Annual Publication of the

CALIFORNIA CouNCIL OF GEOGRAPHY TEACHERS

RoBERTA. KENNELLY, Editor
1965
 THE CALIFORNIA GEOGRAPHER
The annual publication of the

CALIFORNIA CouNCIL oF GEoGRAPHY TEACHERS

RoBERT A. KENNELLY, Editor

EDITORIAL ADviSORY BoARD

Sheldon D. Ericksen .............. California State College, Long Beach

Arthur E. Karinen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chico State College
Gertrude Reith .....................California State College, Fullerton
The

California
~
Geographer
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Opportunity Still Knocks at the

Door of the Geographer ....................Emily V. Baker 1

1\ Brief History of the California

Council of Geography
Teachers, 1 946-1 964 .............. . ......Arthur Carthew 11

The Role ofTransportation in Choc6

Cultural and Environmental Change .......Herbert lVI. Eder 17

Plantation Farming: Its Wider

Application and Agricultural
Classification ..........................Hovvard F. Gregor 2'5

Reclamation Sequence in the

Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta .............John Thompson 29

South Africa's Bantus ..............................Adolf Stone 37

The Future of lVIanufacturing

in Stockton, California ..................James A Roberts 49

The Changing Landscape of the

San Fernando Valley Between
1930 and 1 964 .. . . . ...... . . ..........Richard E. Preston
. 59

A Selected California Bibliography:

Exploration and Settlement in the
Spanish and Mexican Period .......Robert W. Durrenberger 73

Book Review . . ............................................. 87

Statement and opinions given in The California Geographer are the

responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the
California Council of Geography Teachers.

VOLUME VI 1965
Subscription rate: $2.00 per year. Address all correspondence to Robert A. Kennelly,.
Editor, The California Geographer, California State College, Long Beach, California.
 OPPORTUNITY STILL KNOCKS AT THE DOOR
OF THE GEOGRAPHER*
EMILY v. BAKER
Formerly San Bernardino Schools

There is little need for me to suggest to a group of professional geog­

raphers that the subject to which they devote their time and, no doubt,
considerable affection should occupy a place of importance in the public
school curriculum. Probably there is little need for me to say that the place
allotted to geography is actually smaller than some current trends seem to
indicate. In a recent publication to which I shall refer later, the word
"geography" is used an impressive number of times, but the illustrations
of its use which run through the book reveal that geographers must still
work to give meaning to that term.
You know, too, that teaching credentials will be granted this spring.
to many college graduates whose only experience in geography has been
acquired in such cover-all courses as were described to me recently in
writing in these terms: "Our course in elementary education that includes
the geography is one entitled Curric�tlum, Methods and Materials which
encompasses the curriculum of the social studies and the audio-visual ma­
terials and equipment."
But the picture is not all dark. We know that there are many admin­
istrators and curriculum workers who are making a sincere effort to include
geography as they plan the curriculum. From the efforts being made we
can see that this is a time of opportunity. We can see, also, something of
the nature of the work to be done.
Let us look at a few specific happenings which illustrate the current
concern.
1 . The Social Studies Framework for the Public Schools of California.
prepared by the State Curriculum Commission and released by the
California State Department of Education in 1962. Four columns:
are spread across two pages through much of the book. The first is.
headed Geography; the second, History; the third, Civics; the
fourth, Related Areas.
2. The provision by the State Department of Education for geography
textbooks for pupils. Some are excellent. Some are so-called "com­
bination books." The adoption of the latter as social studies books
underlines the need for a knowledge of geography on the part of the
teachers who served on the evaluating committees.
3. The availability of many attractive trade books on regions of the·
world. Our libraries are well supplied with these books.
4. The generous p r o v i s i o n of t o o l s needed to learri g e o g r a p h y­
maps, globes, £lms, and charts.
* This was the opening paper of the 1964 Annual Meeting of the California
Council of Geography Teachers held at the University
. of the Pacific, Stockton, Calif.�
May I, 1964.
 5. C redit-bea ring wo rkshops in geog raphy fo r teache rs in summe r
school (some of them in schools which p rovide no wo rk i n geog­
raphy du ring the regula r academic yea r) a nd in-se 1vice wo rkshops
fo rteache rs.
6. An oppo rtunity which may o r may not result in inc reased wo rls in
geog rap hy -the requi rement of five yea rs' p repa ratio n fo r the ele ­
menta ry c redential.
Just ifiably, you may say that none of these effo rts o r changes assu re
the teaching of geog raphy in a n acceptable manne r. I must counte rwith the
contention that only you and you r colleagues th roughout ou r state a nd
th roughout ou r nation can in the last analysis assu re the teaching of geog ­
raphy in an acceptable fashion. In the effo rts cited above we can see
some oppo rtunities. The doo ris aja r, but, as I see the situation, geog raphe rs
will, in the fo re s e e a b l e futu re, ente r the elementa ry school only on the
te rms of the elementa ry administ rato r, cu rriculum wo rke r, and teache r.
Neve rtheless, you can modify the te rms unde r which they will let you
ente r.
Had all of these people had wo rk in geog raphy i n thei r elementa ry,
seconda ry, and college yea rs and had they kept up with the times, we
could rest assu re d that geog raphy would occupy a wo rthy place in the
cu rriculum they build. But since not all have backg round wo rk in geog­
ra phy we m ust wo rk within the f rame wo rk of the cu rrent situat oi n in
o rde rto get th rough the doo rof the elementa 1y school.
Let me cite a few examples to suppo rt this point of view :
1 . Conf ronted with the State Frmneworl� which calls conspicuously
fo r geog raphy, although not as we might wish to have it included,
what do loyal people do ?
a. San Diego State College Labo rato ry School released in August,
1963, a cu rriculum guide entitled Worhing With Generaliza­
tions in Social St·udies, An Interpretation and Implementation of
the Social Studies Framework for the Public Schools of Cali­
fornia.
How was this cu rriculum guide developed ? The campus labo rato ry
school faculty and a consultant f rom the Depa rtment of Education wo rked
togethe rin deciding how the State Frmnework was to be implemented. No
mention is made of calling in subject matte r specialists to help.
This g roup saw in the ir task of revising thei r social studies p rog ram
the need to o rgani ze units which encompass the va rious a reas of the social
studies-geog raphy, histo ry, political science, economics, and anth ropolo gy.
Thei r reaso ns fo r o rganizing units as a means of fulfilling thei r obliga tion
a re given on page 29 :
The social studies program in the various grades reflect [sic] the
procedures recommended in the professional literature; i.e., an activity
oriented program in the primary grades and an information-process
oriented program in the upper grades.
The classroom supervisors in the primary grades tend to interpret
social studies as meaningful activities within a broad area of study.
Those in. the upper grades tend to regard social studies as acquiring in­
formation about a broad topic through the wide use of references.

2
 _ b. A more recent publication, a work sponsored by the Nati onal
Education Association, Guiding Children Through the Soc}al
Studies, 1 964, supports the teachi ng of large units. This little
book makes a strong case for the belief that only by organizing
the work of the social studies in large units which draw upon all
of the disciplines of the social sciences can social understanding s
be acquired by children in a manner that is meaningful to them.
If you would enter that door into the eleme ntary school curriculum
laboratory, I beg you to study this pamphlet thoughtfully for in it is express­
ed in a powerful fashion and in a few pages the philosophy which gives di­
rection to many schools in California. All of the members of the writing
committee which produced the book are from California, among them Mis s
Helen Heffernan of the State Department, Dr. John Michaelis of the Uni­
versity of California, a nd several from San Bernardino County.
There is much in the Framework and in these recent guides which i s
open to question. An example is the teaching of Japan an d· Africa in th e
fourth grade, an age level at whic h children can acquire on y l a superficia l
knowledge which is likely to be misleading and detrimental to the cause o f
international understanding. Nevertheless, all of these publications indi ­
cate the type of thinking which must be studied and respected if geog ­
raphy is to enter that door to elementary teachi ng.
2. The selection of materials is another important area in which lack o f
geographic background conditions the work in the schools.
a. Textbooks have been provided by the state at great cost, but
not until teachers see value in geography will the books becom e
useful sources of information in the hands of the children. Fo r
example, sets of excellent fifth grade geography textbooks en ­
titled The United States and Canada have been know n to li e
long unused i n book rooms and closets because, as a highly re­
spected teacher who does much demonstration teaching says,.
they do not fit the unit on colonial life in America.
What better time is there than when studying early New England to ·
consider the rocky soil and the rigorous climate which beset the hardy set ­
tlers ? These geographic features are discussed briefly in this book which i s
provided by the state. Of course, many would say that to stop to conside r
such topics might be too much of a digression. Possibly so, but is it really a
digression if the children are seeking to understand, if the teacher is helpin g
the childr en see the relationship between geographic conditions and human
activities ? In a program in which geography is taught only as a phase of th e
social studies when will the geographic factors be studied if not at such
times ? When we examine the social studies units taught, we find tha t
many h ave an historical approach. This approach is not to be wondered a t
when all teachers are re quired to study history. Bertrand Russell, as quote d
in the New York Times Magazine, gave us something to think about whe n
he said :
It is because modern education is so seldom inspired by a great
hope that it so seldom achieves a great result. The wish to preserve the
past rather than the hope of creating the future dominates the minds of
those who control the teaching of the young.

3
 b. Ea rlie r I gave as one sign of inc reased inte rest in the teaching
of geog raphy the fact that many schools a re ve ry gene rous in
supplying the tools fo r lea rning . Since maps and glo bes a re the
most necessa ry tools, I have compiled some test results as one
means of indicating the ve ry specific natu re of the help needed
by many teache rs if these tools a re to be used effectively.
In keeping with legislative edict, schools must submit to the State De­
pa rtment of Ed ucation the results achieved on standa rdized tests by ·the
pupils of g rades five, eight, and eleven. .
From one dist rict whose results on the Octobe r, 1 963, test I have had
an oppo rtunity to study, I obtai ned data in which you may find impli­
cations fo ryou rconside ration.
The Califo rnia Achievement Test used in g rades fou r, five, and six ,
Fo rm W, includes in the Reading Test a section o n refe rence skills. In this
section a re six multiple-choice items on map reading, namely :
Item numbe r85: In what state a re the re mountains ?
It em numbe r86 : How fa ris it f rom Dogwood to Che rry ?
Item numbe r87: What city is on a lake ?
Ite in numbe r88 : The re is a numbe r on each side of the map. In which
di rection does the a rrow by numbe r4 point ?
Item numbe r89: \:Vhat city is no rthwest of Ash ?
Item n mi1be r90 : Between what two states does a rive r fo rm pa rt of the
bounda ry ?
The results on these six items a re p resented in Table I.

