason assumed the functions of Governor of California.

THE AMERICAN PERIOD

 
      The old missions had been "secularized," and the only question was as to the power if the new administration to make new land grants, the missions having been previously disposed of by the Mexican government.  Mason not only refrained from making any grants, but insisted that titles and possessory rights should remain as far as practicable as they were on July 7, 1847.  In the meantime the country was rapidly filling up with emigrants who crossed the continent with teams, surrounded by constant dangers, particularly in crossing the Sierra mountains during the winter months.

THE DONNER PARTY

 
      The most tragic affair in the history of immigration to this State was the sad experience of a company of immigrants from Illinois called the Donner party, numbering eighty persons.  They reached  the eastern slope of the Sierras October 31, 1846, and, owing to lack of provisions, were compelled to push forward regardless of the falling snow which threatened to bury them.  Finally  finding themselves snowbound, and hemmed in on every side, they built cabins to pass the winter there.  In a few weeks starvation stared them in the face, and a party of fifteen was organized to make their way to Sutter's fort for assistance.  Only one of the miserable party survived to reach William Johnson's ranch on Bear river, and he carried the sad news to Sutter's fort and San Francisco.  Relief parties were immediately organized and started to the rescue of the sufferers.  The first party of rescue arrived at the camp neat Donner lake, February 19, 1847.  Of the eighty persons who composed the party, thirty-six had perished from cold and hunger, Donner and his  wife among the number.  The latter it is said, was murdered by a man of the party named Keseberg, for the valuables she possessed.  The sufferers, in order to preserve life, fed upon the corpses of their late companions, several went insane, and others subsequently died from the hardships they had endured.  Details of the sufferings of this unfortunate party are heart-rending.

GOVERNMENTAL 

 
      The regulation of the authority and jurisdiction of the American alcaldes, or mayors, was one of Governor Mason's principal duties.  The powers exercised by them included the right to sell lots within the limit of their town, and they were also criminal judges up to the point of inflicting the death punishment.  The growth of American law during this transitory period was very slow, but gradually the common law principles and forms were either amalgamated with or supplemented the old customs and procedures. 
      The first jury in the country was summoned by Walter Cotton, the American alcalde, or mayor, of Monterey, in July, 1847, and on December 29 of that year Governor Mason made the great move, ordering all civil cases involving a sum exceeding $100, and all criminal cases of a grave nature, to be tried before a jury.  After the peace, crimes were of frequent occurrence, and gradually lynch law became a power in the land.  Mason refused to interfere with a course of popular vengeance that alone held lawlessness to some degree in check, and, it being distasteful to him, he demanded to be recalled.  In October, 1848, Brigadier General Bennett Riley was directed to relieve Colonel Mason as Governor of California, and the following November, Brigadier General Persifer F. Smith was appointed to the command of the United States Army on the Pacific coast.  Governor Riley entered upon the discharge of his duties April 12, 1849.

THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD 

 
      The discovery of gold early in 1848, and the confirmation of the repeated reports of the uncounted mineral wealth of the country, attracted the attention of the civilized world to California, and an immigration unprecedented in history was the result.  The discovery was contemporaneous with the treaty of peace with Mexico, known as the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and with the transfer of California from Mexico to the United States.  The spot where gold was first found was at a place since called Coloma, on a branch of the American River, and its discoverer was James Wilson Marshall, a native of hope Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey.  Marshall had entered into a partnership with J. A. Sutter on August 19, 1847, for the purpose of erecting a sawmill, and several months were consumed in securing a suitable mill site.  This having been found, as already stated, at Coloma, Marshall engaged several hands and began constructing a mill-race.  On the morning of January 19, 1848, while examining the tail-race, Marshall caught the glitter of something that lay lodged in a crevice some inches under water.  he picked up the substance, found that it was heavy and of a peculiar color.  He knew that he held in his hand some sort of metal, but whether mica, sulphuret of copper or gold he could not determine.  He remembered that gold was malleable, and as this thought passed through his mind, he placed a specimen upon a stone and tested it by striking it with another.  The substance did not crack or flake off; it simply bent under the blows.  He felt confident that he had discovered gold, and a few days later, having in the meantime discovered other pieces of the same metal, he took them to Sutter's Fort, where all doubt as to its being gold was set at rest, after it had been weighed and tested with nitric acid. 
      The news of the discovery spread like fire among the dry glass on a windy day, and in an incredibly short period of time the mountains were filled with gold-seekers who had deserted the towns.  The excitement spread to the Eastern States, and ere long the great rush to California took place.  At the end of 1849 the American population numbered nearly 100,000 persons.  It was these people, brought together from the several States and localities in the Union, that amalgamated and combined to lay the foundations of the wonderful State of California, pre-eminently in fact as well as in name, the "Golden State" of our American Union.
      The first recognition of California by the United States Government was in March, 1849, when an appropriation bill was passed by Congress, which extended the revenue laws of the United States over the entire territory.  San Francisco was made a port of entry, and Monterey, San Diego and Fort Yuma ports of delivery; a collector of customs was authorized and a complete revenue system adopted.
      But soon the subject of a

STATE GOVERNMENT 

 
for themselves was agitated by the people.  This resulted in the convening of a convention at Monterey, September 1, 1849, at which a constitution was adopted.  The State seal was presented in the name of Caleb Lyons, and also adopted, despite the objections of Vallejo, who had some enmity for the bear which forms its chief figure.  The constitution was sent to Governor Riley, and he issued an order for a general election to be held November 13.  The successful candidates were:  Peter H. Burnett, Governor;  John McDougal, Lieutenant Governor;  and Edward Gilbert, and George W. Wright, Representatives in Congress.
      At the same time there were elected in the various districts sixteen Senators and thirty-six Assemblymen, to constitute the first State Legislature.  That body met at San Jose, Saturday, December 15, 1849, and adjourned April 22, 1850, after holding some very stormy sessions.  Fremont and Gwin were elected to the United States Senate. 
       Meanwhile the question of admitting California into the Union  was exciting warm debates in Congress, though President Polk had assumed a favorable attitude in the matter.  The California representatives, upon their arrival at Washington, presented a copy of the constitution to President Taylor, February 13, 1850, and by special message he announced the formal application of the new State for admission.  The measure was strongly opposed by Henry Clay, of Kentucky, and John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, and as warmly advocated by Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts, William H. Seward, of New York, and several others.  A number of compromise measures were submitted and debated, but on September 7, despite the almost general opposition of the Southern Senators, the bill admitting California as a State was passed by a vote of 150 to 56.  Two days later, on September 9, the bill was signed by President Fillmore (President Taylor having died July 9), and California became the "Golden State" of the Union.  Its representatives at once took their seats in Congress, and when the glorious news reached the people of California celebrations of the event took place with great enthusiasm in all the towns within the boundaries of the new State.  No State had before entered the Union with such an extraordinarily rapid and triumphant career.  With the passing of the golden era, the admission of the State into the Union, and the purging of society by the heroic treatment of the vigilantes, the history of California loses its romantic features and glides quietly into the plain record of passing events.
       In the first decade appeared the clipper ships in response to the demands for quick transportation of freights, the introduction of the "Pony Express" across the continent in 1859;  the opening of the Panama railroad for business on January 23, 1855, the Fraser river gold excitement of 1858, and the organization of the Steam Navigation Company in March, 1854, for traffic on the interior waters of the State.  The output of mineral in these ten years was phenomenal, the figures reaching $553,000,000.  The agricultural resources of the State were also largely developed, and many manufacturing industries  were established.
      On February 25, 1854, the Legislature was removed to Sacramento, which became the State capital.  In the second decade, 1860-'70, the following were the principal events:  Steamer communication with the Hawaiian Islands established in 1861; a line of steamers started to China in 1867; first steamer communication with Australia in 1869; disastrous floods in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys in the winter of 1861-'62; completion of the overland telegraph from Western Missouri to San Francisco, October 22, 1861, and the opening of the Central Pacific Railroad in May, 1869.

