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Thehistory of the San Fernando Valley from its exploration by the 1769Portola expedition to the annexation of much of it by the City of Los Angeles in 1915 is a story of booms and busts, as cattle ranching, sheep ranching, large-scale wheat farming, and fruit orchards flourished and faded. Throughout its history, settlement in theSan Fernando Valley (usually called simply "The Valley") was shaped by availability of reliable water supplies and by proximity to the major transportation routes through the surrounding mountains.
Before theflood control measures of the 20th century, the location of human settlements in the San Fernando Valley was constrained by two forces: the necessity of avoiding winterfloods and need for year-round water sources to sustain communities through the dry summer and fall months. In winter, torrential downpours over the western-draining watershed of theSan Gabriel Mountains entered the northeast Valley through Big Tujunga Canyon, Little Tujunga Canyon, and Pacoima Canyon. These waters spread over the Valley floor in a series of braidedwashes that was seven miles wide as late as the 1890s,[1] periodically cutting new channels and reusing old ones, before sinking into the gravelly subterraneanreservoir below the eastern Valley and continuing their southward journey underground. Only when the waters encountered the rocky roots of theSanta Monica Mountains were they pushed to the surface where they fed a series oftulemarshes,sloughs, and the sluggish stream that is now theLos Angeles River.[2]
By the time the Spanish conquest ofMexico reachedAlta California in 1769, successive groups ofindigenous peoples, orNative Americans, had inhabited the area for at least 7,000 years.[3] These peoples tended to settle on well-watered and wooded areas at the Valley's margins. TheTongva, who spoke theTongva language, aUto-Aztecan or Shoshonean language, had a series of villages in the southern Valley along or near the river, includingTotongna (near modern-dayCalabasas),Siutcanga (nearEncino; means "place of the oak" inFernandeño) andKawengna (which the Spanish would write asCahuenga; it means "place of the mountain"). In the north-central Valley was an apparently permanent village calledPasakngna (Fernandeño:Paséknga, of unclear etymology), in the lower foothills of the mountains near natural springs and a tule marsh. Other characteristic place-names of Tongva origin in the Valley includeTujunga (Fernandeño:tuxunga, which means "place of the old woman") andTopanga (in Tongva,Topaa’nga, and in Fernandeño,Tupá’nga, with a roottopaa’-/tupá’- that likely comes fromVentureño).[4] TheTataviam were established in the valleys to the north;Pacoima (Fernandeño:pakoinga orpakɨynga) is believed to be ofTataviam-Fernandeño people'sTataviam language origin and meansthe entrance in the Fernandeño dialect.[3][5][6][7]
TheHokan-speakingChumash people inhabitedMalibu, theSanta Monica Mountains, and theSimi Hills in the western area of the Valley, and much of the coastal areas to the northwest. AtBell Creek below the rocky outcropping called Escorpión Peak (Castle Peak), Chumashpictographs and other artifacts have been identified by archeologists at a site, Hu'wam, which is thought to have been a meeting place and trading center for theTongva-Fernandeño andChumash-Venturaño.[8][9][10] In theSimi Hills theBurro Flats Painted Cave pictographs are located on Rocketdyne'sSanta Susana Field Laboratory property, inaccessible but well protected. TheTataviam-Fernandeño people inhabited the foothills of theSanta Susana Mountains in the Valley (and north in theSanta Clara River area).[10] TheTongva-Fernandeño inhabited the Valley, along the tributaries to theLos Angeles River.[10]
In 1769, theexpedition led by explorerGaspar de Portolà reached the Los Angeles area of California overland fromBaja California. Accompanying him were twoFranciscan Padres,Junípero Serra andJuan Crespí, who recorded the expedition and identified locations for a proposed network ofmissions, along which theroyal highway (El Camino Real) was eventually built.
After camping at and naming the location that would become thePueblo de Los Angeles, the expedition proceeded westward before turning north through theSepulveda Pass over theSanta Monica Mountains on the feast day ofSaint Catherine of Bologna.[11]
We saw a very pleasant and spacious valley. We descended to it and stopped close to a watering place, which is a large pool. Near it we found a village of heathen, very friendly and docile. We gave to this plain the name ofSanta Catalina de Bononia de Los Encinos. It has on its hills and its valleys many live oak and walnuts.
