Gold in the Sun, 1900-1919
CHRONOLOGY: 1900-1919
1900 C. P. Huntington, last of the “Big Four” of railroad fame, dies.
1900 George Chaffey begins irrigation of the Colorado Desert.
1900 John D. Spreckels opens Tent City at Coronado.
1901 First water turned into Imperial Valley canals.
1901 San Diego purchases water systems within city limits.
1901 President William McKinley shot by anarchist, Sept. 6; Theodore Roosevelt becomes President.
1902 Congress passes Spooner Act to build Panama Canal.
1902 Samuel Parsons Jr. designs plan for City Park.
1902 Katherine Tingley brings Cuban children to Theosophical Homestead on Point Loma.
1903 O. W. Cotton advertises San Diego nationally.
1903 Wright brothers fly first powered airplane.
1904 Mexican cut in Colorado River made to divert additional water to Imperial Valley.
1904 Theodore Roosevelt re-elected President.
1905 Gem mining in San Diego County reaches peak; tourmaline shipped to China.
1905 Floods on Colorado River bring disaster to Imperial Valley farmers and create the Salton Sea.
1905 First California auto registration law.
1905 New charter reduces City Council from 27 to 9 members.
1905 Horton House torn down.
1905 U.S.S. Bennington’s boiler explodes in San Diego Harbor, July 21.
1906 Construction of U.S. Grant Hotel begun.
1906 Southern Pacific Railway spends $2,000,000 in attempt to control flood waters of Colorado River.
1906 John D. Spreckels announces he will build railroad to Yuma, Dec.
1907 Imperial Valley floods controlled, Feb.
1907 Imperial County formed; San Diego County is decreased by 4089 square miles, Aug. 6.
1908 Nolen Plan for city development presented.
1908 First traffic ordinance passed by City Council.
1908 Great White Fleet arrives off Coronado, Dec. 5.
1909 Alonzo E. Horton, “Father of San Diego,” dies, Jan. 7.
1909 Little Landers Colony begun by William E. Smythe.
1909 Charter amendment reduces councilmen from 9 to 5 members.
1909 State legislature plans 3000-mile highway system.
1909 Panama-California Exposition planned to celebrate completion of Panama Canal.
1909 City Park renamed Balboa Park.
1910 City population reaches nearly 40,000 in national census.
1910 U.S. Grant Hotel dedicated, Oct. 15.
1911 Glenn Curtiss flying school established on North Island.
1911 Naval aviation history made as Curtiss hydroplane taken aboard U.S.S. Pennsylvania, Jan. 26.
1911 Baja California revolution begins in Mexicali, Jan. 29.
1911 Tijuana taken over by rebels, May; retaken by Federal forces, June.
1911 State Legislature grants city control of tidelands, May.
1911 Exposition groundbreaking, July 19.
1911 Bonds voted to build D Street pier violate Nolan Plan.
1912 I.W.W. “free speech” riots, Jan. to May, climaxed with expulsion of Emma Goldman.
1912 San Diego vies with Los Angeles for transcontinental auto route connection with Phoenix.
1912 Woodrow Wilson elected President; William Kettner elected to Congress, Nov.
1913 Southern California Mountain Water Company purchased by city.
1913 Mountain Springs Road dedicated, May.
1913 Representative Kettner influential in obtaining Senate appropriations for naval coaling and radio stations.
1914 Archduke Ferdinand shot at Sarajevo, starting World War I, June 28.
1914 Panama Canal opens and first private craft through the canal arrives at San Diego, Sept. 6.
1915 Panama-California Exposition opens, Jan. 1.
1915 First plank road laid in Imperial Valley.
1915 Decision made to continue exposition for another year.
1916 “Rainmaker” Charles Hatfield commissioned to fill Morena Reservoir, Jan.
1916 Heavy floods in county; Lower Otay Dam washed out.
1916 Tijuana racetrack opens.
1916 Second Plank road constructed in Imperial Valley.
1916 Woodrow Wilson re-elected President, Nov.
1917 Formal closing of Panama-California Exposition, Jan. 1.
1917 Louis J. Wilde defeats George Marston in “smokestacks vs. geraniums” mayoralty race, April.
1917 United States declares war on Germany, April 6.
1917 Camp Kearny established; Marine Base and Naval Hospital approved; Rockwell Field and Naval Aviation Station set up on North Island.
1918 Influenza epidemics strike; more than 300 deaths in San Diego.
1918 Armistice signed in Europe, Nov. 11.
1919 Groundbreaking for Marine Base.
1919 All-American Canal proposed in Congress.
1919 Pacific Fleet enters harbor; naval era begins.
1919 Woodrow Wilson speaks at San Diego Stadium, Sept. 19.
1919 Spreckels drives golden spike in San Diego & Arizona Railway, Nov. 15.
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GOLD IN THE SUN
Introduction
Ch. 1 The Town That Wanted to Grow Up and Be Something
Ch. 2 Here Come the Cultists and the Health Seekers
Ch. 3 Who Could Have Guessed These Stones Were Gems
Ch. 4 The River That Proved It Was Lord of the Desert
Ch. 5 The Auto Challenges the Train and Shapes the City
Ch. 6 It Was Not Yet Too Late to Design a City – Or Was It?
Ch. 7 Beauty Wins A Round in Parks and the Exposition
Ch. 8 The Wobblies and A Story No One Likes to Remember
Ch. 9 San Francisco Shows How Politics Should Be Played
Ch. 10 A ‘Magic City’ Surprises Even Those Who Built It
Ch. 11 The Rainmaker – And Who Caused the Big Flood?
Ch. 12 The Military Appreciated What the Natives Did Not
Ch.13 Southern California and the Gold Nobody Noticed
