Photo Courtesy of Victor Valley College Collection - Victorville in a
Snowstorm - circa 1940
The Story of Victor Valley, California
Presented by Upland Savings & Loan Association
Copyright 1973 Upland Savings & Loan Assn.
Author unknown - Readers can help
CONTENTS
BEFORE THE WHITE MAN
It was once a placid fresh water lake this valley in the high desert. Fed from glacial
springs and rivers in the San Bernardino Mountains, the lake covered hundreds of square
miles and the green forests surrounding it meant life to prehistoric game and birds. And
for 50,000 years, until the last great Ice Age glacier dwindled away to the north, it was
a haven for Man.
Anthropologists and archeologists theorize that the first wandering Asians, crossing
over via the Bering Straits, came this way and in successive migrations moved inland from
the sea here, settled along its shores and then spread across North America, becoming the
first American Indians. As the Ice Age ended and the climate became harsher, man moved
farther away, leaving the shrinking lake to fewer and smaller groups of Indians. Their
1egends indicate that about 1400 years ago a volcanic explosion ruptured the western ridge
holding the lake and in a single night the waters rushed through the Victorville Narrows
leaving them only marshes that fed the Mojave River.
Later, the fierce Shoshonean Paiutes moved into the area, adapted to it and pushed out
the remainder of the earlier inhabitants whose only memorials are a few primitive tools
and weapons found near ancient campsites, and mysterious petroglyphs carved into desert
boulders and cliffs. The Paiute's themselves later became victims of the desert: limited
in numbers and body size because of the dwindling game and food supplies, forced to wander
in small groups from water hole to water hole, they had little defense against marauding
Mojaves and slave-hunting Apaches.
The Serranos who lived in the forested mountains, the Vanyumes along the Mojave River,
the Chemehueves who lived between them and all of their enemies in turn would be displaced
by another race of men who first marched into the great Mojave Desert in 1542.
Only fifty years after Columbus landed in the New World, a scouting party of Spaniards
attached to the Coronado expedition crossed the Colorado River. After four days in the
desert they returned to report the sighting of snow-clad ranges in the West ... the same
mountains once crossed by prehistoric man to reach the great lake that disappeared in the
night. On September 28 in the same year, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo stepped ashore on the far
side of those mountains to claim all of California for their Catholic Majesties, the
rulers of Spain, the West Indies, and most of the Western Hemisphere.
SPANISH TRAILS
1769-1840
Life in the vast Mojave Desert remained little changed for another 230 years. Except
for the industrious traders of the Mojave Indian tribes along the Colorado River and
nomadic Northern Paiutes and Utes, the area was unknown, and unexplored by outsiders.
Within three years after the founding of Mission San Diego by Fra Junipero Serra and
Gaspar de Portola in 1769 the first Spanish probe across Cajon Pass from the coast
arrived, led by Lt. Pedro Fages. Military commander and Governor General of New Spain's
remotest province, he proceeded from modern Phelan across the Antelope Valley to the San
Joaquin in search of runaways from Mission San Gabriel, founded the year prior and
destined to become richest of the self-sustaining religious communities.
Fages' discovery of the pass and the marshy tule valley at the northern side was
important to the success of the mission system, for at this period they were yet dependent
for many of their supplies from beyond the borders of Alta California. The following year
Juan Bautista de Anza opened the Santa Fe Trail across the desert from the earlier
missions of Arizona and Sonora, and in 1776 Fra Francisco Garces led a party up the
Colorado to Needles and thence across the desert to the Victor Valley. The first
Christians he baptized among the Vanyumes and Serranos encountered near Las Flores Ranch
en route to San Gabriel. Later, returning from the San Joaquin Valley he retraced his
earlier route eastward from near Barstow, reconnoitering the Mojave Trail.
The existence of water in the Mojave River, either running on the surface or lying just
underground, had made this a natural route for Indians over the centuries. The happy
coincidence of the location of Cajon Pass near its sources contributed to the importance
of this trail.
As life became easier at the missions, the handfuls of soldiers quartered there found
time to explore further in the new lands surrounding them, locating other Indian bands for
conversion by the padres and as always, searching for gold. Evidence of Spanish mining
activities dating from this period has been found in the Lucerne Valley to the East, and
Arrastre Canyon takes its name from a Spanish ore crusher found there. That they were
limited to minor operations may be attributable to the ferocity of the Mojaves and other
Indians of the desert.