— Father Juan Crespi, August, 1769[12]
The watering place was a pool fed by a perennial spring at what is now Encino, near the village ofSiutangna. The nameEl Valle de Santa Catalina de Bononia de los Encinos[13] refers to theencinos or evergreenCoast Live Oaks that studded the area. The expedition proceeded northward, camping at a site in the northern Valley before crossing over the mountains into theSanta Clarita Valley.
Father Crespí had identified a location along theLos Angeles River that would be perfect for a settlement, possibly a mission, but in 1781, KingCharles III of Spain ordered that apueblo be built on the site, which would be the second town in Alta California afterSan José de Guadalupe, founded in 1777. By royal edict, all of the waters of the river and its tributaries were reserved for the Pueblo de Los Angeles, a condition which would have a profound impact on development of the Valley.[14]
By the end of the century, Spain had issued twograzing concessions north of the pueblo that included the southeastern corner of the Valley,Rancho San Rafael and Rancho Portesuelo.Francisco Reyes,alcalde or mayor of Los Angeles from 1793 to 1795, had set up a grazing operation which he called Rancho Encino located in what is nowMission Hills near the village ofPasakngna. Reyes's property had a substantial water supply fromartesian wells and limestone for building, and was situated a day's walk from the existing missionsSan Gabriel andSan Buenaventura.[11] In or shortly before 1797 he was persuaded to cede this land to the Franciscans to be the site of a new mission, receiving in exchange a square league (4,460 acres (18 km2)) of land in the southern valley by the perennial spring where the Portola Expedition had first entered the Valley. This property he also calledRancho Encino (also recorded as El Encino and Los Encinos).[15]
Mission San Fernando Rey de España was founded at Reyes's original rancho site on September 8, 1797, by FatherFermín Lasuén. The mission's grazing lands extended over the flatlands of the valley, and it also claimed jurisdiction over several smaller valleys to the north and west. From this time, the valley began to be called after the mission.[11]
The fathers were charged with "civilizing" the native peoples, which they named according to the mission which had jurisdiction over them. The native peoples associated with Mission San Fernando were calledFernandeños regardless of tribal affiliation or language,[16] as those associated with Mission San Gabriel were calledGabrielinos. As the 19th century dawned, 541 Indians did the heavy work of the Mission San Fernando, tending the livestock and working the farmlands watered by irrigation from the mission's wells. The mission was famed for its red wine, and also grewpomegranates, figs and olives. By 1826, 56,000 longhorn cattle and 1,500 horses grazed on the mission lands of the valley floor.[11]
In 1821, Mexico achieved itsindependence from Spain, and California came under control of the Mexican government. The 1824 Mexican Colony Law established rules for petitioning for land grants to individuals in California. Regulations enacted in 1828 attempted to break the monopoly of the missions and also made land grants easier to obtain. The procedure included adiseño - a hand drawn sketch map.[17] TheMexican Governors of Alta California gained the power to grant state lands, and many of the earlier Spanish grazing concessions were subsequently patented under Mexican law.
ManyCalifornios in the Los Angeles area wanted the mission's rich grazing lands to be made available to private citizens, while those in the north, including Mexican governor GeneralManuel Victoria, preferred to keep the mission system intact. Late in 1831, theCalifornios rose in armed rebellion against the governor, who led a party of soldiers to the Valley to put down the rebellion. The southern ranchers rode into the Valley via theCahuenga Pass and the two armies faced off in a skirmish (Battle of Cahuenga Pass) that left one man dead on either side. Although the rebels retreated to the pueblo, they were victorious in defeat; the wounded governor resigned and returned to Mexico. Popular pressure increased on the government to disestablish the missions, and laws were passed to secularize the missions on August 17, 1833.[18][19]
In 1843, Don Vicente de la Osa (or del la Ossa) was granted one league of land along the Los Angeles River at the southeast corner of the Valley which he namedRancho Providencia.[20] The nearbyBattle of Providencia of February 20, 1845, was another face-off betweenCalifornios and an unpopular Mexican governor,Manuel Micheltorena, who proposed to return the mission lands to the control of the church. The only reported fatalities in the day-long cannon battle along the river were two horses and a mule, but Governor Micheltorena was captured and summarily shipped back to Mexico. He was replaced byPío Pico, a nativeCalifornio, who would become the last Mexican governor of California.[21][22]
California was "land rich but poor in every other way, lacking cash, gunpowder, and support from Mexico."[23] Governor Pico prepared for the inevitable war with the United States, and in 1845 began dispersing the vast mission lands. A square of land at the west end of the Valley near the historicChumash village Hu'wam was granted to three of the mission Indians under the nameRancho El Escorpión. The majority of the mission's grazing lands and mission buildings were leased to the governor's brotherAndrés Pico. After the United States declaredwar on Mexico on May 13, 1846, Pico sold the mission property outright to Eulogio de Celis for much-needed cash; Celis graciously extended the terms of his friend Andrés Pico's lease.[23] From this time the property was known asRancho Ex-Mission San Fernando.