Table l. California Achievement Test Results:

Reference Skills-Grades Four, Five and Six

Item Number of Number Percentage

Number Cases Correct Correct
Grade 4 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 0 • • • • • • 0 85 122 43 35
Grade 5 • • • • • • 0 . 0 • • • • • • • 0 0 • • 0 . 85 1 36 87 64
Grade 6 0 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 0 • • • • 85 189 151 80
Grade 4 • • • • 0 • • • • • • • • 0 • • • 0 • • • • 86 122 9 8
Grade 5 .. . . . . . . . . . ..
. ... . . . . . 86 1 36 39 29
Grade 6 .
. . . . . . . . . .... ..... . . . 86 189 95 50
Grade 4 • • • • • • • • • • 0 • • • • • • • • • • • 87 122 20 29
Grade 5 • • • • • • • 0 • • • • • 0 • • • • • • • • 87 136 73 53
Grade 6 • • • • • 0 0 • • • • • • • • • • • • 0 • • 87 189 145 77
Grade 4 • • • • • • • • • • • • • 0 • • • • • • • • 88 122 21 17
Grade 5 • 0 • • • • • • • • • • • 0 0 0 . 0 • • • • 88 1 36 44 32
Grade 6 o o o 0 0 o 0 0 0 0 0 I 0 0 0 0 o 0 0 0 o o 88 189 95 50
Grade 4 • • • • • • • 0 • • • • • • 0 0 • • • • • • 89 122 14 I 1 .6
Grade 5 0 0 • • • • • • • • 0 . 0 0 • • • • • • • • 89 1 36 35 26
Grade 6 • 0 • • 0 • • • • • 0 • • • • • • • • • • 0 89 189 66 35
Grade 4 • • •. • • • • • 0 • • • • • 0 • • • • • • • 90 122 7 5.6
Grade 5 • • • • • • • • • • � 0 • • • • • • • • • • 90 136 38 28
Grade 6 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 0 • • • • • • • 90 189 71 43

4
 The California Achieveme nt Tes t Form W for the seventh , eighth,
and ninth grades provides in the Reading Test a 5 x 6� inch map of
Switzerland and the surrounding area. Five test items are based on this
map. You may n o t be satisfied wi t h the m a p a n d t he t e s t. However, I
should advise you of the fact that approximately two-thirds of the eighth
grade pupils used this test in 1 962 and it is reasonable to assu me that a simi­
lar proportion used it in 1 963 and that a similar proportio n of the seventh
grade pupils used the test in each of the two years. More over, we can as­
sume that this is the only standardized means used to test any phase of the
geographic learnings of these pupils.
The multiple-choice items run as follow s:
Item number 97: One of the following rivers Haws through Lake Con­
stance. Which one is it ?
Item number 98 : The west end of Lake Constance is located near what
degree of longitude ?
Item number 99 : Which of the following regions is not to be found in
Swit zerland ?
Item number 100 : One of the rivers draining the central plateau is the
----- _____ ?
Item number 10 1 : The Rhine and the Rhone rivers have their sources
in one of the following areas. Mark the number of the correc t area.
In another section · of the test are two items which test knowledge use­
ful in using maps, namely :
Item number 65 : Latitude is the measure of distance north or south of the
equator. Mark the letter of the following ship's reading which indi ­
cates latitude.
Item number 74: The scale of miles shown in the above drawing is forty
miles to one inch. Determine the dista nce from Point A to Point C .
Mark the number which shows the correct mileage below .
The results are given in Table 2.
Table 2. California Achievement Test Results:
Reference Skills-Grades Seven and Eight
Item Number of Number Percentage
Number Cases Correct Correct
Grade 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 297 181 61
Grade 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 266 210 79
Grade 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 297 101 34
Grade 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 266 128 48
Grade 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 297 110 37
Grade 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 266 1 74 58
Grade 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 00 297 68 23
Grade 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 00 266 62 23
Grade 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 297 71 24
Grade 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 266 1 06 40
Grade 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 297 190 64
Grade 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 266 209 70
Grade 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 297 116 39
Grade 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 266 128 48

5
 Ability to use m aps e fficientl y is not t he whole of geogr aph y b y any ·
me ans, but the results on items th at test b asic conce pts about direction,
about rivers and other physic al fe atures, and abou t, s cale c an be t aken as
illustr ative of the pu pils' ability to eng age in geogr aphic thinking. Think
how me aningless much of the cl ass discussion mu st be to the 76 per eent of
the seventh gr ade pu pils herein considered when the te acher or a cl assm ate
m akes some comment about the source of a river. Think how me aningless
discussions on cu r ent bound ar y ch anges must be to the 57 per cent of the
sixth gr ade pu pils who f ailed to find th e two st ates which are se par ated, in
part, by a river ? If there were no more com prehensive test av ail able to
- school administr ators, su pervisors, and te ac hers, I would feel less concern .
But there is a test, The Iowa Test of Basic Skills, which uses 89 items to
test the abilit y to re ad and inter pret m aps. The test is designed for use in
gr ades three to nine. However, fewer th an lO per C((n t of the fifth gr ade
pu pils and fewer th an 6 per cent of the eighth gr ade pu pils used this
test in 1 962.
Wh at can we do to incre ase awareness of the v alue of geogr aph y in
the curriculum followed b y children and young peo ple ? I suggest th at we
acce pt the f act th at much good, solid geogr aph y c an be le arned throug h
an element ar y-school curriculum org anized on the b asis of soci al studie s
units. I trust th at you will excuse a pe rsonal reference or two. Once u pon
a time, I c arried on a little rese arch project in whic h, on the b asis of stand­
ardized test results, I demonstr ated to m y own s atisf action and to the s at­
isf action of some coll ege professors th at it c an be done. L ater, while te ach­
ing child ren in a situ ation in which the Iow a Tests were used regul arl y,
the children, ye ar after ye ar, stood in the neighborhood of the nintieth per­
centile.
If the te achers know geogr aph y, no ty pe of curriculum org aniz ation
will kee pgeogr aphy out of the curriculum. If the y are not acqu ainted with
the fund ament al conce pts of geogr aph y we c an ho pe for nothing more
th an a mech anic al following of a textbook or curriculum outline. Vve c an­
not legisl ate geogr aphic thinking into a school cu niculum. It is for this
re ason th at I would s ay ag ain th at securing gre ater em ph asis o n geogr aph y
de pends, in the l ast an al ysis, on those who sh ar e in any w ayin the progr am
of te acher educ ation.

I re alize th at some geogr aphers see in Jerome Bruner's philoso ph ysu p­

port for te aching geogr aph y as a se par ate subject. As you know, he tells us
we le arn the subject m atter of a given · are a of knowledge best b ybecomi ng
acqu ainted with the structure of th at area of knowledge. I acce pt Dr. Br u­
ner's premise r ather as an intermedi ate go al than as a st arting point. Let us
re alize th at recognition of the structure c an come about as a result of ex­
periences in the sub iect and th at aw areness of the structure comes about
in the s ame m anner in which gener aliz ations are formul ated - by following
observ ations and ex periences, often through a period of ye ars. Children will
h ave the ex perience necess ar y for recognizing the elements of the
str ucture for which Cl yde Kohn ple ads if their te achers are aw are of th at
structure. If children h ave sound ex periences in geogr aph y as a ph ase of
their soci al studies in gr ades one to six, it seems . to me to be re ason able to

6
 expect them to be aware of the geographic structure in terms of which the
great movements of mankind are taking place by the time they reach uj nior
high school or, certainly, before they leave junior high schoo l .
As one who works with teachers and children, I should like to offer
the following suggestions for the consideration of the California Cou ncil
of Geography Teachers:
l. Paramount at this time is the need to take steps before college pro­
grams becom e firm to see that the fifth year of college now to be required
of those preparing to be elementary teachers allows for an increase in solid
sub ej ct matter. Such was the intent of the legislature, but unless steps are
taken quickly to see that that intent is recognized, the law may be circum­
vented. Geographers, organized, can help give direction to the five-yea r
program.
Helping teachers acquire knowledge of sub ject matter areas while they
are acquiring their general education is essential to establishing a frame of
reference -a knowledge of the structure, if you will -in terms of which
they can profit all the rest of their lives through in-service activities. In­
service experiences are needed by all of us, but they are at best only in ­
adequate substitutes for basic work studied in an org qnized fash oi n.
2. Now I shall seem to contradict myself when I say that we should
increase the in-service offerings . They are needed to inspire and keep up­
to-date those already well-grounded and to inspire and challenge those
whose background is limited. But, and for this suggestion I ·may be "ruled
out of the party." Unless the members are selected, we should simplify the
approach.
We must be mindful of the fact that we have in our schools teacher s
who, through no fault of their own, have never had a course i n geography
in their lives. We must remember, too, that there is co nsiderable rather
highly technical content in geography. I expect to hear some such conte nt
discussed during this conference. I fear I shall not understand all of it.
Specialists in a given sub ject matter area tend to use a highly specialized
vocabulary. Many of the terms geographers use free y l are unintelligib le and
frighte �ing to teachers. vVe must be mindful of the fact that elementary
teachers are responsible for art, music, mathematics, reading, language ,
spelling, health, scie nce, and recess, noon duty, and yard duty, parent con­
ferences, etc., in addition to the social studies. The sum total of t heir cap a:­
bilities is considerable, but because they can hardly go into great depth in
any one sub ej ct, many of them sit in awe in the presence of specialists i n
. a sub ej ct matter field.
Geographers who would help ele mentary teachers become proficien t
in geography might consider the approach ma de by some mathematicians ,
especially those in the S c ho o l M a the ma t i cs S tu d y G r o u p. T hey
have included elementary teachers who are not ma oj rs in mathematics on
their writing teams. When I asked the late Dr. Morgan Ward about thi s
procedure he told me if they took only teachers strong in mathematic s
they would not find out what they needed to know to help teachers.

7
 · On r �quest, m athem atics te achers in · colleges and univer sities h ave
org anized courses which introduce element ar y te achers to the princi ples of
modern m athem atics in a rel ativel y sim ple f ashion. The pur pose is to pre­
p are te achers to te ach chil dren wh at the yw ant them to l earn. Some m athe­
m atici ans w ant nothing to do with these courses, but others re alize th at if
m athem atics is to be t aught in the element ar yschools as the yw ant it t aught,
the y must work with the te achers and supervisors in the situ atio n as it
exists. Dr. W ard, formerl yhe ad of the m athem atics de partment at the C ali­
forni a Institute of Technolog y, visited fourth and fifth gr ade cl asses with
me and held conferences with the te achers.
Since fin ancing in-service experiences is a problem with colleges and
public schools, you m ay w ant to offer more of the kind of o pportunity
Northwestern University h as provided with the hel p of publisl e1 rs during
its summer sessions. The u n i versit y pro v i des the h o u s i n g and the
accredit ation while the publishing com pan y provides the te aching st aff
and the tuition for the students. I know th at the R and McN all y, N ystrom
and Deno yer- Ge ppert Comp anies h ave provided this kind of service
through Northwestern Universit y. Doubtless, you are acqu ainted wit h
other simil ar situ atio ns.
3. You m ay w ant to affili ate with groups of profession al educ ators
who h ave responsibilit y for curriculum building. The C aliforni a Associ a­
tion for Su pervision and Curriculum Development h as working commit ­
tees, one of which is the soci al studies committee and another is the te ach­
er educ ation committee. All concerned with cu r ri c ulum prob lems are
welcome in the org aniz ation. P artici pating acqu aints one with the philos­
o ph y o per ating in the soci al studies progr am. Experience h as shown th at
requests for geogr aphers to contribute follow o pportunities to become ac­
qu ainted. The Southern Section of the CASCD will meet nex t week e- nd.
I do not h ave a full progr am, but I am sure the grou p will wor k at m atters "'
of co ricern to all of us.
4. Tr y to s pot element ar y te achers, su pervisors, and administr ators
who show interest. Encour age them to join CC GT and atte nd its meetings.
As the service committee extends its activities these people will see th at
the yh ave ast ake in this org aniz ation. In this connection I might c all atte n­
tion ag ai n to the m athem atici ans. A few ye ars ago an element ar y te acher
could find little if an ything designed for her at their convent oi ns. In the
n ation al meeting to be held at Long Be ach next week-end nine sections are
pl anned es peci all yfor the element aryte acher.
5. To bre ak the ice for those students who h ave h ad little or no wor k
in geogr aph y, set u p a course l abeled G e o graphy for Ele m,en tar)'
School Teachers. Ex amine the co ntent and the activities of the units com­
monl y t aught in the element ar y school. Org anize the conte nt which could
be used to adv ant age in te aching these units, and in the course of te aching
m ake frequent reference to the pl aces in the units at which cert ai n geo­
gr aphic princi ples c an be develo ped. This would be a content course, how­
ever, not a methods course, with the content selected and org anized espe ­
ci all y for the element ar y te acher. Some feel this ki nd of course unworth y
of recognitio n or credit. However, this is essenti all y wh at the m athem a­
tici ans h ave done and the y are re aping a tremendous rew ard.

