Re: Early season hiking - 2016
Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2016 11:19 am
So much of California's history is due to our periodic drought & deluge pattern. After the rainy winter & flood of 1862 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Flood_of_1862), many of the ranchos greatly expanded their cattle operations, thinking that plentiful grassland ranges would continue to provide sufficient fodder for increased herds. But, just like today, people who financed long-term commitments got squeezed when conditions changed. That how a lot of ranchos ended up in Yankee hands after mortgage notes were called after the 1864 drought:

The LA, San Gabriel & Santa Ana rivers are nothing more than concrete culverts built to deal with periodic floods. This is what my part of OC looked like after the 1938 flood (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_flood_of_1938):Following the drought in 1864, José Andrés Sepúlveda sold Rancho San Joaquin to Benjamin and Thomas Flint, Llewellyn Bixby and James Irvine, and it eventually became part of the Irvine Ranch. (1/6 of Orange county)
