ern horizon.
FERRIS, 76.1 m. (1,500 alt., 1,011 pop.), is the trade center for
Ferris Valley, and a shipping point for forage crops, potatoes, deciduous
fruits, and dairy and poultry products. The town also draws con-
siderable trade from the Good Hope mining district (see below).
Left from Ferris on State 74 to HEMET, 16.9 m. (1,600 alt., 2,595 pop.),
in the country that formed the setting for Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona.
The town is surrounded by the orchards, grain fields, and poultry ranches of
the San Jacinto Valley. Every spring (about May /) the towns of Hemet and
San Jacinto dramatize the story of Ramona in the Ramona Bowl (see below).
In the afternoon and early evening of the three Saturdays preceding the play,
Hemet stages a municipal fiesta with costume dancing and community singing,
in the Santa Fe Station Square. Turkey raising is an important industry
here, and the Hemet Turkey and State District Fair has been held here
332 LOS ANGELES
annually (Nov.) since 1936. Hemet is a variation of Hemica, name of a
Soboba Indian woman.
At 17.7 ra. on the main side road is a junction with San Jacinto Rd. (State
83) ; L. here 2.6 m. to SAN JACINTO (1,550 alt., 1,356 pop.), hub of a small
agricultural district having many mineral springs. The town was founded in
1872 by Procco Akimo, a Russian exile, who erected the first store in what is
now Old Town. Russians have other connections with the area; three of
them ended the longest (1939) nonstop flight in the history of aviation Mos-
cow to San Jacinto Valley on July 8, 1937, in a cow pasture three miles west
of the town. The townsite was laid out by H. T. Hewitt, for whom Hewitt
Street was named. On this street formerly stood the Palma House, with its
hitching rack from which Juan Diego took the horse of Sam Temple, who
retaliated by shooting the Indian. Mrs. Jackson calls Diego, Alessandro, and
Temple, Jim Farrar, and makes the shooting the climax of her story.
Across the street from the Palma House was the brick house of Mrs. J. C.
Jordan, with whom Mrs. Jackson lived while gathering material for Ramona.
All that remains of the place today, which was referred to in the book as
Aunt Ri's Cabin, is the milkhouse. In answer to other California areas,
claiming to be the Ramona setting, people of this section point to the docket
of the San Jacinto justice court, recording the shooting of Juan Diego, the
Indian, under circumstances that are little changed in the book; a letter from
Dr. H. G. Hewitt, of Santa Rosa, Calif., to the publisher of the Hemet News,
relating how Temple rode out one day with Hewitt's shotgun, and returned
with the tale of having shot the Indian who had stolen his horse; and an
interview given to the Hemet Neivs by Mrs. Jordan a few years before her
death in which she substantiated many of the incidents of the book.
In the foothills rising at San Jacinto's eastern boundary is the SOBOBA
(Ind., warm place) INDIAN RESERVATION, last refuge of the 127 survivors
of the Soboba, a branch of the Cahuilla that once inhabitated this region in large
numbers. Many of the reservation Indians work in neighboring towns, and as
seasonal harvest hands on ranches and farms. The women weave baskets
for sale to tourists. In SOBOBA VILLAGE is the Indian school, to which the first
Indian teacher employed by the United States was assigned in 1880. According
to Indian legend, MASSACRE CANYON, in the mountains southwest of the village,
was the scene of a savage battle in pre-Spanish days. The fighting, which
started over a cache of grain, continued for a day till the Temecula drove the
Ivah to the edge of a steep cliff, and slaughtered all who did not jump.
Along the base of the San Jacinto Mountains are several mineral springs,
believed to have healing properties.