Although pack trains with supplies for the missions of Alta California traveled the
desert annually, they and any smaller parties were subject to harassment by these tribes.
Between the major Spanish settlements of Northern Mexico and Arizona... Caborca, Alamos
and Tubac... stood tribal lands of the Apaches, Pimas, Yumas, and Mojaves.
The latter were especially troublesome, being responsible for the deaths in 1819 of
seven neophytes sent to establish an asistancia, or branch mission, by the padres of San
Gabriel at the Mojave River Narrows. After Mexico achieved independence in 1821
restrictions on trade between provinces were eased, and a new track across the desert
between Santa Fe, New Mexico and California, the "Spanish Trail" was routed far
north into Utah to avoid this menace.
From 1830 on, a pack train of as many as 3,000 mules left Santa Fe with trade goods for
the missions, pueblos, presidios and ranchos each year. After wintering in California, the
traders returned with prized California horses and mules over the same route. They were
not the only herds driven across Cajon Pass and through the Victor Valley, however.
Thousands more were the booty of history's greatest horse thieves: Walkara, "Hawk of
the Mountains," of the Ute Indians and his friend Thomas "Pegleg" Smith.
A CENTURY OF INDIAN RAIDERS
1769 - 1867
Throughout the Spanish Mission era (1769-1821), the years of Mexican-Californian rule
(1821-1846), and well into the American period, Indians seemed to fall into one of three
categories. They were docile, Christianized workers about the great missions; somewhat
less docile pagans living away from the white man; and there were the raiders from across
the Sierra Madres.
Even before the Europeans arrived, the Vanyumes and Chemehueves were frequently
victimized by their neighbors the Mojaves, and their cousins, the Northern Paiutes and
Utes. Mojaves returning from trading trips among the coastal Chumash and Gabrielinos stole
their women and children. Paiutes coming to winter along the Mojave stole their food
stores as well as their women. Then the white man came and brought with him something
infinitely better to steal than roots, acorns, rabbits or wives: he brought the horse.
Although they arrived in California with only a few hundred head, mostly mules, the
diligent Franciscans possessed herds of cattle, sheep and horses numbering in excess of
300,000 before these were turned over to their ranchero parishioners in 1834. The missions
closest to the southern exit of Cajon Pass alone ran over 60,000 cattle and close to 5,000
head of fine horses. Being neither herdsmen nor planters, the Indians could regard that
much beef with equanimity. But all those horses represented wealth to hunters and
warriors, just as gold did to the white man.
Forays against mission herds began nearly as soon as they were established. But the
biggest and best organized were those led by Walkara and "Peg-leg" Smith. Smith,
at various times a river-boater, trapper and squawman, was in the second group of
Americans to cross the desert into California. Returning to the Utes living near St.
George, Utah, he and Walkara organized and led their first successful raid in 1828,
stealing 400 horses and mules from San Gabriel.
Hotly pursued across Cajon Pass and Apple Valley by the Californianos, they escaped
after ambushing their pursuers at Rock Corral northeast of Lucerne. After 20 years of
similarly profitable round-ups, they gathered up over 5,000 prized mounts from all over
the area in 1848 in a single coordinated sweep. Witnesses saw the dust cloud raised over
Cajon Pass from 30 miles away, but the renegades escaped once again to sell and trade
their stolen herds as far away as Texas, Wyoming and Colorado. Smith reportedly retired
from the horse-raiding business after this, however Walkara continued to race purloined
ponies North across the head of the Mojave until his death in 1855.
Wild mustangs, descendents of strays from these raids, populated the Apple Valley area
until the last were gunned down from low-flying airplanes in 1948, exactly 100 years after
the greatest horse theft the West had ever seen.
In March of 1866, after U.S. Army units had been withdrawn from the desert, Paiute
raiders swept up the Mojave River bent on driving off the Mormon ranchers sited at
convenient intervals along the trail to Salt Lake City. Captives taken at the Verde Ranch
near Victorville were carried along to watch the destruction of the Las Flores Ranch by
the savages and were then put to death. The following January the Paiutes returned,
driving beyond the Valley into the San Bernardino's near present-day Crestline. Attacking
Mormon-operated sawmills, they killed and wounded a number of men working there and
retreated with their own casualties in the direction of Rabbit Springs. A posse of 400
from San Bernardino pursued and fought it out with the Paiutes, a band of Chemehueve
allies, and the Chemehueve women, children and oldsters, killing nearly all at Chimney
Rock.