8
 l feel very humble, although you may think I am very presumptuous,
in presenting these suggestions which seem to respect our favorite subject
too little. It is because I wa nt our subject to make its contribution to the
education of our children ancl their teachers, that I have been so bold in
expressing these thoughts based on observations and close contact with
teachers. Geographers have stayed too long apart. In con nection with ou r
problem a thought from the Scriptures comes to my mind : "For whosoever
will save his life shall lose it." Th e prevailing prac ti c e is t o t e a c h geog ­
raphy as ·a phase of the social studies. If geographers would find their sub ­
ject they must, at least for the time being, be willing to have it included
within the larger framework of the social studies.

9
I
I
 A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CALIFORNIA '

COUNCIL OF GEOGRAPHY TEACHERS 1946-1964

A nn-mn C ARTHEW
Los Angeles City College
. \i\lith the retirement last year of Calvon McKim, who played a leading
role in the establishm ent of the California Council of Geograph y Teachers,
and the not-too-distant retirement of others who were active in the earl y
days of the org a n i z a t i on, it seems opportune to record the details of the
founding and the early years of the organ zi ation while the facts can still be
recalled. Furthermore, the council having functioned for eighteen years ,
a si1mmary of activities is in order, both for the sake of recording the facts
and providing a basis for review which c ou ld be useful to c h a r t i n g the
future course of the organization.
The initial move in the establis hment of the California Council was a
letter from Calvon McKim, chairman of the Geography-Geology Depart ­
ment at Fresno State College, to Clifford Zierer, chairman of the Geog­
raphy Department at U.C. L.A., suggested the possibility of establishing a
state council a nd p roposing a meeting in Los Angeles to which interested
. parties might be invited. Clifford Zierer replied favorably and designate d
Henr y J. Bruman to make arrangements for the meeting. Letters were sent
to various schools, calling attention to the meeting scheduled for Saturday ,
December 7t h, 1 946, in Royce Hall at U.C.L.A. . A general discussion o f
the functions of geog ra p h y in education in the . Calif drnia schools was
planned for a morning session. Luncheon for the group was arranged at a
tearoom in Westwood Village. Following the luncheon an organizatio nal
meeting was held at which the California Council of Geography Teachers
became a reality.
There were many factors which favored the creation of a California
State Council at this time. The National Council was anxious to have active
councils in all states and urged McKim to take the initiative in establishi ng
one in Califor nia. With the ending of the war there was a ma s return of
G.I.'s to the unive rsities and colleges. Geography had attained an important
status during the war, and its adherents were eager to preserve and extend
the position of the sub ject in the school program. Only through organ zi ation
could a subject hope to maintain its status in a competitive curriculum.
Although an existing organization, the Association of Pacific Coast Geog­
raphers, served to bring together geographers from the western sec tion .of the
country, it was felt by man y that its aims were directed primarily at the
college level and were designed to emphasize research rather tha n conc ern
with the problems of geography in education at all school levels. .
At the organizationa l meeting Calvon McKim was elected president
and Walter Willey of the El Rodeo School in Beverly Hills was elected
secretary-treasurer, a post which he capably held for a number of years. The
adopted constituti on provided for an annual meeting to be held in con­
junction with the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers meetings whe n
they were held in California, as was the case in 1 947 when the meetings
were held in San Diego.

ll
 The first annu al meeting of the Council w as held on S aturd ay, June
2 1, 1947, in the S an Diego Hotel. Homer Aschm ann took ch arge of loc al
arr angements. Re ports were submitted b y the president on the membershi p
dr vi e and b y the secret ar y on public rel ations. L auren Post discussed the
to pic, "A Geogr aphy Field Tri p in S an Diego Count y,') illustr ated with
slides. The next meeting w as set for Berkeley the follow n i g June.
A more extensive progr am of papers w as presented at the second annu­
al meeting held at t he-University of C ali forni a at Berkeley. Loc al arr ange­
ments were m ade b yJohn Kesseli with W alter H acker, president, serving as
ch airm an. An afternoon field tri p over the hills of S an Fr ancisco proved to
be an elimin ation contest with, so 'tis s aid, onl y the le ader's c ar com pleting
the tour.
By the third meeting the org aniz ation attr acted a-fine turnout at Ven­
tur a Junior College with Rex Brittingh am res po nsible for loc al arr ange­
ments. As the Associ ation of P acific Co ast Geogr aphers w as meeting in an­
other st ate, the first weekend in M ay w as selected as a more suit able time
th an June for the annu al meeting. Fe atured at the meeting w as adis pl ay of
m aps and textbooks b y publishers, a pr actice which h as been continued, es­
peci ally b y the m ap publishers, throu gh the ye ars. L angdon White, who
from the very beginning g av e enthusi ast ci su pport to the org aniz ation, w as
the princi pal s pe aker at the noon luncheon. Arthur C arthew served as
president and ch airm an.
After the success of the Ventur ameeting the constitution w as ame nded
to the effect th at meetings were no lo nger to be held in conjunction with
the Associ ation of P acific Co ast Geogr aphers. A policy of shifting the
meetings between the northern and southern sections of the st ate w as ado p­
ted, and the fourth meeting held at St anford University with Alfred Sum­
ner in ch arge of loc al arr angements. Robert Pe ase served as president and
ch airm an and George McBride g ave the dinner address. A distinctive fe a­
tu re of the meeting w as an aeri al field tri p covering the B ay region.
Returning to the southern sectio n, U.C.L.A. hosted the org aniz ation
for the fifth annu al meeting with Benj amin Thom as, president, in ch arge
of loc al arr angements. Ruth B augh pre se nte d the luncheon paper. Follow­
ing the success of the air tri p the previous ye ar, D avid Jennings org anized
an aeri al excursion which covered a segment of the S an Andre as F ault as
well as the Los An geles metro polit an are a.
Under the presidenc y of Chester Cole, the sixth annu al meeting w as
h �ld at Fresno State College. The centr al lo cation in the st ate brought an
exception ally l arge turnout and fe atured C arl S auer as the luncheon
spe aker. A field tri p to the Russell Giffen R anch on the west side of the
V alle y proved agre at success under the le adershi pof Chet Cole.
Returning to S an Diego St ate College, the seventh meeting w as con­
ducted b y President D avid Lantis with Robert Rich ardson in ch arge of
loc al arr angements. A highlight of the aff air w as a field tri p led b y L auren
Post throu gh the f ascin ating S an Diego hinterl and to the mount ain com­
munity of Juli an.
. M oving to the f arthest north loc ation e ver selected b y the org aniz ation,
Chico St ate College served as the host institution for the eighth annu al

12
 meeting. A lfred Butz served as president with Bru ce Ogilvie in charge o f
local arrangements. Samuel Van Valkenburg gave the banquet address. The
meeting was climaxed by a .fie ld trip through the Sutte r Buttes led by Fred
Neumann and Tom Rodgers.
The only non-college level institution to host the organization, Santa
Monica High Schoo l , was chosen for the ninth meetin g. B r u c e Ogi l vi e
served a s president with John Ives i n charge o f local arrangements and w ith
George McBride presenting the banquet address. An aerial field trip, this
time devoted to the urban areas of Orange and Los Angeles counties, was
again a feature of the meeting.
Shifting north, Sacramento Junior Co llege hosted the council at the
tenth annual meeting with Clarissa Kimber in charge of local arrangements.
David Jennings presided over the wel l- a t t e n d ed meetings . The most
comprehensive program of .field trips offered at any of the meeting s was
schedu led, with emphasis on flood problems in the Sacramento area.
Under the presidency of Adolf Stone , with David Lantis in charge of
local arrangements, the e leventh meeting was held at Compton College.
David Jennings gave the banquet ad dress under the intriguing ti tle of
"Adventures in Serendipity."
Santa Rosa Junior Co llege served as the host instituti on for the twelfth
meeting. Robert Jo h nso n presided with A l fred B u tz in charge of loca l
arrangements. The Paci.fic Northwest was drawn on for luncheon and
banquet speakers with Granvil le J e n s e n of Oregon State and Douglas
Jackson of the University of Washi ngton performing the hono rs . The .field
trip at this meeting was a tour through the apple country to the coast.
Attracting an exceptiona lly large attendance, the thirtee nth meeting
was held at Long Beach City Col lege with Adolph Stone in charge of local
arrangements. Robert Eidt presided over the meetings, which featured
Walter Wi lley as luncheon speaker. C. Langdon White presented the ban ­
quet add ress. A .field trip through L on g Beach harbor on the boat "Shear­
water" proved a special d �light.
The . fourteenth meeting was he ld at San Jose State College with
Wa lter Olson presiding and Wil liam Steele in charge of ol cal ar range­
, ments. Huey Kostanick presente d the banquet address.
Anxious to show off its new, large, beautifu l campus , San Fernando
Va l ley State College invited the counci l for the .fifteenth annual meeting.
Robert Durrenberger took charge of loca l arrangements. Howard Ne lson
presided, w ti h Joseph Spencer ser ving as banquet speaker. A unique .field
trip and social affair featured a visit to the Anheuser-Busch Brewery.
. Retu rnin g to Fresno State Col lege, the sixteenth meeting was presided
over by John Crosby with Chester Co le and Roger Ervin responsib le for
loca l arrangements. A Friday night social affair featured a dinner with a
wine-tasting pre lude. Ned Munger presented the banquet address.
San Diego State Col lege hosted the seventeenth meeting, the third
time in the organization's history that San Diego had served in this capacity.
A socia l affair on a tropica l island 'provided a delightful interlude. Lauren