At 17.9 m. on the main side road (State 74) is a junction with Girard St.;
R. here 2.4 m. to RAMONA BOWL, in the San Jacinto foothills in which the
Ramona Pageant has been presented annually since 1923 (2 performances each
weekend for 3 weeks; usually in April-May; adm. 50$ and $/). The huge, dis-
torted rock masses, on the slopes that form the natural amphitheater, are the
result of volcanic action. No actual stage is used, the action taking place
on the boulder-strewn mountainside opposite the concrete tiered seating section
(6,000 capacity), and on the front porch of a replica of the Camulos ranch
house, the hacienda of the Moreno family mentioned in the novel.
At 20.6 m. is the site of an ancient INDIAN VILLAGE. A series of flat rocks,
punctuated with metate grinding holes, is the only remaining evidence of the
prehistoric community. Because Cahuiilas lived in this area, it is considered
probable that the village site was the home of some related tribe.
Southwest of Ferris US 395 proceeds through a region of broken
volcanic hills (R) along the base of STEELE PEAK (2,528 alt.).
GOODHOPE, 80.5 m. (1,550 alt., 150 est. pop.), is a trade center
for a gold-mining district within a radius of four or five miles. The
settlement takes its name from the Goodhope Mine, now inactive,
which in the i88o's yielded one million dollars' worth of gold ore.
TOUR 3 333
ELSINORE, 88 m. (1,300 alt., 1,552 pop.), on the northern
shore of Lake Elsinore, is a residential and resort city noted for its
mineral springs. Natural hot sulphur water is piped to every home in
the city through a municipally operated water system. The medicinal
springs are known as the Seven Health Waters and are said to have
therapeutic value in the treatment of rheumatism, liver, and kidney
ailments.
The contiguous area is a rich fruit district, checkerboarded with
orchards, citrus groves, and vineyards.
LAKE ELSINORE, extending from the town's western edge to the
foot of the Santa Ana and Elsinore Mountains, is the center of the
district's water-sport activities, and the scene of periodic regattas. The
lake is fed by waters from the San Jacinto Mountains. A part of this
run-off is impounded in Hemet Reservoir, southeast of Hemet, the bal-
ance flows down the San Jacinto River and empties here. After heavy
rainy seasons, Lake Elsinore is more than a mile wide, four miles long,
and 15 feet deep; during protracted periods of meager run-off the lake
contracts by evaporation to little more than a smelly pond, with reed-
grown marshy borders.
The town and lake are named for the fortified seaport of Elsinore
in Zeeland Island, Denmark, scene of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Juan
Machado, native Calif ornian grantee of the I2,ooo-acre ranch on which
the city was established, died believing that the Americanos had named
their town "El Senor" in his honor.
Southwest (straight ahead) on Main St. (US 395) to Graham
Ave. ; R. on Graham Ave. (State 71-74).
The, former SUMMER HOME OF AIMEE SEMPLE MCPHERSON
(private}, 88.7 m., the Los Angeles evangelist, is a white Moorish-type
building overlooking Lake Elsinore from a knoll in the Clevlin Hills
(R).
At 91.2 m. State 74 branches L. ; the route goes R. on State 71.
ALBERHILL, 94 m. (1,320 alt., 200 est. pop.), at the mouth of
Temescal (Ind., sweat bath) Canyon, is the trade center for an ex-
tensive pottery-clay mining and brick and tile manufacturing district.
The best quality and largest variety of clays in California for the
manufacture of pottery, brick, tile, and heavy-duty dishes are found
here. The workings consist of pits, 50 to 75 feet deep, in the perpen-
dicular walls of which are exposed strata of lignite and vari-colored
clays, in vertical beds of blue, white, red, and pink. Between 90,000
and 100,000 tons of clay are mined annually, and about 50 tons of coal
a year. Most of the latter is used as fuel by the Mexican pit and kiln
workers.
At 11.5 m. is a junction with Coldwater Canyon Rd.