PRESENT STATUS

 
 
      It was also in this decade that the viticultural interests of the State began to be developed, and California was rapidly pushing her way into the front rank of the cereal and fruit producers.  Exports grew to the enormous figures of 18, 000,000 centals of wheat for the decade, to nearly 2,500, 000 barrels of flour, to over 1,000,000 centals of barley and to 70,000,000 pounds of wool.  In 1850 the population of the State was 92,597; in 1860 it was 379,994; in 1870 it had increased to 560,257, in 1880 to 864,694, and in 1890 the population is 1,204,002.
      So far as the State is concerned, California is again, the great attractive region of the world.   The days of the "Argonauts" are over, but the enormous agricultural, horticultural, and viticultural interests, the extraordinary growth of her population; the wonderful impetus that is being given to enterprise in general; the appreciation of real estate and the marvelous new life that has struck the Southern San Joaquin Valley, as also the southern counties of the State; her climate, scenery, opportunities for solid investment and profitable returns; her standard of culture and educational advantages - all of these have again crowned California anew as the great Golden State.

TOPOGRAPHY

 
 
       The topography of California is of the most varied description imaginable and comprises what may without exaggeration be called an unequal aggregation of vast mountain ranges, lofty glacier-clad peaks, extensive valleys, boisterous mountain torrents, and smoothly flowing rivers, land-locked bays, peaceful lakes, the most tremendous forest growth ever seen, and a coast line without a superior.  For 800 miles from north to south along the Pacific Ocean sweeps this great commonwealth, while it is almost 200 miles from the sands of the seashore to the foot of the eastern slope of the Sierra, which marks the limit of the state in that direction.  The sinusosities of the coast are such that California has nearly 1,100 miles of shore line, while the vast territory of more than 100,000,000 acres is compromised within its boundaries.  Such an extent is so immense that some means of comparison must be furnished in order to secure an adequate conception thereof.
      If California were  on the Atlantic coast it would extend from the latitude of Cape Cod down the coast to Charleston, South Carolina, thus covering the shore line of the States of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolinas.  Inland it would reach across New Jersey and about half way across Pennsylvania.  With her 155,000 square miles of area, in which can be found every physical characteristic and variety of climate, California is an empire within itself, and in every respect may well challenge comparison with any equal area in the world.                                                                               
      Two great mountain ranges traverse the State throughout its entire length.  On the east is the Sierra Nevada with the loftiest summits existent in the United States. On the west is the Coast Range, divided  into many spurs, with extensive intervening valleys, and with a general altitude far less than the Sierras.  In the northern part of the State there are two mountain ranges verging toward each other until merged into one, and the same thing is repeated in the south.  The Coast Range is divided into numerous spurs under other names.  Thus the range that practically divides the fertile valleys of the south from the Mojave desert is called variously the Sierra Madre and the San Bernardino mountains, and has almost a due east and west course, finally trending off southeasterly across the Colorado desert.  On the north of the Mojave desert is the Tehachapi range, which with the San Emigdio (by some writers spelled Emidio) mountains form the connecting link between the Sierra and the Coast Range.  Through Ventura and Santa Barbara counties runs the Santa Ynez spur, which is divided again into the Santa Lucia and Mount Diablo ranges in San Luis Obispo County.  The first named keeps well toward the ocean and finally ceases when the bay of Monterey is reached.  the other continues up the east side of the Carisa plain, east of the Santa Clara valley, and so on northward, fixing the western limit of the San Joaquin valley, until it terminates in the peak from which the name is derived, near San Francisco bay.  A spur from the Diablo range is the Gabilan, which forms the western boundary of the Santa Clara valley, and finally merges into the Santa Cruz mountains, which continue northward until they gradually slope into the low hills upon which San Francisco is situated.  Northward of the bay of San Francisco the Coast Range is found more in a body and the valleys are few and limited.
      Beyond the Coast Range and between it and the Sierra lies the great interior valley, for it is practically one throughout its entire vast length from Shasta on the north to Tehachapi on the south.  The northern portion is drained by the Sacramento river, and its tributaries, flowing southward for 200 miles to the bay of San Francisco, while the southern portion is the watershed of the San Joaquin and its tributaries, flowing northward to the same destination.  All the principal streams of both ends of this great valley have their source in the Sierra Nevada, the eastern slope of the Coast Range being but poorly provided with  water courses. 
      Commencing at the upper end of this great interior valley the Sacramento river receives the Pit, Feather, Yuba, American, Cosumnes, Mokelumne, Calaveras, Stanislaus, Tuolumne, Merced, San Joaquin, King's, Kaweah, White and Kern rivers.  Besides there are many smaller streams all along the western slope of the Sierra from Shasta to Tehachapi, whose waters are contributed to the same system.  The beds of each and all of these streams contain deposits of gold-bearing gravel, and the greater portion of the quartz mines now operated are located on their banks.  Their sources in the mountains present some of the grandest scenery in the world, while their waters are utilized largely for both mining and agriculture.
     Along the eastern slope of the Coast Range there is not a stream that can be designated by the name of the river.  In the Sacramento portion of the valley, Clear Creek,  Stony creek and other streams are tributaries of the river, with numerous other smaller streams.  On the Western side of the San Joaquin Valley, however, there is scarcely a stream whose waters find their way, except in midwinter, to the river.  All are lost in the sands soon after reaching the plains.                                                                                       
      The western slope of the Coast Range has a number of streams, some of which are of considerable proportions, and are navigable for short distances from the ocean.  The Klamath in the northern part of the State is a large stream, as also the Smith river further north.  The Trinity river is an important stream, and so are the Eel, Elk, Mad and Russian rivers, which drain the entire coast from the Oregon line to San Francisco bay.
      South of San Francisco are the San Lorenzo, Carmel, Salinas, Pajaro, Santa Maria, Santa Ynez, Santa Clara, Los Angeles, San Gabriel, Santa Ana, Santa Margarita, San Luis Rey, San Dieguito, and San Diego rivers.
       Besides, many smaller streams are either tributary to those mentioned or flow directly into the ocean.  Nearly every mountain canon, from the peninsula of San Francisco to San Diego, is provided with a stream of greater or less size. some of which assume the proportions of rivers during the rain season.
       Some of the streams mentioned as having their source in the Coast Range possess very singular characteristics, which have given rise to the saying that in California many rivers are turned upside down, - that is, the sandy bed is on the surface and the water flows beneath.  This is true in fact of nearly all the southern Coast Range streams.  The Salinas in summer resembles a bed of dry sand, yet there is a large body of water underneath, and the apparently dry bed has a most startling habit in the summer of suddenly opening beneath the weight of a horse or team and giving the rider or driver a most uncomfortable and even a dangerous experience.  The Santa Ana, Santa Maria, San Gabriel and Los Angeles rivers have the same features.  The first named is the most important stream of the far south, and furnishes an immense amount of water for irrigation.  It rises far up in the San Bernardino range, on the very crest of the ridge that divides the Mojave desert from the fertile southern valleys.  Even before leaving its mountain canon it is tapped by the irrigators, and thence almost to its mouth there is a perfect network of canals deriving their supply from it.  More than once is the entire apparent flow diverted into some canal, but a few miles further down the water again rises to the surface and supplies still other systems of irrigation.  There are probably few other streams in the world whose waters possess so large an intrinsic value as this.  Water rights from this stream have increased immensely in value, and are sold in some instances for as much as $1,000 and $1,200 an inch, and even more.  Tens of thousands of acres of land are irrigated from it.  The greater portion of the finest orange orchards in Southern California owe their existence to the Santa Ana river; and, while it is so insignificant a stream that in more than one place an active man may jump across it at a bound, nevertheless it has added millions to the wealth of the communities  which it serves, and each year is the cause of millions of dollars being distributed among the residents along its banks.
       Two other rivers of considerable size are deserving of more than passing notice, because of the fact that, though carrying large bodies of water,  none of it finds its way into a river running toward the ocean.  Rising on the northern slope of the San Bernardino range is the Mojave river, a never-falling stream of large size where it leaves the mountains.  It runs nearly 100 miles directly through the center of the desert, but finally the absorptive character of the soil proves too much and the waters sink in the sand, forming what is so well known to the old teamsters by this route, the "sink of the Mojave."  Some of the water of this river is used at the base of the mountains and even out in the desert for irrigation, but the bulk of it is lost in the sands.
      Following the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada for a distance of seventy-five miles through Inyo County is Owens river, emptying into Owens lake, a body of water without an outlet and highly charged with minerals.  This river is used largely for irrigation, the land along its banks being very productive when watered.                                                                                                       
       A notable feature of this part of the State is Death Valley.  This region has been treated by various writers throughout the State, and has been the subject of a vast amount of romancing as well as misrepresentation.  It is situated in the eastern portion of Inyo County, near the Nevada line, and is the sink of a stream called the Amargosa river.  It is nearly 400 feet below sea level, and is one of the worst portions of the desert. At present a thorough exploration of  it is going on under the auspices of the United States Government, which will result in setting at rest many of the weird tales that have been told concerning it.