United States troops quickly took control of thepresidios atMonterey andSan Francisco and proclaimed the Conquest complete. In Southern California, the Mexicans, for a time, resisted American troops, but when defeat became inevitable, Pío Pico fled to Mexico. Don Andrés Pico arranged the peaceful surrender of Los Angeles to American forces under Lieutenant-ColonelJohn C. Frémont. TheTreaty of Cahuenga ending thehostilities in California was signed at an adobe owned by the Verdugo Family atCampo de Cahuenga near the mouth of the Cahuenga Pass, at the southeast corner of the Valley, on January 13, 1847.[21]
TheTreaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, ended the war and ceded California to the United States.
In Northern California theCalifornia Gold Rush starting in 1849 created an influx of over a hundred thousand prospectors and a heavy demand for beef from southern California. Herds of cattle were driven to northern markets serving the gold fields. In the southern Valley, de la Osa sold Rancho La Providencia toDavid W. Alexander and acquired the Rancho Encino, successfully raising cattle on the property.[24] De la Osa took formal title to the Rancho under California law in 1851.[25]Andrés Pico returned to his rancho in the Valley and made the former mission into "one of the most celebrated homes in the new California."[26] After California became a state on September 9, 1850, Pico served as a state assemblyman and senator, and became a brigadier general in the state militia.[26] In 1854, Andrés Pico's nine-year lease on the Rancho Ex-Mission San Fernando expired, and he purchased a half-interest in the property.[27]
In 1851 the Los Angeles Court of Sessions recognized two rights of way through the Cahuenga Pass that connected Los Angeles with the Valley. One followed the oldEl Camino Real toSanta Barbara via Rancho Encino. The other, Tulare Road, joinedEl Camino Viejo ("the old road") north via Mission San Fernando, over theSan Fernando Pass (now the Newhall Pass) to the Santa Clarita Valley, and through theOld Tejon Pass to theCentral Valley and the gold fields beyond.[27] In 1854, the Army establishedFort Tejon in theGrapevine Canyon (La Cañada de las Uvas) nearFort Tejon Pass. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors authorized funds to construct a 30-foot (9.1 m) deep cut to make the steep route north over the San Fernando Pass easier forstagecoach traffic, and a group of businessmen raised funds by subscription to complete the work. Young entrepreneurPhineas Banning'sstaging andshipping partnership with County Supervisor David W. Alexander acquired the contract to supply Fort Tejon, and Banning drove the first stage run over the new cut in December 1854.[28] Also the U. S. ArmyPacific Railroad Surveys found the Fort Tejon Pass a much easier route for wagons than the old Tejon Pass, and this route became theStockton - Los Angeles Road, the new wagon route to the southern goldfields on theKern River and northward on the east side of theSan Joaquin Valley toStockton.