Left here to GLEN IVY HOT SPRINGS (rates nominal}, 0.7 m., a privately
operated resort at the mouth of Coldwater Canyon in the Santa Ana Moun-
tains. The waters are basically sulphurous, have a maximum temperature of
103, and are claimed to have curative properties. For these springs, used by
the Indians for bathing purposes, the main canyon was named Temescal (set
334 LOS ANGELES
above). Relics of former Indian occupation, found in the hotel grounds, have
been assembled into a small INDIAN MUSEUM (open 8-6; free), in which stone
bowls, metates, and other primitive utensils for preparing food are displayed.
In a copse of pepper trees (L), at 101.7 m., is the SERRANO ME-
MORIAL, a boulder with bronze plaque marking the site of the first
house in Riverside County, built about 1824 by Leandro Serrano, the
son of a Spanish soldier.
A weather-worn stretch of adobe wall (R) is all that remains of
the TEMESCAL CANYON BUTTERFIELD STAGE STATION, 105.9 m.
The smooth concrete of State 71 winding up Temescal Canyon
northwest of the Serrano Memorial bears little resemblance to the
rutty dusty trail followed by John Butterfield's lumbering stages from
1858 to 1861. The first stage left Tipton, Missouri, on September 15,
1858, and arrived in Los Angeles on October 7. Though overland
stage service was moved to a route through Wyoming after operating
only three years, the Butterfield stages established the route later used
by the Wells Fargo Stage and Express Company.
From its eastern terminus in St. Louis, Missouri, the route ran
through Fort Smith, Arkansas; El Paso, Texas; and Tucson and
Yuma, Arizona. In California it crossed Imperial County to a station
at Warner Hot Springs and another near Temecula, then roughly
paralleled today's US 395 and State 71 northwestward, through Temes-
cal Canyon, past the site of Corona, to a junction with the old Los
Angeles and San Bernardino Road.
Operation of the line required 100 coaches, 1,000 horses, 500 mules,
and 800 men. Advertisements in the East warned of attack from
Indians: "Fare $200 in gold. Passengers are advised to- provide
themselves with a Sharp's rifle and one hundred rounds of ammuni-
tion . . . Twenty-four days of travel in our luxurious stages and you
will arrive in the 'Land of Gold'."
At 106.3 m. is a junction with Cajalco Canyon Rd.
Right here to CAJALCO DAM AND RESERVOIR, 5 m., terminus of the
Colorado River Aqueduct (see Tour 2). The reservoir contains 225,000 acre-
feet of water and is the largest man-made lake in California.
At 13 m. is a junction with a dirt road. Left on this is lonely MOCKINGBIRD
CANYON, named for one of the most numerous and most interesting songbirds
in the West. The mocker is found almost everywhere throughout the southern
part of the state, wanders as far north as the San Francisco Bay counties in
the winter, and even makes parts of the Mojave Desert his habitat. Under a
provision of state fish and game regulations he is protected as a non-game
bird, and valued for his destruction of insects.
The western mockingbird is a subspecies of the Mimus polyglottos (Lat.,
mimic of many voices) found throughout the southern half of the United
States and south to Panama and the West Indies. He is about the size of a
robin, but more slender, leggy, long-tailed, and flashy. He is slate-gray in
color, with darker wings and tail that show much white when he flies; a
large circular white patch in the middle of each wing resolves itself into two
parallel bars and a splotch when the wing is folded. Characteristic of the
bird is his odd but graceful habit of pausing at intervals, when running along
the ground, to lift his wings in two or three tense little jerks, holding them
full-spread for a moment before he folds them back and darts on.
TOUR 3 335
Although the voice of the mockingbird is heard throughout the year, the
night-singing for which he is famous occurs only during the full-song season
in spring and summer. Some mockers, doing comparatively little mocking,
use much of their own song a loud, brilliant, richly varied series of flute-like
trills and whistles. It is unlikely that the mocker can imitate other sounds
beside birdcalls, for those commonly heard do not even render the calls of
some wild birds well enough to fool the careful listener. The farmer who
thinks he hears his young chickens cheeping at night, or the bird student who
thinks he hears the song of the oriole or the yellow warbler, need listen only
a moment and the bird will give himself away by an interval of his own
pure, rollicking song.