GEOLOGICAL HISTORY

 
 
      The geological history of the great interior valley of California has been a matter of much discussion, and it would scarcely be expected that the writer could cast any additional light on this region.  There is abundant evidence in support of the well grounded theory that at one time the entire valley from Shasta to Tehachapi was a vast lake or inland sea, and by a great convulsion of nature the mountain barrier through which passes the Golden Gate was riven asunder and the lake drained.  Indian tradition, though unreliable, ascribes this origin to the valley, and there are abundant indications that such is the case.  The fact that marine shells and the remains of sharks, whales, etc., found high up on the summits of the Coast Range and in places well up the sides of the Sierra, is indisputable evidence of the former presence of a great inland sea, or perhaps the evidence of the former presence of a great inland sea, or perhaps the evidence more conclusively shows that the Sierra was once the eastern shore of the Pacific ocean.  Along the foot-hills of the eastern side of the valley may be seen terraces and deposits of sand and gravel in which are yet traceable the action of mighty waves in long ages past.  Further south in that remarkable region, the Colorado desert, the same phenomena are found.  Away up on the mountain sides are the unmistakable lines showing that at some time this was an ocean beach, while whale bones, coral, shells, and other indications of marine life are abundant.  The Indian tribes of that region even have a tradition of a time when the desert waste was covered with water and the people inhabited only the highest peaks.  They also tell of a period when all the people of the world were drowned except a single couple, who took refuge on the topmost summit of the loftiest mountain peak, and from whom all the nations of the earth have since been populated.  In no part of the world can the geologist find a better or more interesting field for investigation than here.  Unsolved problems and mysteries confront him on every hand, requiring a lifetime of study and investigation.
      The islands off the southern coast are another feature of great interest which have received scant attention.  Catalina, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, San Nicolas and Anacapa are all easily accessible from the mainland and on all the archaeologist, the botanist and the geologist can find abundant data for investigation.  The remains of mastodons, the relics of long perished thousands of human beings, the peculiar vegetable growths, the strange rock formations and more than a thousand other points of interest are to be found on every hand.  Other features of far less interest and intrinsic value have been written of and given a world-wide notoriety, but there is no part of California that warrants closer study and investigation than this.