The pioneer SAN BERNARDINO GUARDIAN reported another party of "nearly a
hundred" Chemehueves, Cohuillas, Mojaves and Paiutes pursued and attacked by a
company of 19 "Rangers" in the same area the following month. After three days,
the Indians retired, leaving four dead and two Rangers wounded. Thereafter, Indian
incursions into the territory dominated by the white man were limited and relatively
peaceful. The last, tragic clash between Paiute and the white man's law came in September
of 1909 with the widely-heralded manhunt for "Willie Boy." A 29-year-old
Victorville resident, "Willie Boy" was sought for the murder of another Indian
at Banning, and kidnapping of the man's daughter. Tracked into the mountains, the last
Paiute woman-stealer died of his wounds, alone, after several days of running.
A new people now owned the desert; the water holes and the trails were heavy with their
traffic.
INVADERS FROM THE EAST
1826 - 1851
The President of the United States was Andrew Jackson, hero of the Battle of New
Orleans. In the 5-year-old Republic of Mexico there was great patriotic ferver, but little
stability of government in Mexico City. In the quiet northern backwater of Alta California
these facts were of little concern. Being so many months travel from anywhere, there was
little to affect the pastoral life known by the padres of the missions and their flocks.
Trade with the homeland might be a little more erratic, but trade with yanqui ships
from New England, banned under Spanish rule, provided ample opportunity to dispose of
hides, wines, tallow and the products raised around Mission San Gabriel and the little
pueblo nine miles west. The year was 1826 and Fra Estenaga was busily managing the
temporal and spiritual needs of the establishment inherited from Reverend Father Jose
Zalvidea the year before.
The political implications in the arrival of 30 bearded, ragged and filthy fur trappers
led by 28-year-old Jedidiah S. Smith may not have impressed the gentle padre as much as
their audacity in traveling all the way from the Virgin River high in the Rocky Mountains,
down the Colorado, across the fiery Mojave Desert and over Cajon Pass to reach the Pacific
Coast. In any event, the traditional hospitality for which his mission was famed was
bestowed on these professed Christians as they recovered from the rigors of their
dangerous journey. As Jed Smith and his hungry trappers were illegal entrants of the
province, their stay was limited to a mere 10 days. Resupplied and provided with fresh
mounts, they returned to Utah via the San Joaquin and the Tahoe passes. Within months, the
fierce one-legged Smith who had traveled with a second group across the desert to the San
Joaquin Valley also made his appearance, counted the horses in the mission herds, and went
the same way. Unknown to any of the characters, the great barrier of mountains, plains and
deserts standing between American frontiers and American destiny had been breached
forever.
Returning the following year, Jed Smith's men were ambushed near Needles by Mojaves
seeking revenge for an earlier attack by Pegleg's party, but Smith and seven survivors
nevertheless reached San Gabriel a second time, and were again hospitably received. The
next year, Pegleg returned . . . with Walkara and his Utes. Over the next 20 years,
migration was limited to a few hundred Americans, many of whom joined the native
Californianos in taking advantage of the Mexican secularization of mission properties and
herds in 1834.
Among the first to profit from the destruction of the mission system was Antonio Maria
Lugo, who obtained title to Rancho San Bernardino, along with 14,000 head of cattle.
Following the practice of the padres, Lugo drove his great herd over the Cajon to summer
along the Mojave River between Las Flores and the Narrows. (Indian hunters always claimed
several head, but longhorns were more dangerous to the unmounted Indians than vice versa).
Through trading for Yankee goods, marriage and even gambling, Americans acquired
ranchos and herds comparable to Lugo's, though nearly all were along the coastal plains.
By 1846, barely 700 Americans lived in California. In that year Brevet Captain John C.