When singing at the top of a tree or telegraph pole, the mocker often
leaps three or four feet in the air while delivering a volley of liquid notes,
settling again on his post in a flurry of wings without interrupting his song.
Occasionally a mocker will flutter downward from a high perch like a falling
leaf, singing as he goes; near the ground he catches himself and flies off,
trailing a floating wisp of song over back yards or orchard treetops. This
rarely-seen performance is known to naturalists as his dropping song.
Two birds which occur in the western mockingbird's range one his close
cousin and the other a nestling-killing enemy are sometimes confused with
the mocker, one in voice and the other in appearance. The mocker's relative,
the California thrasher a big brown bush bird with a downward-curving
beak often imitates the calls of jays, woodpeckers and valley quail in a rich,
sweet voice sometimes mistaken for that of the mocker. The northern shrike or
butcherbird, which the novice can scarcely distinguish from the mocker even at
close range, has darker wings and tail, a stockier body, and a sharp hook at
the tip of his beak with which he tears at his prey.
Mockingbirds breed in April and again in June. Four or five pale green
eggs are laid each time in a nest constructed loosely of coarse grass, twigs,
and various kinds of trash. The birds are bold and noisy in guarding their
nests, attacking human beings, dogs, and cats as well as other birds who
venture near. Cats are particularly good sport: the mocker will sight one
crossing an open space in the yard, leave the tree with a bursting, piercing
note which slides into a long skurring or chuzzing sound as he sails down
and nips the cat's back, sometimes hovering in the air, dodging back and
forth like a bucking kite as he delivers repeated blows that send the animal
scurrying. Some of the nestlings fall out of the crudely-constructed nest while
still naked and die instantly; the young birds have a bad habit of coming
off the nest too soon, probably because their legs become long and strong at a
very early age. At nine or ten days after hatching, they will be fully
feathered, amazingly active on their legs, but unable to fly. They hop out
of the nest and tumble to the ground, where they squeal while the parents
flutter helplessly about, squalling their excitement, attracting the attention of
cats and other enemies.
CORONA, 112 m. (615 alt., 8,764 pop.), is in one of the chief
lemon-growing areas of southern California. In the immediate vicinity
are 6,000 acres planted with citrus fruit trees, lemons predominating.
Eight packing houses in Corona handle the crop.
Corona was founded in 1886 as Queen Colony, a name which was
almost immediately changed to South Riverside. A wide circular
boulevard shaded with pepper trees was constructed to surround the
townsite. In 1913 the three-mile circle, paved by that time, was used
for an automobile road race as one of the features of the Admission
Day (September 9) celebration. With Barney Oldfield, Ralph de
Palma, Earl Cooper, and other noted drivers participating, the first
race was such a success that it was repeated the next year before a huge
336 LOS ANGELES
number of spectators. Eddie Rickenbacker was an entry in the 1914
race. The race was a financial failure in 1916 and was not attempted
again.
State 71 follows 6th St., west from Corona.
The ASHCROFT RANCH (R), at 114.1 m. has served as the scene for
a number of motion pictures, being considered a typical Midwestern-
type farm. Scenes for the film State Fair, in which Will Rogers
starred, were made here.
PRADO 115.7 m. (1,500 alt., 2OO pop.), in the eastern mouth
of Santa Ana Canyon, is surrounded by a diversified farming district.
Its population, mostly Mexican, is employed in the manufacture of
pottery, made from Alberhill clays.
At 116.5 m. State 18 branches L. from State 71 ; the route goes L.
on State 18.