TheButterfield Overland Mail stagecoach route betweenSt. Louis, Missouri andSan Francisco, California viaFort Yuma andLos Angeles made its first run in the fall of 1858.[29] The original route entered the Valley throughCahuenga Pass and traveled northwest to the San Fernando Pass with a stage stop at Lopez Station north of the mission.[29]
In 1859, the California Legislature appropriated $15,000 (with additional funding provided by Los Angeles and Santa Barbara Counties) towards improving the oldSanta Susana Pass wagon road into a new stagecoach road, now known as theOld Santa Susana Stage Road.[30][31][29] The road ran over theSimi Hills between Santa Susana (nowChatsworth) and theSimi Valley. The precipitous portion of the route down from the summit on the San Fernando Valley side was called the Devil's Slide; horses were usually blindfolded and chains were used to augment brakes on the steep descent. Passengers debarked and walked.[30]
Southern California's boom market in beef had begun to decline as early as 1855. A drought in 1856 increased the pressure on the ranchos.[32] By 1859, with the cattle market in collapse and besieged by mounting debts, De la Osa converted his house at Rancho Encino into a roadside inn and began to charge patrons for his legendaryCalifornio hospitality.[33]
The outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 disrupted mail service to California from the east via the old southerly "oxbow route". That year, Butterfield obtained a new contract to deliver mail between Los Angeles and San Francisco via a route diverging from the old road at the southeast corner of the Valley and traveling via the former El Camino Real as far as Rancho Encino before striking northwest across the valley floor for Santa Barbara via the recently improvedSanta Susana wagon road over theSanta Susana Pass. This road became the main passenger route between Los Angeles and San Francisco,[30] although traffic over the San Fernando Pass to the Central Valley continued.
The devastation that ravaged the old rancho way of life between 1861 and 1865 had little to do with the Civil War raging to the east. The rains that started shortly before Christmas, 1861, continued for most of the following month. The flooding that followed drowned thousands of cattle and washed away fruit trees and vineyards. The Los AngelesStar reported that
The road from Tejon, we hear, has been almost washed away. The San Fernando mountain cannot be crossed except by the old trail ... over the top of the mountain. The plain has been cut up into gulches and arroyos, and streams are rushing down every declivity.[34]
No mail was received at Los Angeles for five weeks. After the floods abated, grazing lands were turned into lush meadows and cattle flourished on the abundant grass. Surveyor GeneralEdward Fitzgerald Beale had the damaged cut in the San Fernando Pass deepened to 90 feet (27.4 m) and named the slot-like roadwayBeale's Cut. But the reprieve was only brief.[35]
The flood of 1861–62 was followed by severedroughts in 1863 and 1864.[35] Cattle perished, or were slaughtered and sold for the salvage value of their hides and horn, and land values plummeted. Ravenous locusts and a majorsmallpoxepidemic completed the devastation.[35] The rancho economy of the Dons and theCalifornio way of life fell to a wave of overwhelming debt and unpaid taxes, never to rise again.[35]
In the decade after the Civil War, the majority of the old ranchos in the Valley changed hands. In 1867,David Burbank, a dentist and entrepreneur from Los Angeles, purchased Rancho Providencia[24][36] and 4,607 acres (19 km2) of the adjacentRancho San Rafael. Burbank combined his properties into a nearly 9,000-acre (36 km2) sheep ranch.
That same year, De La Osa's widow sold Rancho Encino to James Thompson,[33] who raised sheep on the rancho for two years. Thompson in turn sold the property to the Garnier brothers in 1869. The Garniers also raised sheep on the property, and were known for the fine quality of their fleece, but they in turn became overextended and lost the property to foreclosure in 1878.[24]