Fremont of the Topographical Engineers, published his NARRATIVE OF THE EXPLORING
EXPEDITION TO . . . CALIFORNIA, and opened the eyes and minds of the country to the
opportunities available in the West. Fremont somewhat mysteriously traveled throughout
much of the territory later ceded to the U.S. by Mexico following the War of 1846-48. His
return to Washington in 1844 led him across Cajon Pass and along the "Mojave"
River.*
A great many Americans, including President Polk, believed it the nation's
"manifest destiny" to straddle the continent from Atlantic to Pacific. Fremont's
"Narrative" not only encouraged this idea, it gave specific directions for
traveling to California. His appraisal of the weak military defenses of the province may
have convinced Polk to act: whatever the case, Gen. Stephen Watts Kearny with 150 men,
including the famous Mormon Battalion, marched from Santa Fe on September 25, 1846 to help
Fremont, Kit Carson and Commodore J. D. Sloat in the conquest of California.
Kearny's Mormons distinguished themselves at the only major engagement of the war here
in California, San Pasqual, fought Dec. 6-7, 1846 near Capistrano. The next month the
Capitulation of Cahuenga was signed, but the Saints stayed in uniform until the war
officially ended the following year. After serving the balance of their enlistment
guarding Cajon Pass against Indian raiders, they left for Salt Lake City over the
"Spanish Trail" taking along the first wagon ever to cross the Victor Valley.
Battalion commander Jefferson Hunt returned the following year with some of the first
'49ers, a number of whom attempted an ill-fated short-cut across Death Valley. In March
1851, Hunt left Salt Lake again with many other veterans and their families to establish a
Mormon colony at San Bernardino, on the Lugo rancho. This epic journey involved 437 men,
women and children, 150 wagons, over 1,000 animals and took three months to reach Cajon
Pass. Another full month was needed to disassemble the wagons and lower them down a steep
cliff face into Cajon Canyon with ropes.
These were the breed described by the last Mexican governor, Pio Pico, in a poignant
letter: " We find ourselves suddenly threatened by hordes of Yankee immigrants . . .
whose progress we cannot arrest. They are cultivating farms, establishing vineyards,
erecting sawmills, sawing up lumber, building workshops, and doing a thousand other things
which seem natural to them."
More, and more, and even more, were yet to trail over the Mojave, up the Victor Valley
and over Cajon. The invasion has yet to end.
*Fremont's spelling is unique, but phonetic. Other renderings of the Indian name
include:- Mohave, Mojave (English) and Jamajabs (Spanish: Garces), Yamajobs (English:
Bancroft) and Aha macavo (English: per the Mojave Tribal Council). The Spanish also knew
the stream as Rio de las Animas (spirits) and Rio de los Martires (martyrs). Jed Smith
called it the "Inconstant River."
THE ROAD BUILDERS
1850-1885
When California became a state in the year 1850, San Bernardino County and everything
from Santa Barbara to San Diego was part of Los Angeles County. The second year of the
Gold Rush saw a census count of only 1,610 persons (Indians excluded) living in this area
of 34,000 square miles. Jeff Hunt's wagon train had increased the population by more than
a third as it crossed out of Nevada Territory, and the demand for beef in the Mother Lode
was creating real fortunes, but neither situation described anything like a
"boom." If any existed in the region, it was the dramatic increase in gamblers
and killers drifting south from the mines to the village of Los Angeles, the county seat
and the toughest town in the United States.
In 1853, the year San Bernardino's settlers petitioned to create a separate county, the
job of Sheriff went begging in Los Angeles at $10,000 per year, and the pueblo boasted
more murders (Indians and Mexicans not counted) than half the states of the Union
combined! Little wonder that the solid, industrious citizens of San Bernardino voted for
home rule!
Over the next six years steady if undramatic progress marked the growth of the valleys
joined at Cajon Pass. A sawmill to serve the area was built in the mountains near
Crestline in 1853, others followed to provide lumber needed to build homes for the
settlers. Most important, before 1855 a Captain Sanford had managed to build a graded road
up the rugged south face of the Pass, making it possible to freight wagon loads of
supplies and equipment from Wilmington and San Pedro harbors to the Eastern Sierra slopes,
Nevada mining camps and even Salt Lake City. Other immigrant trains could now travel the
winter route to California without the hardships of the first pioneers, and the sprawling
Verde, Las Flores, and Swarthout & Reche cattle ranches in the Victor Valley were now
within two or three days ride of the harbors.