 CALIFORNIA'S CLIMATE

 
       "The glorious climate of California" has, it is true, been a hackneyed subject; yet it is one which we have always with us and which from the time of the first explorers who committed their discoveries as well as ideas to writing has been one of the most potent charms of the Pacific coast.  the climatic peculiarities of California are the first of the many attractions which are offered to the attention of the tourist, and there are so many anomalies and apparent contradictions , so many reversals of all preconceived ideas and former experience, that this is always a fruitful subject for discussion and investigation.  The climate of California differs widely from that of any other portion of the United States, and in many features from that of any other part of the world.  These points of variation apply to every climatic feature that can be suggested, and in every detail the contrast results advantageously for this highly favored region.         
      Contrast these climatic conditions with those on the eastern coast, where the rigors of winter scarcely lose their grip, when the cyclones and thunder-storms begin their work of destruction, and thousands fall from sunstroke.  The majority of Californians are familiar with climatic conditions on the first day of January east of the Rocky Mountains.  There, north of the Gulf States the principal industry January first is to battle against the piercing cold winds and guard against freezing, while in California the air is balmy, the sky blue, and the earth is closed in her spring-like garments.  The farmer is busy plowing his fields, vegetables are being planted and harvested everywhere, the orange trees are golden with their luscious fruits, the pale green foliage of the olive is intermingled with the rich purple of its thickly clustered fruit; flower gardens are abloom with roses and geraniums, fuchias and heliotropes; children are rolling on the grassy sward, and existence out doors is as enjoyable as during an Eastern May.  When a tourist from the Eastern States crosses the Sierra Nevada, his attention is directed to the marvelous transformation that occurs.
      The important fact should be borne in mind, - and one that is perhaps hardest of all to be understood, - that so far as California is concerned latitude cuts almost no figure whatever in climatic changes or differences.  The climate of San Diego in the south is practically that of Crescent City on the north; there is little variation of temperature, winter or summer, between the two ends of the great interior valley, although one extreme boundary is nearly 500 miles south of the other.  Coast, interior, foothill or mountain, the same law applies, and demonstrations will be given in figures compiled with the greatest care by trained observers.
      Broadly speaking, the year in California is divided into but two seasons.  There are none of the sharp changes that form so disagreeable a feature of the climate in other parts of the world.  On the contrary the two seasons shade into each other so gradually that the change is almost imperceptible.  The dry season is frequently prolonged until the so-called winter months are half gone, while the wet season sometimes reaches well into the summer months.  The popular idea of the wet and the dry season, as held by those who have had no experience in such matters, is that during the one "the rain it raineth every day," while during the other there is nothing but a cloudless sky from one month's end to the other.  Nothing could be further from the truth, however.
       With an average rainfall varying from ten inches in the far south to thirty-six inches in the extreme north, it will appear evident to the thinking mind that a long continued down-pour is out of the question.  Under ordinary conditions, a half dozen storms of three or four days' duration each, is all that California has during a year. There are some seasons, as in all other localities, when their are storms of longer duration, and a much greater precipitation, but the figures given are an average for a long series of years.  "The rainy season" (better called the rain season) is not unpleasant by any means.  On the contrary it is considered by many the most enjoyable portion of the year. The first storm  of any importance lays the dust, cleanses the atmosphere, washes the foliage of the numerous evergreen trees of every variety and causes the earth to be covered with a blanket of grass and blossoms of a thousand varying hues.  The air is balmy and invigorating, and the most beautiful day in the late soring of the Atlantic coast, rare as it is, is not more enchanting or enjoyable than the greater portion of California's "rainy season."
      Let us briefly inquire into the causes which produce such a wonderful climate in California, and which is little understood, and in fact scarcely thought of, by the average individual.  Perhaps the clearest statement as is possible of the causes which produce the unique climate enjoyed on the Pacific coast of North America is that furnished in an interesting paper prepared by a well known medical writer of Oakland, Dr. J. B. Trembley, from which we quote:
      "The western coasts of Europe and North America are examples of similar climate, modified by the same corresponding causes, - ocean and air currents.  Without entering into an extended inquiry over the various positions of the world in comparing climatic factors, the knowledge, positive and theoretical, of the climatic conditions that are imposed upon the western slope of the Pacific coast from Alaska toward the south, and the causes so far as observed, are all that will interest the general reader.  The same general causes that modify the climate of Alaska, British Columbia, Oregon and California, extending into Mexico, have long been known to meteorologists and those who have made physical geography a study.  But the many local modifying influences that these great currents of water and air meet with as they impinge upon the northwestern coast of the continent, by high mountain ranges, inland valleys and solar heat, give as various climates as the topography of the country is different where their influence is felt.
"The ocean current that modifies the climate of the Pacific coast is a portion of the great equatorial current, which is deflected northerly and easterly when it meets the eastern coast of Asia.  This current, a portion of the warm equatorial current, as it flows toward the northwest, washing the eastern shores of China and Japan, takes the name of the Japan current, or Kuro Sivo.  At or near latitude 50 degrees and longitude 170 degrees, it divides.  One portion, continuing northerly, passes through Behring strait; the other, south of the Aleutian islands, assumes the name of the Aleutian current.  It advances eastward until it strikes the northwest coast of North America, then turning acutely to the southeast, flowing along the western shore, until what is left is drawn into the great equatorial current at or near the Tropic of Cancer, again to make the current of nearly a quarter of the hemisphere.  Various elements of this great current, when taken into consideration, that go to make it one of the physical constituents in the formation of climate, seems as yet but partially understood.  Its depth, width, velocity and temperature have not been investigated as have some of the currents of the Atlantic ocean.
      "Professor Davidson of San Francisco seems to have been almost the only one who has given this subject any attention, with the exception of some few casual observers, who have here and there made memoranda for their own curiosity.  The professor starts with a maximum temperature of the Japan current of 88 degrees Fahrenheit; at Alaska, 50.06 degrees; six to eight hundred miles west from San Francisco, 60.33 degrees; 100 miles west, 55.05 degrees.   At the tidal station at Fort Point the mean temperature for eight years was 55.66 degrees, that of the air being 54.97 degrees.  The temperature of the ocean 900 miles west of San Francisco for one year was 60.52 degrees as found by the ocean steamers going and coming from Yokohama to San Francisco.
      "This shows a difference of temperatures between the water of the ocean current 100 miles to  the west and at the tidal station on shore to be 61 degrees less here; at 600 to 800 miles, 4.67 degrees greater; at 900 miles, 4.86 degrees greater or warmer.  The great ocean current in flowing from its origin to the coast of California has parted with 32.34 degrees of heat; or, in other words, has lost, from the average temperature of the equatorial waters (78 degrees), 22.34 degrees, and leaves an average surface ocean temperature, to the distance of 900 miles west of California, of 57.89 degrees.  The temperature of the air along the coast, and the water, hardly ever rises more than two or three degrees, and the above figures show only 2.92 degrees for the average difference in temperature of the water and air over a large area of the ocean contiguous to the Pacific coast, and give an explanation of the low temperature at the base of the atmospherical column that rests on the ocean's water.  Also the great freedom from rain during the summer months, when the westerly winds overcast, and fogs prevail.
      "The great aerial current that moves with the ocean stream, is the counter trade wind of the northern hemisphere, and seems to determine the character of the climate of California almost wholly.  As it strikes the Pacific coast, it is always the high current, and flowing from a westerly direction changing but very little the point of the compass at the same date of time in each year.  It oscillates from the south of west at one portion of the year to the north of west at another, moving from north to south with the declination of the sun, and then back again.  During the summer season it blows nearly from the west, and in the winter being acted on by the polar winds, is given a more northwesterly direction.
      "Physical geography so well describes the great systems of atmospherical currents that it is superfluous to enter into a description of all the winds and the laws that produce them.  Owing to solar heat and the diurnal motion of the earth three distinct belts or systems of winds are produced, - easterly winds in the tropical zone, westerly winds in the temperate zone and northerly or northwesterly in the higher latitudes.  These zones of wind move bodily to and fro with the vertical rays of the sun, toward the north in summer and toward the south in winter.  On the movement of these zones of water and air rest the causes of the wet and dry seasons over the great area of country bordering on the western coast of the United States.
      "The causes of the principal climatic phenomena of California having thus been set forth at length, it remains to give some attention to certain peculiarities to other directions which are noteworthy.  One of these is the periodical prevalence of what is known as 'northers,' and which are one of the most unpleasant climatic features known on the Pacific coast, though, as will be shown, possessing many compensating advantages.  All parts of California, but more especially the vast interior valleys, are periodically subjected to winds from the north, which at times are of great violence and become decidedly uncomfortable.  These wind-storms are caused by the intense heat which prevails in these valleys, by which the air is rarefied, ascends, and thus creates a vacuum.   The cool air from the north at once rushes in to restore the equilibrium, while the heat in the soil creeps northward until the whole surface of the valley becomes heated, thus creating a practical vacuum 450 miles long, with an average width of forty-five miles.  Then from the north the cold air rushes in in increasing volume, and the norther thus created sweeped down the valley.  Opposite the Golden Gate the cool air is drawn in from the bay and ocean, and again the norther rushes down the valley.  Reaching the lower end it leaps the mountain barrier and traverses the desert.  Here it gathers up vast quantities of sand and dust of an almost impalpable character, and with the accumulated heat pours over the mountains again into the lower valleys.  Warning is always given to the people of that section of the approach of a norther, or sandstorm, by a peculiar brazen tinge of the atmosphere for a day or more beforehand, caused by the quantities of dust held in suspension.  The north wind produces violent electrical disturbances, the exact cause of which is hardly known, though the effects are familiar to all.  All animal life suffer alike.  There seems to be a general lowering of vitality, headache is prevalent and a lassitude and indisposition to exertion is common.  When the norther is of an unusually high temperature vegetation of all kinds suffers.  Fruit has been known to be actually roasted and fall from the tree, while grain and grass wither and dry up.  Damage, however, only takes place when the wind is exceptionally high, and of long continuance.                                                                                        24
      "On the other hand the unpleasant features of these winds are well balanced by their beneficial effects in more than one direction.  Without them the climate of the interior valleys would be humid, moist and oppressively tropical.  Vegetation would be rapid and the soil would be quickly covered with an excessive and unhealthy growth.  The north wind by its desiccatory power destroys the germs of disease caused by vegetable decay and prevents malaria and other sickness.  Fevers disappear before its coming, and invalids suffering from various diseases find themselves better.  The fungi that attack vegetable growth where there is a superabundance of moisture are almost unknown where the northers occasionally prevail, and in a word the unpleasant momentary effects of the high wind are more than counterbalanced by the lasting benefits conferred by it.
       "There is still another peculiarity connected with California climate which is exceedingly difficult to understand, and the causes of which are even yet not fully demonstrated.  The fact that the earliest fruits come from the central and northern part of the State is one of those apparent anomalies which are difficult of comprehension to the stranger.  It seems like a reversal of the laws of nature to find vegetation of any kind maturing at an earlier date in the north than in the south.  Yet such is an indisputable fact, remarkable though it seems.  There are two well-defined and widely separated 'early-fruit regions' in the State, and they are so far apart that it must be evident that different causes produce the same result.  In Solano County, a short distance north of San Francisco, is the Vaca valley, with its tributaries, or neighbors, Pleasant and Capay valleys.  In these localities every variety of deciduous fruit ripens long before it does at points 500 miles further south.  Cherries, apricots, peaches, plums, grapes, etc., are in readiness for market here several weeks in advance of any locality to the south.  A similar singular state of facts is found in the foothills of Placer County and contiguous localities, where fruits ripen practically at the same time as in the Solano County valleys mentioned. Sometimes there is a difference of a day or two between these localities, but for years the earliest fruits have been produced there, maturity being attained so nearly at the same time that both are practically alike. The explanation of this early maturing lies unquestionably in the existence of some phenomena that cause the nights of early spring to be uniformly warmer in these early fruit  districts than elsewhere.
     "The days certainly are no warmer, as is shown by the records of thermometrical observation.  But that the nights are warmer and vegetation is thus assisted is a fact, whatever the natural cause may be.  There  is a variety of explanation for this singular state of facts, such as the sheltered character of the localities where the early fruits mature, etc., but there are many other spots which apparently are fully as well protected, but without the faculty of hastening early maturity.  Whatever may be the exact cause, however, the remarkable fact remains that the earliest fruit region is found north of the central line of the State.  Hundreds, yea, thousands of pages could be written of this wonderful State, and yet the half would not be told; its undeveloped resources  are beyond conception, and are just now beginning to attract attention.  Twenty-five years hence this Golden State will be the Empire State of the Union, as it is verily an Empire within itself."
      For convenience as a ready reference we give some important figures:

