170 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES, 
California, but in the last 20 years or so it has grown into a large 
modern city with many industrial interests. About 15,000 acres of 
land in the surrounding region within 5 miles is under cultivation, 
mostly by irrigation. Much water is obtained from wells, many of 
them flowing wells, which draw their supply from the gravel and 
sand that constitute the plain. 
The first eastern immigrants to settle in the San Bernardino Valley 
were a party of Mormons headed by Capt. Hunt, who came through 
Cajon Pass in 1851. Before this, however, there had been mission 
settlements in the area. One was established in 1810 near Bunker 
Hill, but it was destroyed by the Indians. Later a larger one 
was begun at old San Bernardino, on the south side of Santa Ana 
River. The padres in charge dug ditches, beginning between 1820 
and 1830 with one from Mill Creek, which is the oldest ditch in 
the valley. In 1837 the mission lands were taken by the Mexican 
Government and given to Mexican landholders. It was from one 
of these landholders that the Mormons under Capt. Hunt purchased 
in 1851 the cultivated areas for $7,500. 
At first the old ditches sufficed for the needs of the settlers, but 
as population increased other small ditches were dug. It was not 
until 1870 that the Riverside colony, made up mainly of settlers from 
New England, began the first large canal, but in the next 20 years 
many irrigation projects were developed. These utilized the greater 
part of the running water and considerable of the underground 
water. Most of the water was used for irrigating oranges and other 
citrus fruits. In 1904 an area of about 54,000 acres in the vicinity 
of San Bernardino, Redlands, and Riverside was under irrigation by 
water derived mainly from the San Bernardino Mountains, either 
a surface streams or from the underflow in the gravels at their 
oot. 
It was soon found that the best conditions for citrus growth were to 
be had on the benches, where there was less liability to the low tem- 
peratures which sometimes kill the trees in the valley bottoms. The 
first orange trees were some seedlings grown in old San Bernardino, 
but it was not until the Riverside colony of 1870 was established that 
marketing of oranges began. The Bahia navel orange was first intro- 
duced at Riverside.! The principal factor in the orange business was 
the building of the railways which could give outlet to eastern mar- 
kets ; after this outlet was provided the production increased rapidly 
to its present great proportions. As the demand for water increased 
1 The original cuttings, from Bahia, | the cuttings in Florida died, so that the 
Brazil, were sent to Florida from Wash- | enormous business in navel oranges has 
ington, but some one, whose identity is grown from the slender beginning of a 
not ad known, took two of these cuttings single cutting. The tree that lived may 
to California. One of these two and all | still be seen at Riverside. : 
‘ 
Bese 