Eulogio de Celis had tried to sell his vast holdings in the Valley, but found no buyers. Squeezed by debt after the flood years, Andrés Pico had sold his half-interest in the Rancho ex-Mission San Fernando to his brother Pío Pico in 1862,[37] retaining 2,000 acres (8 km2) called the Pico Reserve around the old Mission. When De Celis died in 1869, Pío Pico, desperately in need of cash, sold his half-share to a group of investors assembled as the San Fernando Farm Homestead Association. The leading investor wasIsaac Lankershim, a Northern California stockman and grain farmer, who was impressed by the Valley's wild oats and proposed to raise sheep on the property. Other investors includedLevi Strauss. To complete the sale, the Valley was split lengthwise, with the Association purchasing the southern half and the northern half devolving to De Celis's heirs. The line of demarcation was a ploughed furrow across the Valley floor near the route of today's Roscoe Boulevard. In 1873, Isaac Lankershim's son and future son-in-law,James Boon Lankershim andIsaac Newton Van Nuys, moved to the Valley and took over management of the property. Van Nuys built the first wood-frame house in the Valley. Initially, the two men raised sheep, changing the name of the company to the San Fernando Sheep Company. Van Nuys, however, thought the property could profitably grow wheat using thedryland farming technique developed on theGreat Plains, and leased land from the Association to test his theories. After a drought destroyed the majority of the sheep in 1875, the remainder of the property was given over to raising wheat and barley. In time, the Lankershim property, under its third name, the Los Angeles Farming and Milling Company, would become the world's largest wheat-growing empire.[37][38]
A 56,000-acre (227 km2) parcel of De Celis's property north of the great furrow was purchased in 1874 by state senatorCharles Maclay ofSanta Clara and his partner, George K. Porter of San Francisco. Porter's cousin Benjamin F. Porter subsequently purchased portions of Porter and Maclay's interests. Most of the land except the parcel northeast of the mission was used for wheat farming. Ben Porter's portion to the west (nowPorter Ranch) remained one of the last parts of the Valley to be developed.[39]
In the eastern section nearest theSan Gabriel Mountains, Maclayplatted the Valley's first town,San Fernando, on September 15, 1874.[39] The town plan included land for a station forLeland Stanford'sSouthern Pacific Railroad from Los Angeles, which became the depot for the north Valley farmers to ship their wheat crops south to the port atWilmington.[40] In 1876, Southern Pacific opened atunnel through the pass at San Fernando and ran the first through train from the transcontinental railroad's western terminus in San Francisco to Los Angeles. From this time, rail travel superseded long-distance travel by stagecoach in California.[30][39][41]
The world wheat market remained strong through the 1870s and early 1880s, but then supply began to exceed demand, and prices began to fall.[40] When the rivalSanta Fe Railroad reached Los Angeles in 1885, fare wars between the two transportation giants brought ever more settlers to Southern California, and pressure rose to subdivide the great ranches of the Valley.[41] In 1886, David Burbank sold his ranch to Los Angeles land speculators who formed the Providencia Land, Water and Development Company, with Burbank as one of the directors. The land was surveyed and a business district was laid out, surrounded by residential lots. The outlying area was divided into small farms. They named the townBurbank and opened the tract for sale on May 1, 1887.[42]
In October 1887, J. B. Lankershim and eight other developers organized the Lankershim Ranch Land and Water Company, purchasing 12,000 acres (49 km2) north of the Caheunga Pass from the Lankershim Farming and Milling Company.[43] Lankershim established a townsite which the residents namedToluca (later Lankershim, and now North Hollywood) along the old Tulare Road from Cahuenga Pass to San Fernando. On April 1, 1888, they offered ready-made small farms for sale, already planted with deep-rooted deciduous fruit and nut trees—mostly peaches, pears, and walnuts—that could survive the rainless summers of the Valley by relying on the highwater table along the Pacoima River (now the central or main branch of theTujunga Wash) rather than surface irrigation.[40][44]
In 1888, Ben Porter sold a portion of his property near the base of Santa Susana Pass to the Porter Land and Water Company, which platted it as the community ofChatsworth Park.[45]
The land boom of the 1880s went bust by the 1890s, but despite another brutal drought cycle in the late 1890s, the fruit and nut farmers remained solvent for a time. The Toluca Fruit Growers Association was formed in 1894. The next year the Southern Pacific opened a branch line slanting northwest across the Valley to Chatsworth Park, which made one freight stop a day at Toluca, though the depot bore the new name of Lankershim. In 1896, under pressure from J. B. Lankershim, the post office at Toluca was renamed "Lankershim" after his father, although the new name of the town would not be officially recognized until 1905.[46][47]
