Imperial (195 page)

Otis B. Tout: “Thirty-seven votes were cast, although the town had 800 inhabitants.”—
The First Thirty Years
, p. 174.

Officially registered land transactions of the Clarks as grantees—Loc. cit. Index to Grantees, 1851-1907. On May 19, 1904, Margaret S. Clark is the grantee and the Imperial Town Co. the grantor (Book 10, p. 278). On May 28, 1904, Margaret S. Clark is the grantee and the Imperial Town Co. the grantor (Book 10, p. 139). On September 20, 1902, Wilber Clark is the grantee and the Imperial Town Co. the grantor, in a transaction recorded in Book 10, p. 111. On March 25, 1907, Wilbur (yes, with a
u
) Clark is the grantee and Harry Cross the grantor (Book 8, p. 319). On April 24, 1907, Wilber Clark is the grantee and the Imperial Land (not Town) Co. the grantor in a transaction recorded in Book 10, p. 216.

Hugo de Vries on Imperial: “Like all cities in the west . . .”—
Journal of San Diego History
, vol. XXI, no. 1, p. 38.

“Freight receipts at Imperial . . .”—Tout,
The First Thirty Years,
p. 177.

Description of the Varney brothers’ store in Imperial—ICHSPM photograph, cat. #P92.71.

Hog wealth of Mr. McKim, 1906—
California Cultivator
, vol. XXVI, no. 17 (April 27, 1906), p. 403 (“Queries and Replies”).

“Sharp’s Heading is a cheap wooden structure. . .”—
National Geographic
magazine, 1906 (?), vol. XVIII, no. 1, Arthur P. Davis, Assistant Chief Engineer, “The New Inland Sea (An Account of the Colorado River Break),” p. 41.

De Vries: “I was particularly surprised at the speed with which all kinds of weeds . . .”—
Journal of San Diego History
, same essay, p. 36.

Description of the “submarine”—The old man was Carl Calvert, interviewed in Campo, October 2003. Terrie Petree was present. For a photo of a “submarine” with pipes, see Laflin,
Coachella Valley
, p. 133.

“Cattle and hogs are going forward . . .”—
California Cultivator
, vol. XXVI, no. 14 (April 6, 1906), p. 323 (“News of Country Life in the Golden West”).

Raymond Chandler: “There’s a peculiar thing about money . . .”—
Later Novels and Other Writings
, p. 612 (
The Long Goodbye
, 1953).

Chandler: “I would have stayed in the town where I was born . . .”—Ibid., p. 625.

First edifices of Calexico—Roemer, p. 16.

The Mexican adobe house and surroundings—Archivos album 1, no. 29 AHM/166.1/2 (Mexicali
ca.
1904, adobe house).

Barbara Worth as “the ‘Imperial Daughter’ of the Imperial Valley . . .”—E Clampus Vitus website (narrative by Milford Wayne Donaldson).

Judge Farr on the Imperial Valley’s women: “Most of these are country born and bred . . .”—Op. cit., p. 76.

G. W. McCollum: This individual sat on the Calexico Board of Trustees from 1908 through 1912. In 1909 “there was an opportunity to purchase the hardware store of Geo. W. McCollum at Calexico, a larger business than the one [Anderson and Meyers were] already operating at Holtville.”—After Tout,
The First Thirty Years
, pp. 282, 393.

Acreage of Clark’s property and 1911 title deed—Mr. P., private investigator (see note on restricted names in bibliography). Report of investigation, July 5, 2003. Subject: RESTRICTED, RESTRICTED, Wilber Clark. Page 6, information from 1920 Soundex/Census records.

Edith Karpen’s memories of the Clark ranch—Based on an interview in January 2004. Alice Woodside was present.

“IMPERIAL COUNTY SHOWS RAPID INCREASE . . .”—
Imperial Valley Directory (1912), p. iii (“Our County”).

Tale of Chase Creamery—
California Cultivator
, vol. XXIV, no. 26 (June 30, 1905), p. 611 (“News of Country Life in the Golden West”).

Tale of Imperial Valley Dairymen’s Association and Cardiff Creamery—
California Cultivator
, vol. XXIV, no. 10 (March 10, 1905), p. 227 (“News of Country Life in the Golden West”).

Imperial County Development Agent’s report on butter production, 1916—Imperial County Agricultural Commission papers. A. M. Nelson, Development Agent, Imperial County, El Centro, California “BUTTER PRODUCTION IN IMPERIAL COUNTY.” Page 2 of 2-page typescript (the first page relates to cotton production in the same year and is cited below in the chapter on “Between the Lines”).