In November, 1857 Lt. Edward Fitzgerald Beale, USN, formerly Indian Affairs agent for
California and Nevada, treated the Mojave River crossing north of Victorville to a
spectacle never seen before . . . or since. The entire U.S. Camel Corps of which Beale was
commandant paraded through the yucca and Joshua trees en route to his base at Ft. Tejon,
and Drum Barracks in Wilmington. Purchased in Turkey, the dromedaries were used for army
freight and road building work until 1866. The camel experiment was abandoned because of
the reaction they caused among other dray animals. History does not record the initial
reaction of the primitive Mojaves to the sight of 77 camels being herded westward along
the banks of their ancestral river.
Fate took a hand in the steady growth of the area in 1860 when William Holcomb of San
Bernardino hit gold near Big Bear Lake. The boom that followed saw the creation of the
town of Belleville in the mountains and the building of additional roads from the Victor
Valley side of Cajon southward. Traces of Brown's Toll Road and Van Deuzen's Toll Road
remain today to remind of 16-mule teams straining in and out of the canyons. For
thirty-five years everything dug out of the desert, and the shovel used to dig it with,
was carried across the sands and over the rocks in mule or ox drawn wagons.
The fame of Holcomb's and later, "Lucky" Baldwin's mines at Big Bear
attracted prospectors to the desert by the thousands, increasing the need for freight
roads as claims were worked and sometimes developed into mining towns. During the Civil
War years, a devastating drought struck Southern California, destroying thousands of head
of cattle, disrupting the economy and turning ranch hands into prospectors and teamsters
as well. Shorter routes between points along the Mojave/Spanish/Mormon trail system were
developed wherever the presence of water permitted, such as Stoddard Wells Road connecting
Huntington Station (Victorville)* with Fish Ponds (near Barstow).
Finally, the railroad came to Victor Valley. An engineering triumph, the first track
climbed and wound over Cajon Pass from San Bernardino, arriving in 1883. Built by the
California Southern RR (later AT&SF) under the supervision of L. N. Victor, the line
reached the Atlantic & Pacific (UPRR) junction at Barstow/Daggett in 1885. Thereafter,
numerous mining tracks and shortline roads were built to carry ore and sometimes
passengers throughout the Mojave. Some of these included: Bullfrog & Goldfield RR,
Death Valley RR and Tecopa RR all absorbed into the Tonapah & Tidewater; the Daggett
& Borate; and the Randsburg Rwy. Co. (which never served Randsburg). All of the above
have been abandoned or merged with either Santa Fe or Union Pacific.
For the next 35 years, nearly everything that wasn't carried in a wagon was carried on
the train. Then, in 1923 the road crossing the Pass was paved for the first time. But
that's another story.
HOMESTEADERS & HUCKSTERS
1880 - 1920
During the latter part of the Nineteenth Century the area then known as "Columbia
Valley" quietly grew as ranchers and miners moved into and out of the area.
Prospectors were making finds throughout the desert and they and the cowboys working for
the several cattle outfits helped earn the little village of Victor a reputation as one of
the tougher towns in which to spend a Saturday night.
Preceding the arrival of the railroads a firm of San Franciscans, the
Fairchild-Gilmore-Wilton Co. brought 60 Scandinavian stonecutters to work in the marble
and granite quarries located throughout the valley. In addition to the granite paving
blocks, curb stones and horse blocks cut and polished at Victor, the paving contractors
established ranching operations and at one time even maintained apple and pear orchards.
Their Victor Ranch grew feed for the three-horse teams used in hauling stone while the
quality of their orchard products led to the installation of apple presses and the sale of
apples and apple juice "from the Apple Valley" up and down the state.
The coming of rail transportation introduced a new settler along the banks of the
Mojave. Having Federal grants of huge land holdings, the railroads began to engage in the
real estate business on a scale never seen before. In their attempts to induce potential
land buyers to California they began a price war on rail tickets that at one point saw the
fare from Kansas City to Los Angeles drop to $1.00 per passenger.