13
Post presided over the meetings and a most coopera tjve staff shared in
providing the local arrangments. Hugo Fisher, head of the State Resources
Agency, gave the banqu et address. A particularly successful feature of the
meeting was a panel on high s �hool geography, organized by \iVilliam
Pattison.
The eighteenth annual meeting was held at the Universit y of the
Pacific at Stockton with James Blick in charge of local arrangements. Ray
S tanley presided over the well-attended meetings. Arthur Carthew gave
the luncheon address and Richard Logan addressed the evening ban quet.
Following the meetings Long Beach State College invited the Council
to meet in L ong Beach in 1965, under the leadership of President Sheldon
D. Ericksen.
In addition to the annual meetings featuring the pre sen ta ti on of
papers, co n,1mittee reports, business sessions, field trips, social affairs, lunch­
eon and banquet speeches, the organization embarked on a limited pro­
gram of publications. The first publication was the Newsletter, first edited
by Lauren Post, followed by David Lantis and Chester Cole. It was issued
several times a year in mimeographed form, with such items of news as a
president's message, annual meeting programs, and department information . .
Once a year a membership list was included in some of the early numbers,
and a few research studies were printed such as Valene Smith's "Report on
the Legal Status of Geography Instruction in California." Reference to this
article were later to prove useful to some s chools seeking to expand thei r
geography offerings.
November, 1953, saw the inauguration of the Bulletin of the Cali­
fornia Council of Geography Teachers under the editorship of Chester
Cole. This was a somewhat larger and more inclusive publication than the
Newsletter and included room for a few manuscripts, generally drawn from
papers presented at the annual meetings. After six years of devoted wor k
by ,Cole, Robert A. Kennelly took the editorship in 1959 to, in turn, pass
on the assignment in 1 960 to Robert Lamb who conti nued until 1964, when
S ta nley Ross took over.
Starting in 1960 a printed yearbook pub lication, the California Geog­
rapher, was i naugurated under the editorship of Robert A . Kennelly. The
majority of the articles are drawn from papers presented at the annual
meetings. The Los Angeles Trade-Technical College Printing Department
is responsible for the printing of the publication for which the Council is
most grateful.
Committee work has made important contributions to the activities o f
the council. Perhaps the most important si ngle contribution was made by
the Committee o n Teacher Certification under the able leadership of Lau ­
Ten Post. Following passage of the Fisher Bill by the state legislature in
1 96 1 , which provided for a new teacher certification program in California,
the council took steps through the appointed committee to see that geog­
raphy would be adequately represented in the program. Meeti ngs were held
with the responsible officials in the State Department of Education, and
geographers throughout the state were asked to submit suggestions for a
desirable program. The final program was conveyed to the proper authori-

14
ties and has probably made a positive contribution to assuring geography
a :firm position i n the new credentialing program, although at this writing
implementation of the final program has not bee n completed. Certainly
without a spokesman in its behalf, geography could have been relegated to
a very minor role in the teacher certification program w hich would in turn
affect its status in the entire education program of the state.
Through the years there has not always been unanimous agreement
regarding the w o r k and f u nc ti o n of the council. In 1960 quite a mov e
developed to change the name of the o r g a n i z a t i o n and to place more
emphasis on basic geographic research and less on geography in education.
In a spirited election, the membership went on record as emphasizing the
educatio nal aspect of geography in the council program and retaining th e
name of California Council of Geography Teachers.
In reviewing the history of the organization, it is only proper to point
out some failures and shortcomings as w e'll as successes. Failure to recruit
a larger membership from the ranks of elementary and high school teachers
has been regrettable. Most of the members hip has consisted of college and
university personnel. Perhaps young geographers, particularly graduate
stu dents, have not been sufficiently well i ndoc t ri n at e d in the need for
organization, nor have they been encouraged to join. The annual meetings
have, on occasion, been ch �r acterized by quite inferior programs, made up
of volunt eer papers with perhaps no central theme organi z a t i on. Not
enough emphasis has been given to improving geographic instruction at
the various levels, includin g the college and university. Some of the "big
names" have not given the active support to the organization that pro ­
fessional respo nsibility should expect, although several such individuals
who expressed skepticism regarding the council at its organization have
come around to lending active support to the program.
On the positive side, geography in California has an organization,
which every subject in the highly competitive educational curriculum needs
in order to hold its own . . No subject can exp e.c t i ndiv iduals not trained in
its discipline to fight its c u r r i c u l ar b a t t l es. The annual meetings have
yielded rewards not measura ble in papers and reports, by providing per ·
so nal contacts, opportunity to .exchange ideas, constructive gossip, and, per­
haps most imp ortant, have helped create a geographic fraternity with a
group of educators committed to an ideal and joi ned in a feeling that they
have something important to contribute to the education o f the stude nts
of our state.
Perhaps some additional suggestions might be in order for the future,
in addition to improving the established program. Interim meetings , in ad­
dition to the annual meeting, might be scheduled on a regional basis. Such
meetings could be of a semi nar nature with discussion panels on which
local teachers are drawn on for ideas and demonstrations. Perhaps the coun ­
cil could exert influence on schools and communities with inferior geog­
raphy programs, by communi cations and suggestions to improve or add
geography i nstruction. In-service p r ograms should be proposed to loca l
school systems with competent people avai al ble to staff them. There are
still colleges in · California training teachers which do not offer a single
course in geography ! The meeting programs should be better planned, with

15
qualified individuals asked to share in at least part of the program, possibly
in a panel type of presentation. A topic of genuine interest an d importance
should be developed. Possibly certain no n-geographers should be invited
to give points of view which could contribute to better understanding . The
excellent field trip programs have greatly enriched the knowledge of ou r
state on the part of those participating, and, if the setting of the meeting
justifies it, field trips s hould be scheduled and carefully organized. The fine
social affairs which have characterized many of the annual meetings should
be conti nued and the Denoyer-Geppert Company deserves congratulations
for its fine contribution to the success of past affairs. The many young
geographers should be encouraged by their member institutions to join and
take an active role in the council.
In addition to those whose names have been mentio ried serving as
president, arrangements chairmen, speakers and editors, credit sho uld b e
given to others, especially the treasurers who commonly held office for two
or more successive years. William Byro n, Howard Brunson, and Delmas
Bugelli helped keep the organization solvent through the years. Undo ubted­
ly many others wh ose names cannot be recalled at this writing have also
made their contribution, serving on committees and assisting with the an­
nual programs. Only th e limitation of space and memory makes it im­
possib el to do justice to all who have shared in the fu nction of the organiza­
tion throughout its life.
With a record reaching over eighteen years and with a bright future
ahead, the California Council of Geography Teachers deserves the con­
tinued support of the profession.

16
 THE ROLE OF TRANSPORTATION IN CHOCO
CULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE
HERBERT M. EDER
University of California, Berkeley
The region of the Choc6, along the Pac fii c Coast of the Republic of
Colombia , is a legendary land of wealth. The Choc6 was one of the fabled
tierra ricas of conquest and colonial days, and continues to be thought of
as such today. Even though located near that historic crossroad of mainland
passage, the Isthmus of Panama, the Choc6 remains today one of the lesser
known regions of the Americas.
The Choc6 is o ne part of the mos aic that is the tropical lands of the
world. It is a lowland covered with verdant equatorial rainforest and fringed
by tidal mangrove. The landscape is not a plain, but a dissected hill land.
These forest-clad hills are the product of numerous cooperative physica l
processes, the most significant of which may well be the tropical climate. .
Temperatures rarely fa l belo w 70° o r rise above 90°F.; high relative hu­
midity and large amounts of precipitation are characteristic. The C hoc6 is
the rainiest place in the Americas. The core of the region, the Atrato-San
Juan depressio n around Quib d6, receives slightly over 400 inches of rain­
fall annu ally; the regional average is over 120 inc hes. Rivers flow year ­
round with high water following the frequent rains ·and low water oc ­
curring during occasional three- to five-day rainless periods. At high water
the rivers are charged with sediments; and as a consequence strips of fertile
alluvium line the valleys. On the hills less fertile tropical latosols prevail.
The natural fauna, prior to the last few decades, ran the gamut of tropical
American species.
Within this physical milieu Indians developed unique patterns of cul­
ture, unique ways of life. These patte rns were inscribed on the landscape
as the Indians occupied their terr ti ory and pursued their livelihood. Over
the inhabited portions of the surface of the earth, both in dwelling and
carrying on his economy, man has u n i q u el y modified the l a n d s c a p e in
correlation with his technology and cultural attitudes. This is one of the
few working hypotheses geographers have extrapolated from their centuries
of observing man-lan d relationships. The Indians of the Choc6 have also
left their marks on the land. ·

The purpose of this paper is threefold : first, to describe in brief the

Indian cul tu re , placing emphasis on the economy in its · ecological context;
second, to delineate the changes that hav e modified this way of life, with
resultant changes in the landscape, and, third, to assess the role of t he
traditional mode of transportation, the I n d i a n d u g o u t c a n o e, in t hese
changes.These observations c o n c e rn i n g c u l t u re ch ange, l a n d �c ap e
change, and transportation are based o n a short period of field work in the
summer of 196}.1
1 This paper is the partial result of field work supported by the Geography
Branch of the Office of Naval Research, Contract 388 06?, with the Department of
Geography, University of California, Berkeley. The writer wi<hes especially to
acknowledge the assistance of Dr. James J. Parsons and Dr. Carl 0 Sauer, Univ·�rsity
of California, Berkeley, and Dr. Richard F. Logan, Dr. Joseph E. ':'pencer, and Mr.
Martin Diskin, University of California, Los Angeles.

1?
 z
<
I.Ll
u
0

Map l. Chaco District, Western Colombia

18
 Habitation of the nar row river valleys of the western lowlands of the
Choc 6is pre-Columbian.2 The Noanama, one of the Indian groups of the
Choc 6, have traditionally occupied the central slopes of the region. Today
they dwell in number only along the R oi Siguiris {w, a tributary of the R io
Docampad 6 (S ee M a p 1 ). This is th e group and the area on which the
paper will focus.
The N o an a m a live in dispersed, raised-platform, extended-family
houses on valley terraces and hilltops (Figure 1 ) . The river fringes are
the limits of human occupa ncy and the interior lands are uninhabited.
The focus of livelihood is hunting, fishing, gathering, and shifting cultiva­
tion of a non-burning variety. In this system in pre-Columbian times stone
tools were used to girdle trees and c ;rops were planted in their decomposed
materia L Large amounts of energy were requ ri ed to dear small forest plots.
Crop growing was associated with the river margins, where trees were
abse nt and soils rich. The dibble was used to plant the ma jor root crop,
sweet manioc or y uca. M ai z e, the staff of life, was broadcast over the
mulch-covered fe lings. The seeds of tree crops (the peach p a l m, the
coconut, the cacao, and the calabash) were purposefully planted or casually
tossed aside. In either case, the plants germinated, matured, and produced
usable fruit. The Noanama obtained the largest part of their protein and
calcium from hunting, fishing, and gathering. Folk tales indicate these
labors formerly occupied a more prominent position in the economy than
they do at present. 3 The bow and arrow, the blow-gun and poisoned dart,
and the stout spear were the primary hunting tools before the introduction
of firearms. Stealth and a consummate knowledge of the habits and sounds
of the prey were the hunter's techniques then. The dog, most importa nt
of the few domesticated animals, was used as a hound. Fishing produced
the most c onstant source of meat and was carried on with spear, poison,
and hook and line.
The pre-conquest patterns of Noanama occupancy and economy on
the landscape were distin ct. Isolated houses were surrounded with small
patches of crops, in view of the planti ngs near the river (Figure 1). Accor­
ding to legend, animal sounds came from the surrounding forest, and
there were fish in the river. The variety of plants and animals consumed by
the group was wide. The impact of the Noanama, not "natural men" in the
Rousseauan sense, o n their resource base was less specialized and destruc­
tive than it is at present.
One of the prime characteristics of the inhabitants of the Choc 6 has
been their mobility and riverine orientation. The Indian dugout, fashioned
from a chachajo (Anibo, spp.), or cedro (Cedr e l a , s p p.), i s t he m os t i m­
portant mode of transportation in the Pacific lowlands from Ecuador to
Panama. Before the i ntroduc tion of European tools, the dugout was hollow­
ed with stone or wooden tools or, perhaps, with fire. Today it is shaped

2 Robert C. West, The Pacific LotVlands of Colombia: A Negroid Area of the

American Tropics. Louisiana State University Press, Social Sciences Series, No. 8,
p. 88.
s Field notes from Martin Diskin, Department of Anthropology, University of
California, Los Angeles. These folk tales were recently presented as a Master of Arts
thesis, unpublished, I 963.