Hetzel photo of Milk Producers Association—ICHSPM, photo uncoded as of 2002. I have abbreviated the banner.

Number of Imperial County dairies in 1926—Imperial Valley Directory (1926), p. 357.

Number of Imperial County dairies in 1930—Imperial Valley Directory (1930), p. 361.

Number of Imperial County dairies in 2001—Imperial Valley yellow pages (2001), p. 101.

Footnote: “. . . the growth, peak, and total collapse of the Imperial Valley dairy industry . . .”—Paul Foster reports (2007) (“Imperial Color Commentary”). Paul adds: “Today a typical U.S. dairy operation would have several hundred head, would be milking at least 100 cows daily (most likely more), and would have hired hands supporting a centralized operation with automated feeding and milking systems. As a result, dairy has moved from a hobby activity, where a farmer kept a few cows to provide milk and sell the cream for butter production at the local creamery, to a very high capital investment business combined with a high daily labor expenditure, requiring economies of scale that result in the production of thousands of pounds of milk daily.”

Lack of reference to Wilber Clark as a dairyman in the 1914 Imperial Valley Directory—Page 321. Ditto for the directories of 1924 (p. 99) and 1926 (p. 98).

Otis P. Tout: “USE THE INDICES”—
The First Thirty Years,
p. 7.

I gather that San Diego men are likewise involved.—I gather this because the Imperial Valley Directory (1912) says so on p. ii.

Footnote: Zane Grey: “A seemingly endless arm of the blue sea . . .”—Op. cit., p. 171.

Completion date of the San Diego and Arizona Railroad—Tout,
The First Thirty Years,
p. 358.

Location of Mormon Battalion’s campsite—Farris, p. 13. The place was between Dixieland and Plaster City.

“A siding on the San Diego & Arizona Railway . . .”—Wray, p. 67.

The largest ostrich herd in America—Imperial County Agriculture Commission papers, 1917, p. 2.

“During trading hours the streets are lined . . .”—Farr, p. 281 (Edgar F. Howe).

D. G. Whiting’s ranch—Ibid., p. 64.

“The Poole Place”—Ibid., pp. 53-54.

“A profitable express business has been worked up on the same.”—Ibid., p. 465.

Description of the Valley Cream Company—Ibid., p. 359.

Hugo de Vries on red purslane—
Journal of San Diego History
, vol. XXI, no. 1, p. 36.

Description of Seeley in 1917—Farr, Seeley chapter.

Footnote: Seeley population, 1910 and 1990—Berlo, “Population History Compilation,” p. 437.

“Dixieland was planned . . .”—Tout,
The First Thirty Years,
p. 362.

Customs Service communication: “The latest shipment of opium by this crowd . . .”—N.A.R.A.L. Record Group 36. Records of the U.S. Customs Service. Calexico Customs Office. Incoming Official Correspondence (9L-60). October 15, 1902-March 23, 1916. Box No. 3 of 5: November 1913 to July 1914. Folder “March 1914-July 1914: [
].” Letter to the Deputy Collector in Charge, Calexico, Cal., from John B. E. [illegible], Collector, Office of the Collector, Treasury Department, U.S. Customs Service, Port of Los Angeles, Cal., July 14, 1914, p. 1 of 2. See also: Incoming Correspondence Regarding Smuggling (9L-61). July 25, 1914-May 23, 1922. Box 2 of 2: From May 1914 to May 1922. Folder: May 1916-16 December 1916. Letter from unnamed Mounted Inspector (no signature on carbon), Calexico, Cal., to the Deputy Collector in Charge, Calexico, Cal., August 28, 1916.

Footnote: Death of Steffano—Same as latter folder. Letter from unknown Deputy Collector (signature cut off from carbon), Calexico, Calif., to the Collector of Customs, Los Angeles, Calif., August 28, 1916.

Clark’s absence from Chambers of Commerce listings—Tout,
The First Thirty Years,
p. 194. Very well. From the western edge of El Centro, which in this map resembles a yellow pistol pointing straight upward, to Seeley, I find the following roads running north-south: Clark, which of course attracts my notice but which is far southeast of wherever Mobile could have been, Ferrell, Austin, Forrester, Gullet, which refuses to actually cross S80, Silsbee, which is almost in Seeley, then Bennett, which terminates in the El Centro U.S. Naval Auxiliary Air Facility; finally comes Drew Road. Silsbee has inscribed itself between Bennett and Drew. If the 1912 Dixieland view was drawn at all to scale, then Mobile would seem to have been somewhere between Forrester and Austin. Hoping to magnify my knowledge of this region, I inspect the inset maps of El Centro and Seeley; unfortunately, the former’s westward extremity is Austin, and the latter goes no farther east than Bennett.—What lies between Austin and Bennett on S80? My guess would be: the onetime residence of Clark, Wilber, dairy and vineyard, Mobile, P.O. El Centro.