FACTS WORTH KNOWING ABOUT CALIFORNIA

 
 
      California is the second largest State in the Union; area, 157,801 square miles.
      She is the leading State in the value of gold product.   Total value of gold and silver produced since 1848, $1,367,450,000.
      It is the most diversified agricultural State in the Union.  Produces more wine and honey than any other State, and is the only state to producing raisins.  It is the only state in which the olive thrives, and is the home of the orange and the fig.  It is the leading producer of almonds, walnuts, etc., and justly claims the finest climate as well as the largest trees in the world.  She has the largest per capita wealth of all States in the Union, and has the third commercial city, San Francisco.
      Value of mineral products in 1890, $23,850,000.
      Population in 1880, 864,690; in 1890, 1,205,391.
      Ranked twenty-second in population in 1890.  Ranked sixteenth in percentage of growth from 1880 to 1890.  Percentage of increase of population, 39.25; percentage of increase of voters, 55.75.
      Assessed value of property in 1880, $666,183,320; in 1890, $1,060,390,296.  Deposits in savings banks, 1890, $98, 442,000; increase over 1889, $11,430,000.  Deposits in commercial banks, 1890, $42,321,000; increase over 1889, $1,869,000.  Total deposits in all banks, 1890, $171,229,531.  Value of manufactured products, 1880, $116,218,000: in 1890, $165,000,000.
      Miles of railroad in the state, 4,500; assessed valuation, $40,248,000.
      Area arable land, 38,000,000 acres; cultivated, 2,500,000 acres; forests, 20,000,000 acres.  Area wine and raisin-grape vineyards, 225,000 acres.   Capital invested in vineyards, $80,000,000.
       Wine product for 1890, 18,200,000 gallons; dried wine grapes, 9,000,000 pounds.  Raisin output for the year, 2,000,000 boxes, or 40,000,000 pounds.  Prune crop for the year, 15,000,000 pounds.  Green fruits shipped East in 1880, 5,180,000 pounds; in 1890, 105,000,000 pounds.  Dried fruits shipped East in 1880, 590,000 pounds; in 1890, 66,318,000 pounds.  Value of cereal, hay and root crops in 1890, $70,000,000.  Oranges shipped East, 1889 - '90, 3,187 car-loads; crop, 1890 - '91, 4,000 car-loads.
       Number of farm animals in the State, 6,063,440; total value, $57,771,280.  Bean crop, 1890, 1,000,000 centals.  Honey product for 1890, 6,000,000 pounds.  Average annual wool product, 35,000,000 pounds.  Average annual barley product, 16,000,000 bushels. Hops consumed and shipped, 40,000 bales.  Wheat crop, 1890, 27,000,000 centals; exports, 13,266,409 centals, valued at $17,600,00.  Flour exported in 1890, 1,201,304  barrels, valued at $4,899,000.
        Public school expenditures in 1890, $5,119,096; increase over 1889, $1,057,779.  Number of children attending school in 1890, 198,960.Securitiesin school fund, 1890, $3,268.350.  Total Value of school property, 1890, $13,624,143; increase since 1888, $3,060,363.

