THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



s 



I 

 I 

 I 



I 

 I 

 1 



1 



I 



I 



I 



1 



1 



land and under new conditions. The reasons which impelled them to 

 make so radical a change in their mode of living and place of residence 

 are widely different, but they share common anticipations, and the life 

 of the new colony really begins when the train rolls out of the Chicago 

 depot. Here is another contrast to be noted, for the life of the prairie 

 schooner was a sort of isolation from the start, and the first months on 

 a bare quarter section of prairie were shrouded in loneliness. The neigh- 

 borly character of these Pullman pioneers, on the other hand, will only 

 be perpetuated and deepened by the conditions surrounding life on the 

 small farms of California. The trip from Chicago to Redlands was like a 

 delightful holiday, filled with the pleasures of travel through new scenes 

 and flavored with a pleasant social atmosphere. The route lay through St. 

 Louis, Little Rock, Texarkana and San Antonio, where the party enjoyed 

 a carriage ride, visiting the historic Alamo and the government post. Then 

 on to El Paso, where the excursionists crossed the Rio Grande river into 

 Juarez, Old Mexico. Then they passed on through southern Arizona, 

 across the famous Colorado desert, into suryiy Southern California proper. 

 They beheld its valleys and mountains for the first time in the light of a 

 full moon as they arrived at Redlands just before midnight, Saturday, 

 March i/th. 



THE MIRACLE OF REDLANDS. 



But it was not until Sunday morning that the full beauty and grandeur 

 of the locality was revealed to them. It was a perfect day, and the rare 

 picture of white old winter in the mountain tops, and green, prosperous 

 summer in the irrigated valleys, was presented at its best. Sunday forenoon 

 was devoted to a thorough inspection of the town and its outlying colo- 

 nies which the president of the Lake View Land Company created, largely 

 by his individual enterprise, a few years ago. To those who have seen 

 Redlands it is unnecessary to describe it; to those who have not, it is 

 impossible. But it is a type of the best that nature and man can do in the 

 way of uniting the practical and the beautiful in colony making. It is the 

 product of irrigation. Every tree and flower tells the story of the miracle 

 of water when applied to the rich but arid soil of the desert. The homes 

 and orchards of Redlands were thoroughly inspected by the new comers, 

 and nothing pleased them more than the beauties of Smiley Heights, which 

 the water Mr. Brown caused to be stored in the mountain top has trans- 

 formed from a bare mesa, furnishing but poor pasturage for sheep, into one 

 of the now most charming estates in the world. Sunday afternoon the long 

 line of carriages crossed the hills into Alessandro valley and put up for the 

 night at the Hotel de Moreno. Bright and early Monday morning the 

 party set out for the new colony of Lake View. 



FINDING WATER FOR LAKE VIEW. 



No longer ago than last September the tract of ten thousand acres, 



I 



1 



II 



w 



I 