Listing for the Clarks in 1914—Imperial Valley Directory (1914), p. 76.

Seeley’s cotton gins—Farr, Seeley chapter.

Listing for the Clarks in 1920—Imperial Valley Directory (1920), p. 52; Zollinger-Peterson genealogical reports.

Nice lady at County Assessor’s office—Here is more data from the interesting object she showed me: Map number 9-9, second standard parallel south, right below the Riverside County boundary. There was the ancient beachline of Lake Cahuilla; there was Salton Sea Beach, not to mention the Desert Shores Community District. While the lady at the desk was chatting on the telephone with her niece, whom she called
chiquita,
I discovered that one square of what seemed to be the Torres-Martinez Indian reservation had been crossed out in favor of the Salton Community Services District. Next came the square labeled Oasis Joint Union 1956 (Dixieland-Westmorland x’d over).

“A home, good friends, a fair day’s labor . . .”—Howe and Hall, p. 138.

The Secret of Happy Wives
—
California Cultivator
, vol. LXV, no. 10, September 5, 1925, p. 221.

Elizabeth Clark in 1930—Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1930, Population Schedule, Enumeration District 19-125A(?), Supervisor’s District 15, Sheet 8A, stamped 120, handwritten 6575; image from
ancestry.com
.

“Oh, Harvest Land . . .”—
I.W.W.T.D. and Book
, p. 62 (T.D. and H, “Harvest Land,” before 1923). Needless to say, Wilber Clark would not have had much sympathy for Wobblies. This song, however, seems both apt and apolitical.

42. Mexicali (1904 -1905)

Epigraph: “Mexican lands are entitled to half the water . . .”—
Los Angeles Times
, December 27, 1925, p. B4 (“Selfish interests”).

Baja California’s 47-year rainy spell (which began in 1900)—Whitehead et al., p. 307 (Eduardo Paredes Arellano, Secretaría de Agricultura y Recursos Hidráulicos, Mexicali, “Water, the Most Important Natural Resource for the State of Baja California, Mexico”).

Image of Mexicali main street—ICHSPM photograph, cat. #P94.16.2.

The layout of Mexicali in 1904—AHMM, photo album 1, map in protective sleeve on back cover, “Proprietarios y construcciones en Mexicali, según el censo de 1904,” Dibujo A. Bolio, 1991; CIH UNAM-UABC, p. 177.

Cyanotype of Mrs. Ethel Wellcome’s social, 1906—ICHSPM photograph, cat. #P94.16.2

Plans of the Lower California Development Company
—California Cultivator
, vol. XXIII, no. 14 (August 19, 1904), p. 347 (“News Notes of the Pacific Coast”).

43. The Sweet Young Night (2002)

Epigraph: “But there was always Mexicali . . .”—Waters, pp. 306-7.

“Great wire gates” and “at five minutes to nine began the exodus back to the United States”—Ibid., p. 308.

The nightclub singer’s encounter with the “White Slave Law”—
Gringo Gazette
, March 2003, p. 1 (“Editor’s Note: March 14th Mexicali turns 100 years old.”) “It was all so innocent in those days,” she writes.

Imperial Press and Farmer
, 1903: “The collection of pictures is unlimited . . .”—Vol. II, no. 38 (Imperial, California, Saturday, January 3, 1903), p. 12 (“The World’s Picture Gallery: Sights You Would Travel Miles to See, Are Seen Every Morning in Imperial”).

The spy from Northside in 1835—Richard Henry Dana. See Samuel T. Black, vol. 1, p. 61.

“But there was more in Barbara’s Desert now than pictures woven magically in the air . . .”—Wright, p. 364.

“Not a vulgar greenback . . .”—Waters, loc. cit.

What happened in 1830s San Diego when ladies danced “El Son”—Samuel T. Black, vol. 1, pp. 63-64.

44 . Imperial’s Center (1904 -1907)

Epigraph: “It was with a singular feeling . . .”—Although his book was published in 1911, James
(Wonders of the Colorado Desert)
explicitly dates this observation as having taken place in March 1906.