SANTA ANA CANYON, 117.8 m., a wide, shallow trough
through the Santa Ana Mountains, gave its name to the hot dry Santa
Ana winds that occasionally sweep the southern California coastal
counties. The winds, originating in the 2,000- and 3,ooo-foot altitudes
of the Mojave Desert, occur only from November to February, and
rarely more than five times a year. Fine sand is carried by the wind
down Cajon Pass, across San Bernardino and Riverside Valleys, and
through Santa Ana Canyon. Velocities vary, but at high speeds sand
is blown as far as Los Angeles, and sometimes in such quantity that the
sun is dimmed and artificial lights required in midafternoon. The
sandstorms occur during periods when the barometer is high over
Nevada and the Mojave Desert and low in the coastal regions.
At 127 m. is a junction with State 14.
Right here, crossing the SANTA ANA RIVER at 0.7 m., to a junction with
Esperanza Rd., 0.9 m.; R. here to RANCHO SANTA ANA BOTANIC GARDENS,
5.5 m. (adm. by card, obtained through advance application; free}. Into the
200 acres of the gardens' rolling, ravine-cut hills it is planned eventually to
compress specimens of all the growths natural to California, including the
redwoods. In 1938, 100,000 of the estimated 200,000 varieties in the state
had already been set out.
The gardens are divided into several units: a five-acre wild-flower nursery
in which 100 different kinds of wild flowers are grown; a herbarium, con-
taining more than 20,000 pressed plant specimens, and collections of seeds
and cones; a propagating nursery; and a cactus and nursery garden. The
latest development is a grove of between 75 and 100 ironwood trees, found
only on Santa Catalina and Santa Cruz Islands. The trees were grown from
seeds gathered on the islands. Projects under way include a fern garden, a
swamp area for plants that flourish in soggy ground, and a palm forest with
200 trees of the variety found near Palm Springs (see Tour 2}.
The Botanic Gardens were created in 1934 under a foundation established
by Mrs. Susana Bixby Bryant in memory of her father, John W. Bixby, one-
time owner of the Rancho Santa Ana. Mrs. Bryant's former country home
on the crest of the ridge is used as the administration building. Property and
endowment are administered by a self-perpetuating board of trustees.
OLIVE, 131.3 m. (200 alt., 510 pop.), a citrus packing and proc-
essing community in the heart of the Valencia orange belt, occupies the
TOUR 3 337
site of Burruel Point, a community founded by sons of Antonio Yorba,
grantee of Rancho Canon de Santa Ana (see Tour 4)-
The modern town was started in the i88o's and called Olive Point,
for orchards planted by the Yorbas. An old inn, which served as a
stage station on the inland route between San Diego, Capistrano, and
Los Angeles, is still standing.
The bank of the Santa Ana River, just north of Olive, was a camp-
ground of the Caspar de Portola Expedition on July 28, 1769. Father
Juan Crespi recorded in his diary that the party "came to the banks of
a river which has a bed of running water about ten varas wide and a
half vara (Sp., 2.8 feet) deep. On its right bank there is a populous
village of Indians, who received us with great friendliness. ... I
called this place the sweet name of Jesus de Los Temblores, because
we experienced here a horrifying earthquake, which was repeated four
times during the day. The river is known to the soldiers as the Santa
Ana."
ANAHEIM, 135.1 m. (150 alt., 11,031 pop.) (see Tour 4).
Points of Interest: Pioneer House, City Park, Madame Helene Modjeska
Statue, and others.
At 136.4 m. is a junction with Firestone Blvd. (State 10) ; R.
from State 18 on this route.
BUENA PARK, 141 m. (76 alt., 1,897 pop.), founded in 1887,
is an agricultural community surrounded by truck and berry gardens,
dairy, and chicken ranches. In recent years a considerable sugar-beet
industry has developed.
NORWALK, 146.5 m. (97 alt., 8,690 pop.), is in a general truck
garden, hay, and dairy region. Many of the town's residents are em-
ployed in the near-by Santa Fe Springs oil field, and in the several small
dependent factories.
Right from Norwalk on Norwalk Blvd. (State 35) to NORWALK STATE
HOSPITAL, 1.3 m. (open daily except Tues. and Fri., 1-3:30 p.m.), in which
annually are treated between 2,400 and 2,500 insane persons and chronic
inebriates.