19
 Figure 1. The circular pile dwelling, or bohio, is located
atop a hill and sun-ounded with plantings of plantains and
bananas. Note the primitive steps and the means of anchor­
ing dugouts in the river.

Figure 2. On a shingle beach in ·the mid-portion of the

river this Noanama uses the sharp, steel hand adz to finish
hollowing the dugout. Note the boy with his toy. canoe.

20
with the ever-present axe and machete, and £nished with a sharp steel adz
(Figures 2 and 3). A sleek, tapering watercraft, 1 5 to 18 feet in length and
from 1 :Y2 to 2 feet in breadth, the dugout is propelled against the current
by poling or with the current by guiding with the paddle. The Noanama
are a riverine people and a great part of their lives is spent in dugouts.
The movement of individuals and groups from river valley to river valley
is totally dependent upon this watercraft. The challenge of the river is met
with gusto and real enjoyment, as well as with considerable skill. Patterns
of mobility along the rivers to local or distant goals, possibly as far as the
upper Rio Atrato, were well established prior to the Conquest. Some of this
mobility necessitates overland transit. Foot trails from the headwater of
one navigable stream to another t i e the r e g i o n t o g e t h er. However, the
utilization of such trails is decidedly less frequent than travel along the
"streets" of the rivers. Prior to contact with Old World ways the inter­
change of tools, techniques, and ideas took place within a discrete circuit.
Noanama technology was in tune with the neigboring cultures of the trop­
ical lowlands of the Choc6.
The initial contact between the Spanish Con quistadores and the
Noanama was in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Con­
tact was later than in other areas of the Choc6 because the territory of the
Noanama was between the points of oceanic contact and to the west of the
route of overland travel. A few raids against the port of Buenaventura in
the £rst decades of Spanish control earned the Noanama the title indios
de guerra. The Indians attacked the port after traveling along the coastal
mangrove channels, or esteros, in their dugouts. Occasional raids by the
Spanish into Noanama territory resulted in paci£cation, and by the middle
of the seventeenth century royal tribute was being collected. The Indians
paid their assessments with food and by producing dugouts.4 In traveling
to the centers of Spanish control the Noanama likely came into contact
with Old vVorld crops, such as sugar cane, plantains, and bananas. Without
doubt, they encountered Old World domesticated animals, tools of iron
and steel, and a myriad of new sights and sounds.
In the early seventeenth century importation of African Negroes as
slave labor for the gold placers of the Choc6 was initiated.5 The Noanama
thereby met still another and different set of beings. This newly-arrived
population brought a distinct gene pool, some African tropical diseases,
new crops, and a highly-developed spiritual and oral tradition. Largely dis­
possessed of material culture traits, the Negro or Libre (the freed one, as he
has come to be known) borrowed the bulle of his paraphernalia from the
Indian. Crops and methods of cultivation, styles of house construction, and
weapons for hunting and £shing were adapted, as well as the traditional
transport craft, the dugout. The production of these latter items has never
been fully mastered by the Negro. They are mainly purchased from the
Indian. Such economic relations have been among the small number of
intergroup functions. The growth of Negro population resulted in an un-

4 Archivo J-list6rico Nacional de Colombia, Bogota. Protocolos XXV., f. 9 vols.

( 1 605-1810).
5 Archive J-Iist6rico Nacional de Colombia, Bogota. Minas del Cauca V., f. 362
( 1 690).

21
 Figure 3. Short, chopping strokes with the sharp, steel
hand adz are used in the final stages of the hollowing process.
A smooth surface is the result.

Figure 4. These Noanama men have just completed felling

the surrounding forest with axe and machete. This is the final
step in the regional system of non·burning shifting cultivation.

22
precedented imposition of man on the landscape. Negroes built their houses
in isolated clusters on the margins of the main streams. They opened new
lands to c u l t i v a ti on, and they h u n ted and fished in forest and stream.
Through natural increase the Libre has become the dominant racial group
in the Choc6.
With the ascendancy of Negro numbers and areas of occupancy, the
Noanama and other Indians of the Choc6 retreated up the tributaries to
the headwaters of the river networks. This was a matter of choice, not
force. 6 Rather than dwell near people they despised, the Indians moved
upstream.7 As a result of these spatial constrictions, the migration of Indi­
ans very likely began to the Darien of Panama. For those who remained in
Colombia, their resource range lessened with their isolation. Their "ecolog·
ical elbow room" tightened in the upper drainage basins, where fish and
game were limited in numbers. Though the pot remained full, vegetable
foods became more important to the diet. The plantain sufficed for meat.
The axe and machete were used to open greater tracts of forest for plant­
ing (See Figure 4).
By the early nineteenth century, dugout travel to the local trading
post was commonplace. Occasional trips were made to the regional centers
of Buenaventura and Quibd6. In traveling to and from these settlements
new tools, techniques, ideas, and c u l t u r a l a t t i t u d e s were encountered.
Machined cotton textiles, twopenny nails, axes, and machetes were the
desired goods. By the twentieth century, shotguns and smallbore rifles,
pots and pans, matches and carbide lamps, and muslin netting could be
purchased. By the 1 950's, even with the restrictions on firearms imposed
by the Colombian government, few Indian houses were without such weap­
ons. Negro compctdres showed the Noanama how to twine fish nets.
These new hunting weapons, fishing tools, and a s s o c i a ted techniques,
gained through contact via the dugout, have resulted in a regional deple­
tion of fish and game. Both the black spider monkey (Ateles, spp.) , and the
red howler monkey (Alouatta, spp.) and birds, such as the toucan (Rham­
phastus, spp.), which were too high to be killed with poison dart or arrow,
were exterminated with steel shot and .22 calibre bullets. One of the im­
portant economic species of fish (Sabala, Brycon, spp.) has been all but
eradicated through the unwise use of nets. Food growing has increased
not only in area, but in economic and dietary importance. Plantings are
now found the distance of a twenty-minute walk from the river, and there
are more of them. Changes in technology, the same that are affecting the
economy, diet, and landscape, have brought about the abandonment of
many traditional institutions, attitudes, and modes of production. Social
structure, patterns of authority, land tenure, folklore, religion, and house­
hold arts and crafts have changed. An interest in pesos to purchase matches,
kerosene, carbide, or other western goods is rampant. The movement from

6 This is in direct contrast to the ideas expressed by Robert C. Murphy, "Racial

Succession in the Colombia Choc6," Geographical Review, Vol. 29 (July, 1 939),
p. 469.
7 This sentiment was expressed by Indian informants. It was verified and had
its landscape impact in three places where Indian houses had been abandoned close
to recently-settled Libres.

23
the traditional economy, based on subsistence and barter, toward a money
economy is in progress. The transition may take the N o a n am a, in the
future, from the status of a primitive, traditional society to a peasant society
or, perhaps, to disintegration. These changes will be reflected in an ever­
increasi ng impact on the resource base of the Noanama.
In conclusion, the mechanism behind cultural and environmen tal
change among the Noanama of the Choc6, as elsewhere in much of Latin
America, has been contact with new tools, techniques, ideas, and cultural
attitudes. Changes began with the contact between Indian and Spaniard
and were furthered by contact between Indian and African. The most
striking changes have occurred in the last half century with the contact of
Indian and western culture. \iVithin the humid tropical land of the Choc6
the avenues for contact in the past, as in the present, have been the fluvial
"streets." These have been the routes of cultural connectivity. The mode
of transportation in aboriginal times, as today, has been the Indian dugout.
The motivations then, as now, were primarily economic, social, and cere­
monial. Though the pattern and range of mobility has increased little, and
the frequency of movement is not radically different, what lies at the ends
of the lines has drastically changed. The dugouts have been the recepta­
cles; they have carried the seeds of cultural cha nge, and thus environ­
mental change, back to the headwaters of the rivers, the centers of Indian
occupancy.
In many other parts of the culture region of Latin America new tools,
ideas, and ways of doing things are brought to the inhabitants by tradi­
tional and modern modes of transportation and communcations. The role
of these techniques of movement of goods and ideas in the modification of
the cultures and e nvironments of Latin America is largely undetermined;
it pr"'�"'nts numerous topics for further consideration.

24
 PLANTATION FARMING : ITS WIDER
APPLICATION IN AGRICULTURAL CLASSIFICATION
HowARD F. GREGOR
University of California, Davis
Agricultural classification schemes have traditionally assigned planta­
tion farming to predominantly tropical areas. Yet the Agricultural Revolu­
tion continues to favor, on an increasing scale, most or all of those charac­
teristics long considered most typical of the plantation, viz., crop and areal
specialization, highly rationalized cultivation and harvesting techniques,
large operating units, management centralization, l ab o r s p e c i a l i z a ti on,
massive production, and huge capital investments. Many farms, therefore,
have been rapidly acquiring plantation characteristics and in areas well
beyond the low latitudes. Meanwhile, the older, and more "traditional,"
plantations have been further rationalizing their operations. vVhy this lag
of classification behind actual events? It would seem that the principle
reason is too rigid a plantation definition. Economic forms are rarely static;
modification is the rule, and the rate of modification has been constantly
quickening. The plantation, as one of the most rational of economic forms
is therefore especially susceptible to change. What is needed, then, is a
more flexible concept of the plantation, one that will recognize its dynamic
nature and not consign it to decline as soon as it deviates from classification
criteria set up in a particular historical period. Although there has never
been complete agreement on a definition of the plantation, there are
several commonly-held biases.

BIASES IN THE PLANTATION DEFINITION

Perhaps the oldest of these biases is the view of the plantation as a
solution by the white man to his supposed inability to do manual labor in
the tropics. Not until the last world war was this view, which was rooted
in the skepticism of eighteenth-century European philosophers concerning
possibilites of overseas colonization by Europeans, authoritatively contradict­
ed by research.1 This was the work of the physiological climatologists,
who, in efFect, concluded that there are no climates in which man cannot
work effectively. Nor do past and present plantation areas show a strict
correlation with tropical climates. Plantations were first developed in Iran
and the Mediterranean Basin and are not unimportant there today. Planta­
tion farming also is a thriving occupation in the southwestern and south­
eastern United States and in certain sections of Australia, Chile, and the
Republic of South Africa. Plantations also have been recorded for areas
well beyond the subtropics, such as Iceland, Ireland, and .parts of colonial .
New England. Today many fruit, vegetable, sugar beet, tobacco farms in
the northern United States and sugar beet farms in northwestern Europe

1 Jean Gottmann, La Politique des Etats et leur Geographie (Paris : Armand

Colin, 1952), p. 35. Also D. H. K. Lee, "Physiological Climatology," in American
c:'eogravhy : Inventory and Prospect. eels. P. E. James 2nd C. F. Jones (Syracu�e,
N.Y. : Syracuse University Press, 1 954), pp. 470-483.