"WONDERFUL"

 
      The reader who has not traveled over California, spent months in various portions of the State, and noted the wonderful products, may question our term, "wonderful," as applied to the golden member of the great American Union.  We will therefore itemize a few among the many just grounds we have for calling California "wonderful."
      The width of the State on the north end is 216 miles; extreme extension from west to east, 352 miles; average width about 235 miles; extension from north to south, 655 miles.  A direct line from the northwest corner of the State to Fort Yuma, being the longest line in the State, is 830 miles; a direct line from San Francisco to Los Angeles is 342 miles; from San Francisco to San Diego, 451 miles.  San Diego lies 350 miles south and 285 miles east of San Francisco.  Los Angeles lies 258 miles south and 225 miles east of San Francisco.  Cape Mendocino, the most westerly point in the State, is ninety-six miles west and 185 miles north of San Francisco.
        California has an area of 157,801 square miles, or 100,992,640 acres, of which 80,000,000 acres are suited to some kind of profitable husbandry.  It is three and one-half times as large as the State of new York, which according to the census of 1890 has a population of 5,981,934.  California will make five States the size of Kentucky, which has a population of 1,855,436.  It will make twenty-four States the size of Massachusetts, which has a population of 2,233,407.  It has an area 144 times as great as Rhode Island.  It is four-fifths the size of Austria, and nearly as large as France, each having a population of more than 36,000,000.  It is nearly double the size of Italy, which has a population of more than 27,000,000; and it is one and one-half times greater than Great Britain and Ireland, having a population of more than 32,000,000.  California's areas of climate, salubriousness and degrees of temperature, as well as the general proportions thereof, are in striking contrast to the area and fertility of her soil.
       She has the largest valley in the world; and when we make this assertion we mean to define a valley by boundaries of hills or mountains, and not as extensive plains bordering on immense streams, such as the vast expanse of level land along the Mississippi river, or the great body of low lands along the Amazon river in South America.  The valley wonder of California we will reserve for special treatise further on in this work.
       California has the highest elevation of land in the United States, the grandest mountain scenery in America, and not surpassed, if equalled, by any in the world.  She has a longer range of mountain heights, extending up into the regions of perpetual snow, than has any country of like area in the united States.  She has some of the most beautiful, grand and picturesque valleys on earth.  She has the wonder of the world in timber growth, the mighty Sequoia or redwood trees, some of which are thirty-six feet in diameter and tower heavenward all of 400 feet.  California has more of the valuable metals than any other like area of earth known to man.
        California has a greater variety of and a better climate than all other countries combined.  The statement as to climate is difficult to define or explain.  The writer desires to be understood as desiring to convey the idea of the wonderful variety of climate, difference of temperature, etc., to be found within a radius of a few miles from a given point, and the peculiar sensation produced by the approaching shades of evening following the warm, sunny day. And here it is in place to state that California has more bright, delightful days than any other State in the Union.  She can also boast of a greater share of sea-coast line than can any other State.  She produces nearly all kinds of fruits and vegetables that other States produce, and a great many which others cannot.  She can point with pride to the best wheat produced in the world.  She also possesses the two largest observatories in the world.  There is but one California in all the world, and the world is beginning to recognize that fact.
        The above statements were made by the late Governor Waterman, a few years since, and thousands can testify that he was right. There is but one California in the whole world, and so far as the western hemisphere is concerned there is no other State or country at all like it or comparable with it.  That we may not be accused of speaking in an unduly boastful manner of California, at the outset we will concede that other States and other countries in the western world may possess certain points of superiority over California, yet the fact remains the same, - that California is at least unlike any other country under the sun.
      In point of geographical extent California is a great state.  The area and proportions as to other States and countries having been stated, we will further say that California is a "hill country," so that not all of her vast area can be classed as arable until such time as her population shall press upon her productive powers for their sustenance much harder than they are likely to for some generations to come; but in time there is little doubt that even her steep mountain sides will be called upon to contribute their share to the sustenance of the State's great family, and will respond more generously than people now deem possible.  Were one to ascend Mount Hamilton, and set the great Lick telescope to a terrestrial rather than a celestial gaze, and with it survey the State from Shasta to San Diego, he would perceive that of a truth California is a hilly country. The state is deeply cleft longitudinally by its great interior valley, the valley of the Sacramento sweeping grandly northward to Shasta's feet, and that of the San Joaquin southward to Tehachapi.  All else seen by the observer would be mountains, though many broad and fertile valleys lie hidden between them - mountains arranged in mighty chains in scattered groups, detached spurs, and lone sentinels; mountains piled peak upon peak, until their snowy summits pierce heaven's dome; and mountains decapitated and leveled off into arable plateaus; rock-ribbed mountains ragged and desolate as icebergs, and mountains whose outlines are curved as gracefully as the rainbows and whose sides are clad in a vesture reflecting all the rainbow's colors.
      In beauty and grandeur of natural scenery California is not excelled by any country in the world.  Her waterfalls are highest; her mountain valleys are cut deepest; her lakes, though small, are gems of purest ray placed in most gorgeous settings; her precipices are most abrupt  and present largest surfaces to the view.
     Nor are her climatic conditions less varied than her scenery.  She has within her borders all the climates of the five zones, and often within plain view of each other.  Her thermal belts are frostless, her valleys temperate, her deserts torrid and her mountain summits are wrapped in perpetual snow.  She has large areas as rainless as Egypt, and other sections where the rain is measured by the foot rather than by the inch.  In portions of the State snow is never seen nearer than the distant mountaintops, while in other parts only the tops of the trees are visible above the downy covering.
      But it is not in her great geographical extent, nor yet in her varied and most picturesque scenery, that California takes most pride.  She is proudest of her great diversity of climatic conditions and the corresponding diversity of production which her climate permits.  What Italy and Switzerland are to Europe, and more, California will be to the Western world.  Her mission is that of a ministering angel to all her sister States; she will heal their sick, supply their tables with all the choicest delicacies of all climes and seasons; she will become the pleasure grounds of the nation and the sanitarium of the world.  Busy men, their tasks completed, will fly to California to spend in stormless peace their declining years.  Students will seek her salubrious climate to study, artists to gather inspirations, and poets to sing their sweetest songs.
      The world demands of each community that of those commodities which are most needful, each shall produce what it can produce best, and commerce is legitimate only when it effects an interchange of such commodities as may be produced with advantage for such as may not.  Other states can produce pork, beef, mutton , wool, as well, perhaps, as California; but where within the Union, if not from California, are her sister States to get their supplies of peaches, prunes, pears, grapes, raisins, almonds, oranges, lemons, limes, figs, pomegranates and olives?  North America furnishes no rival to California in the production of all these delicacies.  She has an easy, natural, legitimate monopoly of them all.  Thus it is that the world shall demand these things of her, and her supply will be ever equal to the demand.  She must first have her large grant ranches divided and subdivided into small tracts, owned by enterprising, industrious workers, who will drive out from their midst the drones who toil not but consume the substance of the industrious.  She must have her many valleys, hillsides and mesas settled upon, planted and cultivated; and when all this is done and well done, California will have become the Empire State of the nation.  This state of affairs will not be long in coming, for "there is but one California in all the world, and the world is beginning to recognize that fact."
      What is the secret of the undeniable, almost indescribable, fascination which is exercised by California upon every one who comes within the reach of her influence?  The permanent resident and the transient visitor alike are subject to that mysterious enchantment.  Why is it that scarcely an individual who remains here for twelve months can be persuaded to shake off the glamour which insensibly steals over him, and return to his old home?  Why is it that, no matter how strong may be the affection once felt for the home of childhood, all that sentiment intensified tenfold is transferred to this far Western land, and that the feeling of loyalty to their adopted home outweighs all national or sectional feeling in the hearts of the people of this State and makes them above all else Californians?
      Here is gathered a more cosmopolitan population than can be found in any other part of the world.  Every State in the Union is here represented.  Every province in British America; every one of the Central and South American countries; every country in Europe and Asia, Africa, Australia and the uttermost isles of the sea, is represented, - American and Englishman, German and Frenchman, Greek and Russian, Spaniard and Portuguese, Italian and Austrian, Hungarian and Pole, Dane and Swede, Armenian and Slavonian, Alaskan and Mexican, Canadian and Brazilian, Chilean and Sonoranian, Hawaiian and Samoan, Chinese and Japanese, Malay and Indian, Persian and Arabian, - white, black, red and yellow, and all the intermingling shades, - all live here side by side, and all are imbued with the same common sentiment which makes them Californians, no matter from what source they have originally sprung.  That such a conglomerate mass from all nations of the earth should live contentedly here in the closest juxtaposition speaks marvelously well, both for the laws and institutions of the country as well as for the attractions for this particular portion of the universe.  With the single exception of the Chinese, few of these people, after having passed a year here, can be persuaded to return to their old homes.  They may have come in the first place with the intention of remaining but a short time, but as the years roll round the sentiment of affection grows stronger and stronger, until finally nothing but the scythe of the Reaper proves sufficient to sever the ties that have become so powerful.  Occasionally, it is true, the memories of old home become so strong that one returns thither, filled with the determination to remain, but a short stay is usually sufficient, and almost before his absence has been noted he is back again.  "California is good enough for me," is the universal conclusion of every one who has lived here for any length of time, and who by any means is persuaded to pay a visit to his previous home, no matter in what part of the world it may be.