At 2.4 m., at the intersection of Norwalk Blvd. and Telegraph Rd., is the
center of the SANTA FE SPRINGS OIL FIELD (147 alt., 200 est. pop.).
From this center, locally called Four Corners, clattering oil derricks radiate in
all directions, their heights dwarfing the single row of one-story brick business
buildings.
Although by 1938 production had dwindled to 34,000 barrels daily, this
field ranks as one of the three leading bonanza pools in California. In the
1920*8 it produced as high as 345,000 barrels daily, exceeding even the pro-
ductions of Signal Hill (see Long Beach and Signal Hill} and Huntington
Beach, the other two most valuable areas. Prospecting for oil was attempted
as early as 1865, by the Los Angeles Pioneer Oil Company; explorations with
the crude equipment available at the time failed, and the lease was aban-
doned. Drilling was begun with the spudding in of Meyer No. i well by the
Union Oil Company of California in 1907. The well was drilled to 1,445
feet and abandoned because of collapsed casing. A second well, Meyer No. 2,
drilled in 1908, also was abandoned, this time when a string of tools was
dropped after the hole had reached the 35O-foot level. No further effort was
made until February 1917, at which time the Union Oil Company spudded
338 LOS ANGELES
Meyer No. 3, which, in October 1919, came in as a i5o-barrel producer.
Intensive development of the field, however, did not come until after the
Union-Bell No. i blew in as a 2,soo-barrel gusher in November 1921, and
incontestably established the productivity of the field. A scramble by all
major oil companies, innumerable town-lot drillers, and fly-by-night promoters
followed, and within a year the field was established as one of the richest
pools in petroleum history.
Before the state legislature limited the amount of stock that could be sold
in a well (1923), Santa Fe Springs was a promoters' paradise. Prospects,
gathered by salesmen who were known in the vernacular as "bird dogs," were
hauled to the field in motor busses, and served free lunch in circus tents while
hearing glib stories of the fortunes "made in oil."
After 1923, with its yield of more than 79,000,000 barrels, production gradu-
ally declined, and in 1928 had dropped to only 16,000,000 barrels. In midyear
1928 the field entered upon a second phase; n new strata were tapped, the
deepest at 7,400 feet; seven of these were not even considered possible oil
bearers, until the Wilshire Oil Company on July 26, 1928, penetrated the
Buckbee sands and brought in a 2,ooo-barrel producer. A month later 78 new
wells were drilling in a race for the deep sand levels, and at the close of
1929, 229 wells were going below the original level. The field's production
for 1929 jumped to more than 76,000,000 barrels, an increase of more than
60,000,000 barrels over the 1928 figure. This so glutted the oil market that
it brought about prorating and restrictive regulations.
By the middle of 1930 exhaustion of the new sands brought a decline, and
production has decreased every year since. Up to June i, 1938, Santa Fe
Springs had yielded a total of more than 440,000,000 barrels.
LOS NIETOS (159 alt., 1,240 pop.), 4 m., a farming community at the
northwest edge of the oil field, is named for Rancho Los Nietos. Granted in
1784 by Governor Fages to Jose Manuel Nieto, Rancho Los Nietos embraced
all the land between the Santa Ana and the San Gabriel Rivers from the
mountains to the sea some 300,000 acres.
The DOWNEY ADOBE, 1847 Puente Hills Rd., was the summer home of
John G. Downey, Civil War Governor of California. The adobe has been
modernized and excellently preserved, and is still doing duty as a residence.
DOWNEY, 150.7 m. (116 alt., 12,538 pop.), center of a citrus,
orchard, and dairying district, was named for the governor. Many of
Downey's residents are employed in the factories of the nearby East
Side manufacturing district. The town was platted in 1873.
SOUTHGATE, 155.9 m. (120 alt., 26,945 pop.), lies in the heart