The Southern Pacific, with large holdings in the Victor Valley, promoted the township
of Hesperia and was able to command higher prices for their lots than were obtained for
tracts in and around Los Angeles. For nearly a decade (1880-1888) land speculators in all
of Southern California feverishly bought and sold lots, tracts, townships and dreams. The
population of the southern part of the state multiplied seven or eight times before the
boom crashed, and even afterwards Victor Valley saw immigrants arriving from the East
(described as anyplace the other side of the Colorado River) seeking a new life in the
healthy desert climate.
Following in the tracks of the railroads, land developers such as the Appleton Land
& Water Co. and Ursula M. Poates continued to promote real estate around the
"gateway: to the Golden Land of Opportunity." the colorful, dynamic Mrs. Poates
advertised lots in newspapers everywhere and is credited with the naming of Apple Valley,
derived from her 640-acre "City of Apple" filed in 1893. Mrs. Poates' efforts
were later overwhelmed by the Federal Government, which, shortly after the dawn of the
20th Century opened thousands of acres to homesteaders. Undaunted by government giveaways,
in 1900 she attempted to create a town called Pearl Park (named after one of her
daughters) in conjunction with the Southern Pacific.
In the early 1900s, the desert began to be dotted with little homesteader's shacks
"proving up" (making the minimum required improvements) the land. Serious
attempts were begun to cultivate the Valley and by 1910 there were 17 apple orchards
totalling 1,000 acres in addition to the extensive cattle ranches.
In 1912 developer Arthur E. Hull and his associates arrived on the scene, fresh from
their triumphant founding of Beaumont, California. Hull enlisted the assistance of Los
Angeles newspaperman Max Ihmsen in promoting the agricultural potential of the area,
organized both a Victor Valley Boosters Club and the Victor Valley Chamber of Commerce and
his various companies such as the Apple Mesa Development Co., and the California Land and
Water Co. Offered at prices from $5 to $25 per acre, lots were ballyhooed across the
country, railroad excursions to the Valley were organized (sleeper cars had to be pressed
into service as hotels at one point) and the AT&SF Rwy gave away over 300,000 apple
trees to land buyers during 1913 and 1914 alone. In addition to publicizing the area, Hull
also worked diligently at improving the value of everyone's holdings. Picturing the
possibilities of the area, he lobbied and worked to obtain the first paved highway across
Cajon Pass and was instrumental in obtaining additional water for his lands through
legislation and other means.
In 1914, Max Ihmsen's apples took top honors at the California State Apple Show, and
growers were earning from $350 to $500 per acre of apples. Within a year and a half, the
State legislature and the Federal government had authorized the Victor Valley Water
Project, largest of its era in the nation, and the Santa Fe Railway began to lay double
trackage to serve the anticipated needs of Victor Valley. So euphoric were Hull and his
contemporaries about the future, (they even opened membership in their Chamber of Commerce
to women) in October, 1916 they plunked down the staggering sum of $2.5 million for the
Arrowhead Reservoir & Power Co.
Six months later, the dream disappeared. On April 17, 1917 the United States entered
World War I. Soon thereafter, young farmers, homesteaders, dam builders, and cow-hands
began to march off to fight Kaiser Bill in Europe, and Arthur Hull quietly sold off
Mariana Ranch (named for a wife tragically killed years earlier), to the Bandini family.
The miners and ranchers who had witnessed this boom went back to their diggings and
cattle. The great day for the valley they loved was yet another 50 years away in the
future.
LAST STOP AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PASS
1920 - 1945
Abandoned by the bustling homesteaders and the land developers for greater adventures
Victor Valley languished under the desert sun for several more years. Cattle yet roamed
the ranges and foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains, and miners dug valuable minerals
from the bowels of the earth. But many factors combined to hold back the promise held out
for the area.
The orchardists suffered the effects of a devastating fungus, a continually increasing
rise in the cost of operating their electricity-driven water pumps . . . and the arrival
of apples and other fruits in California markets from the Pacific Northwest. Finally,
during three successive years (1944-45-46) frosts, heat and hail fell upon the survivors
and for the next seven years firewood, the only thing they had left to sell, was carried
across Cajon Pass for burning in Los Angeles fireplaces.
The schoolhouses proudly built for the littlest homesteaders saw their enrollment
dwindle and for years many youths were sent to high schools and colleges in San Bernardino
and Los Angeles.