       While in other portions of the United States there is a constant change in progress, a continual going and coming, a departure of discouraged people for other localities, and an arrival of those who hope to be satisfied, nothing of the sort is seen here, so far at least as regards the departure of the old settlers.  Since the subsidence of the gold-mining excitement, in the days when men came to the State simply to "make their pile" and get home as quickly as possible, there has been practically no emigration of the people who have once settled there.  Let the reader, if he be an old Californian, cast about in his circle of acquaintances and note how few if any have ever gone back East and remained there.  It is no doubt true that such instances do occasionally occur, but in the majority of cases a single writer's experience has been sufficient to drive them back again to the Pacific coast.  As a rule, people who remain in California for a year remain for a lifetime.  They are never so well satisfied anywhere else.  Having once fallen under the influence of the climate, the scenery, the manners and customs of California, they feel lost anywhere else, and are unable to accommodate themselves to other circumstances.
      For the person who has never had the good fortune to visit the Pacific coast, California has too, a charm of a forceful though perhaps indefinable character.  Such was the case with the writer previous to coming to California.  From the time the first Americans crossed the plains or sailed around the Horn and returned with their marvelous tales of the sunny land, there has been a glamour cast over the very name of California which has caused hundreds of thousands to look this way with longing eyes and to regard a trip hither as the consummation of one of their warmest desires.  The stories of the earliest explorers, the journals of Fremont and his contemporaries, the experiences of the gold hunters, told in book, magazine and newspaper, in prose and poetry; the quaint records of the missions; the marvelous discoveries of scenery, the grandest the world knows; the genial climate, without a parallel elsewhere; the wonderful development of resources, shown in the fact that California is rapidly becoming the orchard and the vineyard of the world, - all these and numerous other reasons have given to the State an attractiveness that is felt the world over, and is well nigh irresistible to any one who has been so fortunate as to have been placed within its influence.
      While acknowledging the strength of the fascination which California exerts upon all within her reach, few seem to consider of what that influence is composed.  Each individual has his own idea on the subject, and the feature that appeals most strongly to the individual imagination becomes in his opinion the principal claim to distinction.  Each writer follows  his own particular bent, and too frequently in so doing is led away by enthusiasm and by those features which appeal most strongly to him, and so does not do justice to other particulars which to the impartial judge are fully as deserving of notice.  Another difficulty is that a great portion of the information furnished for Eastern and foreign readers is the work of visitors who pass at the most but a few months in the State, hastily skim over the surface, visiting a few of the principal cities and towns on the main line of railroad, and then set down their necessarily superficial observations as indisputable facts.  If there is any part of the world more than another which needs persistent study and investigation in order to acquire perfect knowledge concerning all its salient features, that part is certainly California.
       It is a region of contradictions.  Two perfectly impartial travelers may traverse the State and faithfully report their experience and impressions, yet one would never for a moment suspect that they were both writing of the same country, so entirely different in every detail would be their statements.  Thus, one might write of California as a region of snow and ice.  He might with perfect truth tell of railroads inclosed for miles with massive structures which resemble tunnels dug through the snow.  He might with equal propriety and truthfulness tell of two-story buildings so completely hidden by snow that their very existence would not be apparent to the stranger.  He could tell of snow slides which have wiped towns out of existence, and by the side of which the avalanche of the Alps sinks into insignificance.  He could with truth complain of railroad travel suspended for weeks despite all the efforts of thousands of men, aided by the best and most powerful steam machinery known to modern ingenuity.  He could, in fact, draw such a picture of Arctic California as would make even an Esquiman shudder.  On the other hand, another traveler, writing upon the self-same day, could with equal truth tell of a journey in which the utmost discomfort was suffered from heat and thirst.  He could tell of traveling vast stretches where the quivering heat actually sears the eyeballs, where the water supply becomes lower and lower, until exhausted; where one would give his right arm for but a single draught of the precious fluid, and where, failing it, more than one poor wretch has either lain down to die or has had the nerve to place the muzzle of a pistol to his tortured brain and pull the trigger that released him from the burning torture.  And still another traveler might on the same day, write truthfully and give the reader a pen-picture of the most sublime region and clime ever invaded by man.  He could tell of hill and plain carpeted with the most lovely flowers that the eye ever rested upon; billows of gold and blue, pink and white, stretching in every direction.  Also of orange groves, their dark green foliage intermingled with the golden fruit - golden in a double sense; the atmosphere heavy with the odor of blossoms, the drone of bees humming in his ears.  He might, indeed, with truth claim to have found Tennysons's "Land of the Afternoon" realized in every detail.
      Contradictory as all this may sound, nevertheless it might all be written with equal truth at one and the same time.  Indeed, these seeming impossibilities and contradictions might be carried much further, until the reader were entangled in a mass of apparent paradoxes absolutely appalling.  It is from this fact of so many having written about California from a single standpoint, and because there is such a vast amount of new information afloat upon the subject, that we propose to consider the various attractions of the State and to treat each as fairly, dispassionately and fully as the space in this volume will permit.  This brief description is not from the hands of a casual traveler, with an acquaintance of a few months at the most, but rather from one who has for many years studied every feature of this wonderful State; and who is thoroughly familiar with it from the Mexican to the Oregon line, and from the ocean sands to the eastern slope of the Sierra; who has no feeling of prejudice for one section more than another, but whose love for California as a whole is as warm as such a sentiment can possibly be.  Whether the task shall have been faithfully performed, the reader must judge.  One thing may be accepted  as certain, namely, that no statements are made, no matter how startling or apparently contradictory, that are not susceptible of the most ample demonstration.  Many things will possibly appear to the uninitiated like reversals of what are supposed to be the immutable laws of nature.  Yet the accuracy of these statements will be conceded by all the old Californians and those acquainted with the facts.  The sole purpose here is to give the truth, and nothing but the truth, devoid of exaggeration in every detail.  No friend of California need fear the facts or desire to suppress any of them.  California is so far superior to any other part of the world that the worst of her drawbacks become almost advantages, and indeed in many instances they are truthfully so, as we will endeavor to show.
       The attractions of California are of a varied character.  Whether one touches the history, the climate, the scenery, or the development by artificial means, he finds so much to admire and wonder at that it requires a long period of investigation and familiarity before an adequate conception can be formed of their real immensity.  The historical features of the State have been so fully dealt with by many able writers that little is left to be said.  Yet we will draw from the many, at the same time realizing that there are certain phases of this feature of attractions that are of the highest interest, because too frequently neglected.  What may be called the prehistoric history of this State affords rare opportunities for study, - opportunities that are all too much neglected, and are indeed rapidly passing away.  The rock inscriptions of the coast, the Sierra and the desert should be transcribed, and so far as possible translated.  That they were made with a definite purpose and have a distinctive meaning, no one who has seen them can doubt.  George W. Stewart, a promising young writer, editor of the  Delta, at Visalia, Tulare County, is deeply interested in preserving the above historic matter, and is now engaged in gathering such inscriptions as his time will permit.  The cliff dwellings and mounds of the desert and of the grand canon of the Colorado are certainly worthy of investigation, while in the folk-lore and traditions of the remnants of the Indian tribes which once densely populated the coast there is a mine for investigation of unsurpassed interest of which, if much longer delayed, all traces will be obliterated, for soon the last of the aborigines will have passed away.  The origin of those tribes themselves opens another broad field.  Types can be selected from the Indian tribes and from the Chinese residents of this coast which, placed side by side, are so similar in every respect as to be startling.  Notably is this so with the Indians of Southern California.  Individuals can be found in those tribes, who, except for peculiarities of dress and mode of wearing their hair, resemble in every feature the Chinese, while on the other hand Chinese are frequently seen who compare in every detail of feature with the Indians.  Yet with all this racial resemblance, no more cordial and reciprocal hatred can be conceived than that which exists between the two peoples.
       But it is not the purpose of this work to go into the historical attractions of California, numerous and interesting though they be.  The climate. scenery and notable physical characteristics of the State, are all we can take under consideration here, and only the most salient features are widely known, and, therefore, we will give more detail to some not so well understood.  The unbeaten paths will be necessarily followed to some extent, and an effort made to show that there are many attractive features which are as yet unknown, or familiar to but few at most.

