VALLEY OF SAN BERNARDINO-MORMONS. 
81 
The road which leads from Los Angeles to San Bernardino passes over one of these remnants 
of the former slope, and, on approaching the valley of the Santa Anna, it becomes evident that 
the bottom-land was formed by the action of the streams, and the traveller descends abruptly 
from the plain upon which he has been travelling to the level of the river hanks below. The 
valley is thus partially bordered by a terrace or hank formed by the edge of the slope. One of 
the streams flows at the foot of this terrace, and at the point where the road descends it is 
bordered by a growth of plane trees and grape-vines. Boys were seen fishing for trout in its 
clear waters. A saw mill, for sawing pickets for fences, is located near that point, and from 
there to the city, near the centre of the valley, the indications of a thriving and industrious 
community were everywhere evident. 
The Mormons arrived in this valley from the Great Salt Lake in the fall of 1851, and 
having hut little time to prepare for winter, their houses were rudely constructed of logs and 
adobes and have not yet been rebuilt. The city consists of an open square, surrounded by log 
houses and stout pickets, they having been obliged to bring their dwellings together in this 
way in order to be secure from the attacks of the Indians. They are now, however, erecting 
neat adobe buildings in all parts of the valley, and bringing it under cultivation. Messrs. 
Lyman and Rich, the prominent men of the settlement, have erected a convenient store and post 
office in the centre of the square, and we were enabled to procure a fresh stock of provisions— 
flour, fish, butter, &c.—for the party. A large flour mill, twenty-five feet by forty, with two 
sets of burr stones and a race-way one mile in length, had just been completed : a storehouse 
of adobes, thirty feet by seventy, was nearly full of sacks of grain waiting to be ground. A 
large quantity of good flour is made here and is sent to market at Los Angeles or to San Pedro 
for shipment. 
Soil and Climate of the Valley .—A great variety of soils is presented in the different parts 
of the valley, at different distances from the streams and at different elevations above them. 
They are, in general, very fertile and adapted to cultivation, and to the growth of all kinds of 
grain and fruits. In many places, the peculiarities of surface and soil are the same as in the 
Great Basin, on the opposite side of the Sierra ; but a great contrast is presented in the aspect 
of the landscape. The valley is decked with vineyards and cultivated fields ; while on the Great 
Basin side, yucca trees and thorny shrubs cover the dry and desert-like surface. The great 
difference in the altitude of the two places is, also, strikingly apparent, when an observer stands 
in the valley and looks upwards to the hoary summit of Bernardino and the high peaks about 
the Cajon pass, and it is remembered that when standing on the plains and slopes of the Great 
Basin, near the top of the mountains, these peaks appear as comparatively low hills*. 
The soil is principally derived from the disintegration of granite. On the higher parts of the 
valley, or on the terrace or slope above the bed of the Santa Anna, and in some places below the 
upper plains, it is rather coarse and gravelly, and not unlike the granitic soils of the San 
Joaquin plains and the Tejon ; it would, however, he exceedingly fertile if well watered. 
Along the river bottoms the soil is very much finer, and contains more clay. The Santa Anna 
flows in a shallow, sandy bed, hut little depressed below the general surface or bottom. The 
portions of this bottom-land nearest the river are somewhat sandy ; hut in other places the soil 
is a rich, deep loam. 
A specimen of both the upper soil and the subsoil was taken near the settlement, and not far 
from a pit where adobes were being manufactured.—(See Nos. 265 and 266 of the catalogue and 
collection.) An examination shows that the soil is a sandy loam containing seventy per cent. 
11 F 
