Before the term “climate change” was introduced into our vernacular and altered our lifestyle, there was an enormous change in California weather that affected the entire history and economy of the state.
It all started in 1861. Actually, it really started in 1849 with the gold rush when mining and ranches were the leading economic ventures. Prior to the gold rush, there were over 500 large rancheros covering hundreds of thousands of acres from San Francisco to the Los Angeles basin. Originally, the herds were raised for hides and tallow, not meat. But the gold rush changed all that, and the herds were improved to provide meat to the miners. According to reports, “in 1846, the price was $4 a head, and by 1849, it was $500 per head.” The decade of the 1850s continued to see these prices.
California weather was typical. But that all changed in the winters of 1861-1864.
According to Pam Gibson, in Two Hundred Years in San Juan Capistrano, “When the first shots of the Civil War were fired on the East Coast, the skies of Southern California poured out their sorrow in sheets of rain that tore into adobe walls, and carried away soil, chickens, loose belongings and all hopes of a good crop for the coming year.
“The rains stopped, but in a year’s time, many wished for its return. A series of droughts struck Southern California, one after another, scorching the land until the grass shriveled into dust. Swift rivers of a year before dried to a trickle; cattle moved slowly, parched beyond recognition. The air was heavy with the smell of death. Death came. Silently, indiscriminately, the germs of the black smallpox entered almost every home.”
Native Americans were the hardest hit. The Mission death register listed 129 deaths of Native Americans between November 16 and December 31 in 1862. That loss of Native population is one of the reasons the Federal Government has still given today, for not recognizing San Juan’s Native population.
While the epidemic eventually ceased in San Juan Capistrano, the drought continued, “reaching its height in 1864. Out of 8,000 head of cattle, Juan Avila had 800 left,” according to Gibson’s book.
During this same period, Don Juan Forster was in a court battle with his in-laws over ownership of the Santa Margarita ranch. The case was heard in 1873, but the questions the jury had to answer were “Did Pio Pico in 1864 sell to Juan Forster the whole or only a half of the ranch? Was Pio Pico induced to sign the deed by fraud, and did Forster know that only one-half was intended to be conveyed?” (“Forster vs. Pico, The Struggle of the Rancho Santa Margarita.”)
The jury concluded that Pio had sold Forster the whole ranch and that the answer to the other two questions was no. At the trial, Forster testified that in 1864 the entire area was almost “depopulated of cattle” and that he had never seen anything like that in California before. Forster wrote in 1863, “We poor Rancheros have had a damned bad string of luck these last two years, and if it is going to continue, I don’t know what will become of us.”
Flood, drought and disease all combined to end the Rancho Period in California. As we start the New Year, you can spend a “Moment in Time” and reflect upon all of the things that have changed in our lifetime and how it has been affected by weather.