A new Santa Susana Pass wagon route bypassing the deteriorating Devil's Slide was opened in 1895 to the north. Initially calledEl Camino Nuevo (the New Road), it was later named the Chatsworth Grade Road, which continued in use until Santa Susana Pass Road (now Old Santa Susana Pass Road) was built in 1917.[30] This was the first automobile route between the San Fernando and Simi Valleys. It also was the main northbound 'coast road' toSanta Barbara andSan Francisco, until theConejo Grade inVentura County betweenConejo Valley and theOxnard Plain on"Camino Real Viejo" (the Old Royal Road, nowU.S. Route 101), was improved. Rail traffic through Toluca and Chatsworth Park toVentura County and points north was made possible by the opening of theSanta Susana Tunnels in 1904, and the newcoast route soon superseded the old rail route to San Francisco via the San Fernando Pass for passenger travel, as that route had superseded the stagecoach route via Santa Susana Pass in the 1870s.[48][48]
Late in the decade the City of Los Angeles sued all the ranchers of the Valley, claiming the rights not only to the surface water of the Los Angeles River and its tributaries, but to the groundwater as well. In 1899, the California Supreme Court sided with the city. Without a reliable water supply, it became impossible to sell farm sites in the Valley.[49]
In October 1903, George K. Porter sold an option to purchase his last 16,200 acres (66 km2) of land in the north Valley to a syndicate led by Leslie C. Brand ofGlendale. In 1904, Brand's syndicate incorporated as the San Fernando Mission Land Company, whose major shareholders included Los Angeles businessmenHenry E. Huntington,E.H. Harriman,Edwin T. Earl,Joseph F. Sartori, andHarrison Gray Otis.[50] One day after the city water commission, on whichMoses Sherman sat, approved a proposal to build anaqueduct from theOwens Valley, the Company quietly exercised its option to purchase Porter's land.[51]
On July 29, 1905, the city announced its plans to bring water south from the Owens Valley—water that would only be made available to city residents.[49] Construction began in 1908 and water from theLos Angeles Aqueduct reached the San Fernando Valley in November, 1913.[52]
Real estate development once again boomed. In the "biggest land transaction ever recorded inLos Angeles County",[53] a syndicate led byHarry Chandler, business manager of theLos Angeles Times, withHobart Johnstone Whitley,Isaac Van Nuys, and James Boon Lankershim acquired "Tract 1000", the remaining 47,500 acres (192 km2) of the southern half of the former Mission lands—everything west of the Lankershim town limits and south of the old furrow excepting the Rancho Encino. As the Los Angeles Suburban Homes company, they laid out plans for the towns ofVan Nuys,Marion (now Reseda) andOwensmouth (nowCanoga Park,West Hills, andWinnetka), a system of highways, and eventual incorporation into the city of Los Angeles. In the "Sale of the Century" in November 1910 they sold the remaining livestock and non-land assets of the Lankershim Farming and Milling Company at auction. TheLos Angeles Times called the auction "the beginning of a new empire and a new era in the Southland".[53][54]
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The City of Burbank was incorporated in 1911,[55] and thePacific Electric Railway reached Van Nuys on December 16, 1911,Owensmouth on December 7, 1912, and San Fernando on March 22, 1913.[56] In 1912,Carl Laemmle broke ground on a permanent movie-making facility on the Providencia (Oak Crest Ranch) in the hills east of the mouth of the Cahuenga Pass that would become the first location of Universal City. Universal City moved to a new location, the Taylor Ranch in 1914.[57] In 1914,Carl Laemmle broke ground on Taylor ranch for the New Universal City in the hills east of the mouth of the Cahuenga Pass that would become the second location of Universal City in the San Fernando Valley,Universal City.[58]
Valley farmers offered to buy the surplus aqueduct water, but the federal legislation that enabled the construction of the aqueduct prohibited Los Angeles from selling the water outside of the city limits.[59] For the Valley communities, the choice was consent to annexation or do without. On March 29, 1915, by a vote of 681 to 25, residents of 108,732 acres (440 km2) of the San Fernando Valley (excluding Rancho El Escorpión and the communities of Owensmouth, Lankershim, Burbank and San Fernando) voted to be annexed by the City of Los Angeles. Owensmouth was annexed in 1917, West Lankershim in 1919, Chatsworth in 1920, and Lankershim in 1923. Small remote portions of the north and west Valley were annexed piecemeal even later: most of Rancho El Escorpión in 1958 and the remainder of Ben Porter's ranch as late as 1965. Burbank and San Fernando remain independent cities to this day.[60][61]
Other references'
Universal History 1912 to 1915– "Frickr Universal Image collection" by Dennis Dickens.[63]