THE ARGONAUTS

 
 
      During the period of gold excitement, men came hither from every portion of the known world; but come from wheresoever they might, they had to learn life over again.  The experience of other climes availed them little, for here they found new conditions of soil, of climate, and of production, totally at variance with all that they had ever before met with or heard of.  Consequently it is not to be wondered at, that the Argonauts were slow in developing and bringing into prominence other than the mining resources of the State. 
       And even now, after forty years have come and gone, it may be frankly admitted that what has been accomplished in other fields of enterprise scarcely more than suffices to reveal to the more far-seeing the limitless possibilities of the future.  The Argonautic era has passed.  The forty years' sojourn in the wilderness has practically ended.  Californians have found, and are now rejoicing in, the promised land, and have entered into their inheritance; and right busy are they now, planting their vines and fig trees, and making for themselves such homes as are possible in no other land.
       But it should not be thought that all the years spent in the wilderness of California's early history were joyless or profitless.  Once setting foot on the soil of California, the Argonauts encountered no such hardships as did the Pilgrim fathers, the Jamestown colonists, the pioneers of the interior "West," or those later but equally resolute and patriotic heroes who shouldered their rifles and went into the territory of Kansas to prevent slavery from obtaining a foothold there.  true, the journey across the plains was wearisome, and not without its dangers, and the voyage around Cape Horn or by way of the Isthmus was not looked upon as a pleasure trip; but once upon the western slope of the Sierras, the pioneers' hardships were ended.  They found themselves in what seemed a perpetual summer land.  No rigors of climate were to be contended with, no forests were to be cleared away before planting, no incorrigible prairie sod was to be pounded into subordination; and no insidious miasmas to strike him down unawares.  Even the primitive savage dwelt with him in comparative harmony, and forebore to lift his scalp except upon extraordinary occasions, while the pioneers of other States were forever at war with the red men.
      Moreover, the pioneers of other States gave up all they held dearest-and-went into the wilderness in search of liberty, of homes for those dependent upon them, or waged war against savage elements, and more savage men, for the sake of some principle for which, if need be, they were willing to lay down their lives.  The Argonauts were in search of gold, and for gold only.  Their highest ambition was to make their "pile," go back to the "States," and live like lords, the envy perhaps of less enterprising neighbors.
       We are not disposed to speak disparagingly of the "Forty-niners."  On the contrary we will say that it may go down to coming generations that no more hardy, resolute, or capable set of men than they figure in the history of any country; there was no obstacle too great for them to surmount.  They revolutionized the mining industry of the world, created a new department of jurisprudence, made rivers to flow backward, leveled down mountains, and burrowed so far into the interior of the earth that the hiss and roar of the infernal regions resounded through their tunnels.  Granting that all this was done for the love of gold, do not the human race the world over seek it just as madly in divers ways? and what they sought they found, and the pity is that all who found did not keep what they found, for many who, to use a mining phrase, "struck it rich," ventured again, lost, and lived and died poor.
       But it was characteristic of the Forty-niner never to give up, never complain, never abandon hope, always looking hopefully to the morrow, confident that a fortune was in store for him, never complaining of ill luck, nor abandoning his quest until death took him off the track.  The world is, and especially are the people of California, much better and richer for the Argonauts having lived.  Columbus, while seeking a western passage to the East Indies, blundered upon a continent, for which the world will never cease to sing him praises, and yet Columbus failed to find that which he sought.  So that the California Argonauts, though more fortunate than Columbus, inasmuch as they did find gold, trebling the world's product of that precious commodity, also "builded better than they knew."  They not only made their country rich enough to destroy human slavery, and to form a yet "more perfect union," but they gave to the greatest nation on the globe what will yet become the greatest, most populous, richest and happiest commonwealth in that nation.  And should the mere fact that such was not their aim detract from their fame more than from that of Columbus or other fortunate blunderers into worldly fame?

Transcribed by Sally Kaleta

 

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