25
· display marked plantation characteristics. Certain Soviet lwlkhozes, special­
izing in crops like sugar beets and cotton, are about the nearest equivalent
to the California "factory farm."
Another climatic bias, but more influential indirectly, is the common
restriction of the plantation classification to those large-scale farms produc­
ing tropical or subtropical crops. Waibel narrowed the restriction further
by labeling as a plantation only those enterprises raising crops that required
complicated processing, this being necessary to preserve the product on its
long trip from lower to higher latitudes.2 Both of these restrictions have
lost much of their meaning in the last several decades, again particularly
since the second world war. Numerous traditionally middle-latitude crops
are now being cultivated extensively by plantation-type enterprises. Prob­
ably the best single example is that of C a l i fo rn ia, where sugar beets,
vegetables, and deciduous fruits are grown in quantity. Advances in crop
selection have also made possible advances of normally tropical or sub­
tropical crops into cooler zones, as shown by the northward extensions of
cotton, tea, grapes, and citrus fruit in the Soviet Union. Technological
advances also continue to make ever more tenuous the association bv
Waibel of complex processing with low latitude location of plantation�.
Industrial methods, from sorting, packing, washing, and waxing by machine
to vacuum-packing and freezing, are being applied to a growing number of
crops heretofore not considered the plantation type and not necessarily
located in the low latitudes. Nor do all crops raised in the plantation man­
ner need complex processing, as illustrated by bananas.
Crop biases in the plantation definition also show in �he prominence
given to monoculture. P l an t a ti o n s, however, have never been strictly
monocultural in that food crops have commonly been raised for plantatio n
personnel. Then, as soil deterioration and unsettling of the biological bal­
ance have become problems, remedying crops (in particular, legumes)
have taken their places beside the money crop. More recently, marketing
problems have been encouraging the addition of one or more money crops.
Another reason for t h i s move in some areas is, surprisingly enough,
mechanization. Although one of the most potent forces favoring one-crop
cultivation, it also makes available more area and cultivating time, not all of
which necessarily has to be given to the one crop. Also, the lmi.ger machin­
ery is used, the quicker its costs can be amortized.
Crop biases in previous agricultural classification schemes have also
encouraged the underestimation of the extent of plantation area. Engel­
brecht's "Die Landbauzonen der Erde,"3 which has strongly influenced .
German and American geographers to this day, emphasized crop regions,
not agricultural systems, and restricted plantation activity to those crops
that were thought "ty]Jical" of plantations, i.e., low latitude crops. \iVhitt­
lesey's "Major Agricultural Regions of the Earth,"4 still considered by most

2 Leo Waibel, "Probleme dei: Landwirtschaftsgeographie," Wirtschaftsgeo­

graphische Ahhandlungen, Nr. I ( 1933), p . 18.
3 Hinrich Engelbrecht, "Die Landbauzonen der Erde," Petermanns Geo­
graphische Mitteilungen, E1·ganzungshand 45 ( 1 930), pp. 286-297.
4 Derwent Whittlesey, "Major Agricultural Regions of the Earth," Annals,
Association of American Geographers, 26 ( 1936), pp. I 99-240.

26
 American geographers as the definitive agricultural classification, was based
on more criteria; yet it, too, assigned plantation farming mainly to tropical
crops ("Plantation Crop Tillage"), Even Eduard Hahn, who was one of
the :6rst to concern himself with the plantation form and who was much
more system-oriented than either Engelbrecht or Whittlesey, ma i n tained
that the tropical zone location was the most important characteristic of the
plantation.5
Still other views on the nature of the plantation face revision as major
changes take place in its character. No longer are plantations restricted to a
single-owner, capitalistic type of operation. Now they may be run also as
a stock company or as a cooperative with management decisions made by
a private company or by the state. Plantations in several areas are also reduc­
ing their dependence on foreign markets by concentrating more on home
demands, while others activel)' pursue both outlets. Plantations are also re-
. clueing their dependence on labor by extensively mechanizing. Labor is be­
coming increasingly more expensive as people move to the cities in search
of opportunity, a movement strong in both developed and underdeveloped
areas. In underpopulated areas, mechanization is promoting the spread of
plantation farming into areas previously thought unsuitable for agriculture.
Nor can the traditional view of plantation labor as a poverty-stricken and
ruthlessly exploited group be uniformly defended. Despite such social con­
trasts as the Soviet kolkhozian and the South African Negro, forces are
working everywhere toward the formation of a worker who is better paid,
provided with health and security services by the government, trained in
machinery operation, and imbued with the a t ti t ud e s of an industrial
worker. Ethnic differences between labor and management groups are also
being obliterated as workers move into supervisory positions and buy
plantations from former owners.

PLANTATION TYPOLOGY AND TERMINOLOGY

·

The wide distribution and numerous variations of the modern planta-

tion make for a rich typology. The continuing spread of farming technol­
ogy makes increasingly difficult a primary classi:6cation of plantation types
based on the peculiarities of geographic region, but it does sharply differen­
tiate plantations as to the complexity of processing operations and the na­
ture of the associated capital equipment. Walter Gerling has been the :6rst
to construct a plantation typology using these two criteria, 6 although tech­
nological advances since his proposals make it necessary to add many more
plantation types to his original list of seventeen. These additions have
come about in two ways: new crops being r a i sed and processed in the
plantation manner, and new types of preparation being applied to crops
that have already been contributing to plantation production (e.g., freez­
ing).
A further addition to the Gerling typology that seems necessary is a
secondary dassi:6cation based on social structure. Although production is
5 Eduard Hahn, "Die Wirtschaftsfonnen der Erde, "Petermanns Mitteilungen,
38 ( 1 892), pp. 8-12. .
6 Walter Gerling, Die Plantage (Wurzburg : Verlag der Stahel'schen Univer­
sitatsbuchhandlung, 1 9 54), p. 47.

27
 '
the principal object of the plantation, an inseparable by-product is a
way of life. Three categories can be recognized : the individual, or corpor­
ate, plantation, based on a free economy; the state, or government, planta­
tion, with a strictly planned economy; and the coopera tive p l an tation,
which is managed by the government but depends on the world market.
The applicatiop of the term "plantation" to all these varieties of large­
scale farms practicing intensive agricultural operatio ns is not approved by
all. Some would substitute "industrial farm," but its newness, its contradic­
tion in terms, and the practice in many sections of applying the term to any
farming system extensively employing rationalized procedures reduce its
usefulness. Binns has suggested "estate,"' but for many the word suggests
leisurely, rather than highly c o mmerci a l i z e d and rationalistic, farming.
9 ther terms have also been s uggeste d but none is so widely known as
·'plantation," despite the social connotations often associated with the word.
"Plantation" also has a natural and historical basis as a term that is largely
and objectively economic, i.e., one that refers to an area of cultivated crops,
often large. Expansion of this meaning on the economic level would cer­
tainly seem more appropriate than selection of an entirely different term
which may be more pertinent at the mome nt but would have far fewer
users.

7 Bernard 0. Binns, Plantations and Other Centrally Operated Estates, FAO

Agricultural Studies, No. 28. (Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations, 1955), p. 8.

28
 RECLAMATION SEQUENCE IN THE
SACRAMENTO-SAN JOAQUIN DELTA
JoHN THoMPSON
University of Illinois

Just over a century ago the S a cramen to-San Joaquin Delta was a
great fresh-water tidal marsh. Tules (Scirpus lacustris L.) occupied a11
but the deeper ribbons of water and thin corridors of shrub and woods
covered the natural levees. The hygrophytic plants overlaid a body of de­
composed organic matter which at the western apex of the delta had a
maximum vertical development of 50 or 60 feet. The peat, overlying a min­
eral substratum of a11uvial and lacustrine origin, accumulated during a
period of prolonged areal subsidence.1
The bulk of the 53 5,000 acres which comprise the delta is enclosed
by the 1 0-foot contour (Figure I ) . Over half of the area is at or below sea
leveJ.2 An account of the transformation of the swamp into an intensively
farmed landscape is the purpose of this paper.

CALIFORNIA's SwAMP AND OvERFLOWED L AND

The delta embraces about 20 per cent of the total swamp and over­
Bowed land which the United States awarded to California from the public
domain. 3 The granting of such lands was provided for in the Arkansas
Act, which Congress passed on September 28, 1850. The state in accept­
ing the la:!d also accepted responsibility for directing revenue derived from

1 Andrew C. Lawson, "The Geomorphogeny of the Coast of Northern Cali­

fornia," University of California, Department of Geology, Bulletin, I (November
1 894) , pp. 265-266; F. Leslie Ransome, "The Great Valley of California," ibid.
(April 1896), p. 4 1 5 ; California, Department of Public Worll:s, Division of Water
Resources, Report of Sacramento-San Joaquin itVater Supervisor for the Period 1 924-
1 928, Bulletin No. 23 (Sacramento: 1 930), p. 3 6 1 ; U.S. Department of the Inte­
rior, Geological Survey, Geology and Water Resources of the Mokelumne Area,
California, Water Supply Paper No. 6 1 9, by H. T. Stearns, T. W. Robinson, and
G. H . Taylor (vVashington : 1 9 30), p. 32; U . S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau
of Plant Industry, and University of California Agricultural Experiment Station,
Soil S-urvey of the Sacramento-San ]oaW:tin Area, California, Series 1 9 3 5, No. 2 1 , by
Stanley W. Cosby (Washington : 1 94 1 ), pp. 1 7- 1 8 .
2 At least since 1 869 t h e contour has been recognized to embrace a floodplain
segment with subaerial deltaic features . . Sherman Day, "Report," in Tide Land
Reclamation Company, Fresh Water Tide Lands of California (San Francisco :
M.D. Carr and Co., 1 869), p. 1 5; California, Commissioner of Public Works, Report
. . to the Governor of California, containing "Report of Consulting Engineers," by
•

Marsden Manson and C. E. Grunsky (Sacramento : 1 895), p. 8.

Bureau of Reclamation water-use investigators adopted the five-foot contour, but
added higher lands that were irrigated from delta channels. .U.S. De:p,artment of the
Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, Project Development Division, 'Delta Report,"
by John A. McKeag (Sacramento: 1954), unpaginated manuscript:
3 U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, "Report of the
Director, 1950," with Statistical Appendix (Washington : n.d.), p. 1 26, Mimeo­
graphed; California, Surveyor General, Statistical Report for the Years 1 869,
• • .,

1 870 and 1 871, in Appendix to Journals of Senate and Assem bly of the 30th Ses­
sion of the Legislature (Sacramento : 1 872), pp. 6-7.

29
 Are a R e c l a i m e d
� 1 8 6 0 - 70
�· 1 87 0 -80
DDIJD 1 88 0 - 9 0
� 1 8 9 0 - 1 90 0
� 1900- 10
!S.SS1 1 910 - 20
llJill 1920-30

g inun d a t e d

------ --...... "-

..__

Antioch
+ 1 0 ------
""'
\

SACRAM E NTO ­
S A N JOAQ U I N D E LTA
R EC L A M AT I O N

0 2 4 6 8
swampland sales into reclamation. 4 Relatively little revenue resulted, how­
ever, and whatever was used for reclamation was insufficient for the job.
Nevertheless, the state's ·permissive legislation and its post-1910 Central
Valley Rood control program contributed enormously to the ultimate success
of reclamation.
The history of swamp and overRowed land measurement and transfer
to the state is a morass, which may be appropriate. Years elapsed before
federal and state agencies agreed on segregation lines or surveying pro­
cedures.5 Cooperation in surveying became effective after 1 859, but there
was no mechanism to review contested surveys until l 866 and the Secretary
of the Interior did not agree to all of California's claims until 1 87 1 .6 By
that time the state had sold nearly all of the swamp and overflowed land
anyway.

