"The Field Party of 1864," James T. Gardiner, Richard Cotter, William H. Brewer and Clarence King. Larger.
Thinking of California's lovely terrain and healthful climate, you might say that the Golden State has a way of getting under your skin. The same is true even when the weather's bad and the landscape is desert.
William Brewer was the first man selected by Josiah Whitney for the Geological Survey of California. His letters--dated 1860 to 1864--contain vivid descriptions of his travels, including one visit when arid winds turned the Central Valley into a dust bowl.
Monday, May 30 [1864], we come on to San Luis de Gonzaga Ranch . . . . Our road lay over the mountains. They are perfectly dry and barren, no grass--here and there a poor gaunt cow is seen, but what she gets to eat is very mysterious. . . .
The wind blows heavily over the pass, and we descend to the San Luis Ranch. The wind is so high that we can build no fire, so we cook in the dirty kitchen. Dust fills the air--often we cannot see fifty yards in any direction--it covers everything. We cook our dinner, but before it can be eaten we cannot tell its color because of the dirt that settles on it. Our food is gritty between our teeth, as as we drink our cups of tea we find a deposit of fine sand in the bottom. Dirt, dirt, dirt--eyes full, face dirty, whole person feeling dirty and gritty.
William Brewer left California in 1864 to teach at Yale. Up and Down California in 1860-1864 collects letters Brewer wrote as he led survey parties throughout the state.
Firecrackers
From Up and Down California in 1860-1864, 1930. Read Online
California's diverse population brings a variety of customs and styles of celebration, everthing from the calm and reverent to the explosive.
Taken aback by its scale, William H. Brewer describes his experience in the center of a raucous 1863 celebration of the Chinese New Year in San Jose.
I thought I had seen firecrackers before, but became convinced that I had not. [. . .] At home we see Chinese crackers only in small packs about four inches square and one inch thick, the crackers all of a size and red. Not so here; they have not only these small packs, but immense ones, containing vastly more. I have seen them over a foot long, with partly small and partly large crackers--the latter yellow and large and thick as a stout man's thumb, exploding with a noise like a musket.[. . .] The exploded husks accumulated so thickly in front of some of the houses that they took fire and the engines came out to extinguish them, the fire bell of the city giving the alarm!
William H. Brewer's Up and Down California is a collection of journal entries and letters to his brother during the years 1860-1864.
Los Angeles
From Up and Down California in 1860-1864, 1930. Read Online
It's hard to imagine contemporary Los Angeles, city of freeway sprawl, was once a small agrarian community with open vistas. But in 1860 that's exactly what Yale graduate William Brewer found. Working for the Geological Survey of California, Brewer's December 7 letter to his brother tells just how lovely a place Los Angeles could be, especially in the wintertime.
Here is a great plain, or rather a gentle slope, from the Pacific to the mountains. We are on this plain about twenty miles from the sea and fiteen from the mountains, a most lovely locality; all that is wanted naturally to make it a paradise is water, more water. . . .
As we stand on a hill over the town, which lies at our feet, one of the loveliest views I ever saw is spread out. Over the level plain to the south-west lies the Pacific, blue in the distance; to the north are the mountains of the Sierra Santa Monica; to the south, beneath us, lies the picturesque town with its flat roofs, the fertile plain and vineyards stretching away to a great distance, are some mountains without name, their sides abrupt and broken, while still above them stand the snow-covered peaks of San Bernardino. The effect of the pepper, fig, olive, and palm trees in the foreground, with the snow in the distance, is very unusual.
Brewer returned to Yale in 1864, but his letters—collected and edited by Francis P. Farquhar—provide one of our most vivid resources for rediscovering the California of the nineteenth century.
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