Westbound travelers, turning off the transcontinental highway that followed the
historic old trails after the long scorching drive over the desert, tarried only long
enough to wonder at the great Joshua trees and to refill boiling radiators. The Great
Depression following the stock market crash in 1929 and the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s
when "Okies" were turned back at the California state line added little to the
growth of the valley.
During the years of World War 1I however, a great many young men came to know the
Victor Valley. Thousands of Army Air Corps and other military personnel were sent to
prepare for the invasion of North Africa and Europe under the clear blue desert skies. Of
these many trained at nearby George Air Force Base and many, many were never to return. Of
those who came here during these years, thousands were never to forget the beauty, the
peace and healthful climate of Victor Valley.
With the end of the second global war, they began to return here. But for many others,
intent on reaching cities along the Pacific shoreline, this was merely the last stop in
the desert before one climbed over Cajon Pass. Not until the coastal plains were filled to
overflow would the merits of this region begin to be appreciated by the majority of those
who emigrated to California following the collapse of Ursula Poates' and Arthur Hulls'
earlier booms. Long before then, a maverick oilman named Newton K. Bass would settle in
the desert and lay the groundwork for the future now in sight for this gateway to Southern
California.
STARTING AGAIN
1945 - 1972
while the postwar exodus to California saw millions of emigrants. passing through
Victor Valley en route to the promise of a new start on the good life, only a handful were
to remain here. The goal for most was a tract home in the San Fernando Valley, or later,
Lakewood - or Orange County. With comparatively little local industry, there were few jobs
to be had and the water supplies available at the time were adequate to support neither
great factories nor great tracts of residents.
Among the observers of this situation were "Newt" Bass and Bernard J.
Westlund, friends and partners in oil-drilling ventures around Signal Hill and elsewhere.
Drilling in the Apple Valley area, Bass found instead of oil, something even more
valuable: water. Well aware of the importance of this resource for area growth and
probably equally aware of just how far what was available could be stretched, these
gentlemen began the development of the acreage they bought up as a recreational and
retirement, or "bedroom" community rather than the idealistic farming valley
begun in the 1900s.
With extensive advertising and sales offices in other cities, Apple Valley lot sales
reached the 5,000 mark within five years, starting in 1945. Hardly comparable to real
estate activities elsewhere in Southern California, but significant for Victor Valley in
that thousands were made aware of the region and other developers were attracted to the
scene. While some went bust, others made some headway and the area marked a steady growth.
Following the Apple Valley example, developers built golf courses and other
recreational facilities and modern homes began to replace the weather beaten board shacks
left behind by the homesteaders. Where in 1909 the Apple Valley School District had to
"borrow" one pupil from out of the area to start first classes with the minimum
seven required, between 1949 and 1958 three elementary schools and a junior high school
were built and even expanded. Measuring the permanent character of postwar growth, Victor
Valley today boasts 26 schools, public and parochial, from elementary through junior
college. (Editor's note: remember - this was written in 1973)
Hospitals, hotels and shopping centers were built. By 1962 the 50th anniversary of
Victor Valley's first telephone service saw nearly 10,000 individual subscribers on the
line. The same year, Victorville was finally incorporated as a city, and the little
Methodist church laboriously built by 22-year-old Rev. Oliver M. Butterfield in 1914 had
been joined by 23 of other denominations.
Between 1950 and 1972, the population grew from 9,400 to 50,000 permanent residents and
hundreds of thousands of others who share our recreational facilities annually. The worn
footpaths of Indians and Spaniards, the wagon ruts of mule teams and ox teams and the thin
steel tracks of the railroads were joined by multilane concrete freeways and hundreds of
miles of paved streets and roads. Daily commercial air service to Apple Valley Airport
began in 1972, and the contrails of high-flying jets began to streak the sky over the
ancient lake bed. A new era was about to begin.
BRIGHT PROMISE
1973
Exactly 200 years after Teniente don Pedro Fages, caballero y comandante of His
Catholic Majesty's Catalan Light Infantry, first viewed the green oasis at the foot of
Cajon Pass, a new river reached the Victor Valley. One of Mankind's greatest engineering
efforts, the $2 Billion California State Water Project, has brought bright promise to this
land once again.