R ECLAMATION INITIATED
Reclamation was begun in the early 1 85 0's by individual settlers who,
aCting independently, constructed low earthen barriers to withstand ex­
ceptional tides and seasonal Roods. The levees on given tracts were joined
gradually and an attempt was made to dress them to uniform specifications.
Most such work was performed by brigades of Chinese, other Asiatics, and
Hawaiians equipped with shovels and wheelbarrows.

In 1 85 3 there were low discontinuous levees along the Sacramento

River :between Rio Vista and Freeport, on the lower Mokelumne, and in
the vicinity of the Calaveras River mouth. 7 Levees appeared on southern
Roberts Island at least by 1 856. The San Joaquin's east bank opposite
Roberts Island, parts of Union Island, mainland patches to the east of Anti-

.; 84 U.S. Statute at Large ( 1 845-5 1 ) , IX, 5 1 9; California, Swamp Land Com­

missioners, First Annual Report . . . , Dec9mber 1 5, 1 8 6 1 , in Appendix to Journals of
Senate and Assembly of the 1 3 th Session of the Legislature (Sacramento: 1 862),
p. 9.
5 For a detailed description of the involved situation see the writer's "The
Settlement Geography of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, California (unpublish­
ed Doctoral dissertation, Department of Geography, Stanford University, December
1 95 7 ) ' pp. 1 8 5 ff. •

6 California, Surveyor General, Annual Report . . . for the Year 1 8 60, in Ap­
pendix to Assembly Journals for the lOth Session of the Legislature (Sacramento :
1 8 6 1 ) , pp. 1 4- 1 5 ; ibid., Biennial Report . . . {rom December 4, 1 8 7 1 , to August 1 ,
1 8 73, i n Appendix to Jomnals of Senate and Ass-embly of the 20th Session of the
Legislature (Sacramento: 1 874), p. 12; W. W. Robinson, Land in California (Berke­
ley: University of C,alifornia Press, 1 948), p. 1 92.
7 Julian Dana, The Sacramento : River of Gold (New York : Farrar and Rine­
hart, Inc., 1 939), p. 1 5 9; An Ill·ustrated History of San Joaquin County, California
(Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co., 1 890), p. 222; California, Commissioner of
Public Works, Report . . . to the Governor of California, ( 1 894), in Appendix to
Journals of Senate and Assembly of the 3 1 st Session of the Legislature (Sacramento :
1 89 5 ) , p. 1 4 ; California, Swamp Land Committee, Evidence Taken before . . . , in
Appendix to Journals of Senate and Assembly of the 1 2th Session of the Legislature
(Sacramento : 1 86 1 ) , p. 8; "Up the Sacramento," San Francisco Call, October 1 6,·
! 877, in Bancroft Scraps, Set W 3, p. 1 064; "San Joaquin News," San Francisco
Alta, December 1 2, 1 852, lac. cit., Set W 4, p. 1 4 1 2.

31
och, and Sherman Island were being protected by levees by 1 859.8 At the
time a big levee stood 2 to 4 feet above a base that was 6 to 8 feet broad. 9
STATE LEADERSHIP
Although some settlers hesitated to make improvements on swampland·
during the 1 850's because of uncertainties in titles, the chief problem was
to develop accord among landowners on reclamation plans and financing.
The legislature attempted to solve this problem in 1861 by creating an
agency to supervise reclamation. The agency was empowered to direct rec­
lamation in districts expressly created upon petition of owners of one-third
"of the land susceptible of being reclaimed together, and contained within
natural boundaries" (interpreted to be natural levees and/or high land) .1 0
That owners of one-third of the land in given area were so privileged was
not approved universally. The state's assumption of responsibility for rec­
lamation was far ahead of the times, notwithstanding the Arkansas Act.
The supervisory State Board of Reclamation Commissioners approved
the formation of reclamation districts, drew up and partially executed levee
and drainage plans, and devised tax programs for I ) all of the backswamp
east of the Sacramento River between the capital and the Cosumnes; 2) a
tract flanked on three sides by the Mokelumne; 3) an area between the San
Joaquin River's east bank and the road linking Tracy and Stockton; 4)
Grand, Staten, and three or four adjacent islands, and 5) the entire back­
swamp betweeri. Rio Vista and Knights La1tding. The latter project failed
with the bankruptcy of the major contractor. All centrally-directed work
halted i n 1 866 upon the legislature's dissolution of the controversial board.U
By 1870 not more than 1 5,000 acres were moderately secure from
H ·10d.U The artifical levees usually rose 2 to 8 feet from bases up to 30 to 40
feet wide. Such reclaimed strips occupied natural levees along the Sacra­
mento above Rio Vista, along the Mokelumne and Calaveras, and flm�<ing
8 History of Sacramento County, California (Oakland: Thompson and West,
1880), p. 220; Commissioner of Public Works, Report , , ( 1 894), pp. 1 2-13, 1 6,
,

1 7; Illustrations of Contra Costa Co., California (Oakland: Smith and Elliott,

1879?), p. 30.
9 Dana, p. 1 6 1 ; Commissioner of Public Works, ibid., p. 1 4.
1 o 3 52 Califo1·nia Statutes ( 186 1 ) , p. 3 5 5 ; Swamp Land Commissioners, First
Annual Report . . . , p. 1 16.
1 1 Ibid., pp. 10- 1 1 , 1 3- 1 5 , 18; California, Board of Swamp Land Commissioners,

Report . . . for the Years 1 864 and 1 865, in Appendix to Journals of Senate and As­
:se:nbly of the 16th Session of the Legislature, Vol. II (Sacramento : 1866), pp. 4,6,
10- 1 3 ; ibid., Second Annual Report . . . , cited in "History and Present Status of Rec­
la:nation Districts in California," California, Department of Public Works, Division
·of Water Resources, Financial and General Data Pertaining to Irrigation, Reclama­
thn and Other Public Distlicts in California, B u ll e t i n N o. 3 7 (S a c r a m e n t o :
1 93 1 ), p. 1 3 5 ; California, Surveyor General, Annual Report • • .( 1862), i n Ap­
-pendix to Assembly Journals for the 14th Session of the Legislature (Sacramento :
1863), pp. 12- 1 3, 2 1 ; California, Contmller of State, Annual Report . . . , for the
Fift:eenth and Sixteenth Fiscal Years, 1864 and 1865, in Appendix to Assembly
Journals for the I6dt Session of cite Legislature, Vol. I (Sacramento : 1866), p. 10;
History of Sacramento County, California, lac. cit.; Illustrations of Contra Costa Co.,
California, lac. cit.
1 2 The writer concurrs with the California Division of Water Resources esti­

mate. Variation and Control of Salinity in Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and Upper
.San Francisco Bay, Bulletin No. 27 (Sacramento: 1932), p. 1 58.

32
the San Joaquin River to the south of Stockton. Drained and broken, such
land increased in value twelve to eighty times. It was worked by self­
employed and tenant farmers who raised wheat, p�tatoes, beans, onions,
and deciduous fruit. Except for wheat, operations tended to be on a small
scale by present standards.13
INDEPENDENT LAnGE-scALE REcLAMATION
After 1 866, when the Board of Reclamation Commissioners ceased to
function, matters pertaining to swamp and overflowed land became the re­
sponsibility of county agencies. Acreage limitations were removed in 1 868,14
and land agents and development companies flourished. Reclamation be­
came a matter of speculation for capitalists from San Francisco and else­
where. The actual work was pursued independently and with vigor, but
with slight comprehension of the complexities involved.
The individuals who dominated reclamation activity after 1866 em­
ployed labor, draft animals, and machinery on a large scale. They had re­
markable success at first, hut in the decades following 1 87 1 floods were
experienced annually somewhere in the delta. General disasters in 1 878
and 1881 shattered fortunes and, for many people, stilled hopes that rec­
lamation could succeed. The persistent men recognized that existing levees
were too low and thin, that due regard had not been paid to their place­
ment, and that something had to be done to check the enormous volume
of mining debris carried into the Central Valley from the Sierra Nevada.
A variety of techniques and tools were employed to achieve reclamation
and to reduce costs. Peat blocks and fill for levee construction, originally
obtained inside the tracts, were dug from borrow ditches outside the arti­
ficial levee at least by 1 869, though the practice was not general for some
years. Levees up to 25 and 30 feet high and 1 00 feet across at the base
were being set behind broad berms after 1 875; drainage canals and steam
pumps were introduced around 1 870 and were in general use by 1 875. The
clamshell dredge, without which reclamation could not have been sus­
tained, was employed after 1 879. This dredge moved more fill more rapidly
and at lower cost than any other piece of equipment.1 5
·
ExPANSION oF RECLAIMED AcnEAGE1 6 ·
Large-scale operations resulted in the more or less successful reclama­
tion or about 1 1 0,000 acres during the 1 870's (See Map 1 ) . Most of the

1 3 Commissioner of Public Worlcs, Rll_ :port . . . ( 1 894), p. 1 3; History of Sacra­

mento County . , p. 1 88; I. N. Hoag, "Farmer's Gardens,'' California, State Agri­
• .

cultural Society, Transactions . , During the Years 1 870 and 1 87 1 (Sacramento:

. .

1 872), p. 340; Swamp Land Commissioners, First Annual Report . . . , p. 1 3 ; ibid.,

Report . . . for the Years 1 8 64 and 1 865, pp. 9-1 0. For a description of reclamation,
island by island, see Thompson, pp. 468-509; for details on costs and land prices see
pp. 282-286. '
14 2 1 5 California Stat-utes ( 1 867-68), p. 507; Division of Water Resources,
Financial and General Data . , p. 1 1 1 .
• •

1 5 The foregoing discussion. based largely on contemporary newspaper and

magazine reports, development company brochures, Federal and State documents.
See Thompson, pp. 2 1 8-286, 446-456.
1 6 Thompson, pp. 468-509, traces the expansion. For general data see Division
of Water Resources, Variation and Control . . ., p. 1 58.

