Cecile Vargo
Charles Hatfield is just one of many interesting characters in California history. Part I will introduce you to him and his amazing rainmaking skills. Part II, which will appear at a later date, will take you further into his career, as he makes a whole lot of rain in the Bonanza Gulch area of the El Paso Mountains in the Western Mojave, and further south in San Diego.
On a hot summer day, perhaps like the one you may be experiencing as you read this, Laura Ingalls Wilder and her husband, worried over several dry years that were scorching their Dakota Farm. She knew she could sow the seed, but God would have to provide the much needed water, and he just wasn’t doing that. She speculated that God had created a higher atmosphere around the earth that was full of moisture, just for the taking, and God had provided man with the brains to figure out how to tap that force. She had heard of a man in California named Charles Hatfield who supposedly had learned how to do just that, and wrote about him in a little column she wrote in May 1924.
Editor's Note: Please join us in welcoming Cecile Vargo as DeathValley.com's newest columnist. Many of you know Cecile through her popular and entertaining web site, www.ExploreHistoricCalif.com, and we're proud that she'll be periodically sharing her articles with our readers.
For two days we lived isolated on the mountain, with only a few daring to venture up the Yellow Grade Road while we were there. We soaked up as much loneliness, and old time atmosphere as we could, but sadly had to come back to the real world. The transition from a ghosttown on a mountaintop in the Inyos above Owens Valley caught between the 19th, 20th, and 21st century to the reality of the modern 21st century life in the foothills of the San Gabriels here in Los Angeles is always a hard one. I spend the morning unpacking, and getting settled back in again, but I always try to savor the sweet solitude that I had on the mountain for awhile longer as well.
We went out with a film documentary crew on Saturday. It's a little independent company out of New York, that found our website doing an internet search. We met with Robert & Carissa at a restaurant in Sunland about 1:00. We got acquainted over sandwiches, then took off in our 4x4 4-Runner for Jawbone & The El Pasos. Robert was the cameraman, and Carissa handled the sound. Very nice young couple. Robert sat in front with Roger, filming scenery and Roger's history and geology talk along the one and half hour drive from our Los Angeles foothill neighborhood to the Western Mojave.
Since the documentary is about weather, and rainmaking, we pointed out all of the Los Angeles aqueduct sites along the way. Also pointed out (without stopping) other historical sites like Vasquez Rocks, Placerita Canyon, San Andreas fault, etc. Roger conveniently tied everything into our ghost town, Cerro Gordo, & the story of Los Angeles as well.
Read more: A Day Of Documentary Filmmaking In The Western Mojave