Water from the Feather River, far north among the gold fields of the 49ers, has been
brought to Southern California. An easterly extension of the California Aqueduct closely
paralleling Fages', Garces' and Jed Smith's footsteps is now pouring the life-giving
resource into Silverwood Lake, 25 miles south. Backing up behind Cedar Springs Dam on the
West Fork of the Mojave River, the project has already brought more than $95 Million in
construction and expenditures to Victor Valley, along with a $6 Million increase in annual
payroll. The significance of this long-awaited drink has been measured in terms of
projected population growth: by 1985 they estimate 156,000 residents will live and work in
the Victor Valley area.
In anticipation of this population, the Valley has experienced a substantial economic
growth during the past few years that shows little sign of slowing. While assessed
valuation of Victor Valley property jumped 20% to $204 Million between mid 1971 and mid
1972, the value of commercial properties in Victorville as an example, has trebled in the
past few years.
In sharp contrast to the five dozen Scandinavian stone cutters, quarrymen, and
mule-skinners who formed the area's first industrial labor force, Continental Telephone
Co., the areas largest private employer fields a force of 600 technicians, linesmen and
operations personnel. George Air Forces Base, a permanent base of the Tactical Air Command
is currently manned by over 7,000 military and civilian personnel, with additional Air
Force units scheduled to be assigned there in the near future. Other Valley residents are
employed in the booming residential construction industry, which has seen over 2,000
"starts" since mid-l970, while many others work in the hundreds of retail and
service firms scattered throughout the area.
A new electricity-producing plant, of the Southern California Edison Co. is projected
for start by 1975, while the Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Project has been voted
through by local residents and is expected to receive the $12 million in grants required
in the near future.
Inquiries to the Victor Valley Chamber of Commerce from American and foreign firms
regarding industrial and commercial sites and other considerations have quadrupled in the
last year, presaging even further expansion.
Included in the current expansion are other projects such as Victorville's new $600,000
City Hall, a new branch of the San Bernardino County Library, the new $1,000,000 Hesperia
Junior High School, a new Victorville School District office building and the continued
expansion of the 230 acre Victory Valley Junior College campus with a $600,000 Student
Center now under construction. The Hesperia and Apple Valley School Districts are
experimenting with year-round school programs intended to accommodate the increased number
of elementary and junior high school pupils enrolled.
The number of houses of worship in the Valley have also increased. There are currently
47 churches serving 29 denominations, some with schools and day care centers.
More than any other facet of high desert life, the facilities for recreation in Victor
Valley's clear air and sunshine are attracting not only residents, but thousands of
visitors. In addition to horseback riding and hiking, the surrounding region offers
several excellent golf courses, tennis courts and swimming and boating lakes. Mojave
Narrows Regional Park in the heart of the Valley, Spring Valley Lake, and even the new
Silverwood Lake are among the latter, sharing popularity with mountain lakes such as
Arrowhead and Big Bear. Other outdoor fun opportunities can be found within a short drive
from the Valley: winter skiing in the San Bernardino Mountains, dry lake sailing,
cross-country trailing and a vast selection of sites for camping and desert exploring.
The annual San Bernardino County Fair at Victorville with attendance figures over
100,000, the Annual Lucerne Valley Burro Race, Stoddard Jess Turkey and Trout Ranch, the
Roy Rogers Museum and other commercial attractions also bring visitors to share the
excitement and pleasure offered.
Forever a portal into other parts of California or the American continent, the Victor
Valley now looks confidently forward to the future as a gateway to a better life for those
who live here astride the historic trails of the past.
READER'S CAN HELP
I found this history in a booklet in the Victorville Library. The author's name does
not appear anywhere in the booklet. A copyright notice assigns the rights to Upland
Savings & Loan. This company is no longer in business. I called the Federal Reserve,
11th district and was directed to the Office of Thrift Supervision in San Francisco. This
office had the background of the Savings & Loan an told me that the company was
acquired by Home Fed bank which in turned was seized and operated for 18 months by the
Federal government. The assets were then sold off to five different Corporations. I then
called the agency that had seized the assets and ran into a blank wall.
Even though this material is being presented as a public service I try to obtain
permission to reprint from the author or entity holding the copyright. I felt that I had
done sufficient homework in this case and presented the material mainly because I was so
impressed with it.
Still - I would like to locate the author - Any reader who recognizes this, please send
E-mail with the information to kickinon66@msn.com