33
tracts lay in the west-central delta between the Sacramento and San Joa·
quin Rivers and between Stockton and Tracy. Apparently west-central
tracts were favored because of their accessibility to main waterways and be
cause of relatively low local flood crests. The more southerly islands pos­
sessed unusually well-defined natural levees and the land was close to
Stockton.
Some 70,000 acres were reclaimed during the 1880's and 60,000 acres
in the 1 890's. The earlier levee enclosures were made in the eastern-central,
southern, and Calaveras River areas. The Sacramento River districts were
slower to complete reclamation for various reasons. Flood crests were es­
pecially high along the debris-choked and levee-constricted river. Serious
wave erosion on back levees occurred whenever water flowed through the
broad Yolo depression west of the Sacramento River. Moreover, diffuse land
ownership handicapped policy making and execution. Elsewhere in the
delta land tended to be owned in large parcels.
Reclamation of the western-central and eastern-central delta occurred
between 1900 and 1920. About 88,000 acres were reclaimed in the first
decade and 94,000 acres in the second. It was a period when farm mechani­
zation, crop specialization, contract plariting, labor contracting, and market­
ing procedures developed into modern forms. The virgin land that was
drained at this time produced splendid potato crops, and it was reclaimed
largely for this purpose. Since a fungus problem rendered peat lands un­
profitable for potato production after three years, there was a steady demand
for fresh soil. Beans, asparagus, barley, and alfalfa were major crops too.
Onions, sugar beets, field corn, and celery occupied lesser acreages.H
The feasibility of swampland reclamation on either side of the Sacra­
mento was greatly enhanced after 1 9 1 0 by flood control works developed
through federal and state cooperation. The river was widened and deepened
below Rio Vista, and the Yolo Bypass was lined with great levees.1 8
Some 24,000 acres were reclaimed in the 1920's to the north of Rio
Vista. The area lies within the Yolo Bypass and is subject to periodic flood­
ing.
CoNcLusiONS
An incalculable price has been paid to reclaim the delta. It may be
estimated that no three-year period passed between 1 8 52 and 1 9 1 1 during
which some improved land was not inundated by flood or high tide. Re­
gional disasters occurred in 18 52, 1861-62, 1 878, 1 88 1 , 1904, 1 906, 1907,
and 1909. Although there were no inundations between 1 9 1 1 and 1925,
there have been levee breaks in some part of the delta on an average of
once every three and a half or four years since. Most of these are limited
to single tracts, some of them in the Yolo Bypass.1 9
1 7 Thompson, pp. 234-237, 3 1 3-3 1 5, 330-3 3 5 . .
1 8 U . S. Congress, House, Reports on the Control of Floods in the River Systems
of the Sacramento Valley and the Adjacent San Joaquin Valley, California, 62nd
Congress, 1st Session, House Document No. 8 1 (Washington: 1 9 1 1 ) , pp. 1 4- 1 5 21-
23; "Report of Assistant Engineer H. H. Viladsworth," in ibid., Control of Floods on
the lvlississippi and Sacramento Rivers, 64th Congress, 1st Session, Heport No. 6 1 6
(Washington: 19 16), Appendix B , p. 1 14. Thompson, pp. 1 76-1 84.
1 9 For an account of the hydrography of the delta and an histodcal description
of Roods see Thompson, Chapter I, Appendix A and B.

34
 The permanent loss of once-reclaimed land has occurred in areas west
and south of Sherman Island and near the center of the delta. Here flood­
ing occurred between 24 and 34 years ago, and owners did not choose to
recover their land.
It is unlikely that there will be additional permanent losses and the
incidence of floods should diminish sharply now that the state and the
federal governments plan to raise massive levees along the Sacramento and
San Joaquin Rivers. The delta will continue to be a major beneficiary of
the p olitical and engineering triumphs that mark California's water supply,
flood control, and reclamation experience.

35
 SOUTH AFRICA'S BANTUS1
AnoLF SToNE
Long Beach City College
, Among the some 37 independent governments of the world's fastest
changing continent, the Republic of South Africa rates special attention
for two reasons.
Occupying only 472,000 of the continental total of 1 1 ,500,000 square
miles, the republic is the undisputed "workshop of the continent." Seventy
per cent of the free world's gold comes from her mines and 75 per cent of
Africa's steel from her mills. Fifty per cent of all the motor vehicles,
railroads and telephones operating in the continent are additional proof for
South Africa's economic strength. The resulting national income surpassed
$7 billion or $420 per capita already ·in 1 963 and 1964 which is not only
an African record but compares favorably with countries like Italy or
Greece. Of this total, incidentally, an estimated $300 million is used for
military preparedness.
The Republic of South Africa stoutly defends the proposition that
Africa is not the exclusive preserve of any one race but "multi-national."
The continent's largest white community, consisting of 3,1 06,000 Afri­
kaans- and English-speaking descendants of Dutch and British settlers.
considers South Africa its homeland. This is still a minority within
the country's total population of 1 6,222,000, but nowhere else in Africa
is the white segment that large or as significant a percentage of the total.
South Africa's majority people are 1 1 ,007,000 black Bantus. In
addition, and separated from blacks as well as from whites are 1 ,502,000
Coloreds, 2 and Mulattos, offspring of racial mixtures of previous centuries, �
and 487;000 Asians who are mostly Indians.
Official South Africa is firmly convinced that the only realistic way
for the four population_ groups to live and let live side by side is complete
segregation. Apartheit, as this is called in their language, is the law of the
land. Under it each population segment remains a separate social unit
and the few inter-group contacts are strictly regulated. White leadership
is assured by excluding the three non-white groups from the right to vote,
to bear arms, or even to organize interest groups such as labor 1.mions. 3
In comparing their policy of Apartheit with integration efforts in the
United States, South African officials point out the following differences:
The U.S. Negro is westernized while most of the Africans are tribalized;
the ratio of black to white in the United States is only 1 to 10 but in
South Africa it is 4 to 1 ; the three million whites have a record of more
than three centuries of survival and development in Africa, and racial
problems in the United States or in any other western democracy do not
ease their apprehension about the consequences of multi-racialism of ·

South Africa. Official South Africa does not interpret segregation or

1 Much of the information offered here was gathered during a sabbatical

leave spent in the Republic of South Africa.

2 The term "Colored" in South Africa does not identify a Negro.

3 A limited "franchise for Bantus will be discussed under "Bantustans."

37
 I

r··-
: B E C H U AN A L A N D \
1 I
l
' ....
"'

�-\---
\ -- ..........
�
I ..
I
I 1:1<..,
,. I \1-
I .. ..,..,.
W.:Jivis l!ny I '•
'
� -,\
I .
.·
I ;
.
,,. _ _ , �::-

w
00

ATLANTIC OCEAN \ \L " 0 _,f/ { �"h-;;--�1 , \_ ;-�"·:::::;;r "_' J,fif INDIAN OCEAN

® Notional Capitals

* Provincial Capitols
• Main Towns
=<7--
� Ro1lwoys

Bantu areas

Source: Department of Information, Republic of South Africa, Private Bag 152 Pretoria, South Africa
Map I
Apartheit as discrimination but rather as a coordination of black and
white, which permits each its own development according to culture and
social background. In order to make this system work, the white minority
for the time being must maintain a "benevolent" guardianship over the
non-white groups and especially over the 1 1,000,000 Bantus.

THE BANTUS
The term Bantu refers to the common language and tribal heritage of
the black majority population in all of southern Africa. In the Republic's
everyday usage it goes beyond that and covers anyone and any part of the
multitudes of black-skinned people.
An important fact of South African life, from home to factory, is cheap
Bantu labor. The reasons for it are not hard to find. Without the right to
vote or bargain, the black man must depend on representatives who are
appointed by the white man's government.
A special "Departffient of Bantu Administration and Development"
regulates his everyday 1ife.4 It sets all standards for housing, training,
job classifications, etc. Under the directive, under which it operates, a
Bantu can neither live nor work alongside a white person. The obvious
result is that the earnings of dark-skinned people remain lowest on the
scale. Only in facilities which serve exclusively a non-white clientele,
from government offices to hospitals and schools, may black and white work
together. But even here the pay scale favors whites by a considerable
margin. Government data indicate that about 10 per cent of the national
cash income is received by the 66 per cent of the population which is
black. However, such a figure is not conclusive because in South Africa's
Negro employment the paternal type of compensation from company or
government housing and feeding to all kinds of social services is still the
preferred practice.3 In deviation from that in 1963/1964 some 30 private
industries, lead by Rembrandt Tobacco and O.K. chain stores, came out
.
with new hourly minimum wages "for the benefit of greater Bantu pur­
chasing power." The point that Negroes would be the sole beneficiaries of
this revolutionary move was so obvious that the printed announcements
did not even elaborate on it. Thousands of fortunate Africans now earn
about $300 annually. This is still below the already-mentioned national
average of $420. It also seems skimpy by United States standards, but it
is far above the scale of any other African country. In evidence for it, one
million black laborers from South Africa's independent neighbors annually
seek employment in the republic in spite of the many social and political
disadvantages. After serving for a contracted period they plan to take
their wealth home but more often they return richer only in the experi­
ences offered by an industrial society.

4 Parallel departments exist for the two other non-white groups, the Coloreds
and the Indians.
6A chain of employer-subsidized Sl:_lper k i t c h e n s w i th up to 50,000-meal
capacity each was started in the Republic's metropolitan areas. The purpose is
to provide Bantu workers with their "diet needs" and thus increase their produc­
tivity by as much as "30 per cent" (South African Digest, July 17, 1964).

39
 Unfortunately, the biggest employer of black labor, the Department
of Bantu Administration, rejected this new minimum · scale as not in
accordance with productivity. One far-reaching result is that young black
people prefer the better pay of industrial jobs to professional or semi­
professional services. Only the government can employ Bantu teachers,
nurses, civil servants, and their money rewards are still lower than $2.80
per day.

BANTU Am
Basically all branches of the government in Pretoria, the capital city,
struggle with the Bantu problem. Over the years their efforts have resulted
in the Native Land Act of 1 9 1 3, its amendment of 1936, the Native
Building Workers Act of 195 1 , the Bantu Education Act of 1953 and
similar laws. Each in its name implies the area in which it was meant to
improve the African's living standard. The land act prohibited the sale of
tribal lands and its amendment returned already sold tracts to tribal
ownership. The building act was a dual breakthrough. Not only was it an
attack on slums, but "in order to reduce construction cost" it permitted
Bantus for the first time in history to qualify as bricklayers carpenters and
other artisans, of course only on native p�ojects. The education act created
a complete Bantu state school system.
Now with both prosperity prodding from within and animosity from
without, the government of Prime Minister Verwoerd decided to coor­
dinate all these efforts in a first five-year plan which started in 1 96 1 . It
was preceded by a thorough survey, published as the Tomlinson report.
Its realization is a compromise between. the survey's recommendation and
the ability and willingness to finance it:
The plan is heralded as South Africa's own brand of Negro "emanci­
pation without chaos" and is the largest Bantu aid program in existence.
The black people are to progress "under the guidance, tutelage and
trusteeship" of t�1e whites towards self-sufficiency and self-government. It
is not anticipated that the program will be completed by 1 966 and, by the
looks of things, maybe even not in the second millenium. Nevertheless,
official Pretoria professes righteousness and will go to great lengths to
defend its program.

BANTUSTANS
The primary task of the plan is to create special and autonomous
districts for the black population. The always-controversial issue as to who
has more historic rights to the land in South Africa is settled to the dis­
advantage of the Bantus. The white man claims that when his ancestors
moved from the Cape to the interior, they found Bantus in full occupancy
only in certain eastern and northern sections (see Map 1 ) .
In a move towards "positive Apartheit" the government, lead by
Prime Minister Verwoerd, now guarantees the Bantu's "inalienable"
rights to these areas to the full exclusion of white ownership. Along these
historic lines South Africa is being divided into homelands for black and
for white people, but under one white-managed central government. With
the help of the already-mentioned Land Repurchase Act of 1 936, these

40
so-called Bantustans will eventually be rounded out to 65,625 square miles.
Thus, 1 3 per cent of South Africa is set aside for the black 66 per cent of
the people. It is claimed that the Bantu lands are more fertile than other
parts of the republic and that 100 acres there compares with 1 47 acres in
the white man's region. So far only 41.7 per cent of the I I million Africans
live in these homelands. Pretoria, of course, is not blind to the impossibility
of moving all black people into Bantustans. The argument that such a step
might rob South African industries of labor would not be decisive any
longer in the age of automation.
In order to preserve the "historic ethnical division" the various Bantu
tribal groups, the Xhosas, Zulus, Southern and Northern Sotos, the
Tswanas, Venda and several others will all have their own Bantustans.
Even if the intent of this division is not politically but only culturally
inspired it, plus the geography, will assure permanent close cooperation
between the black states and their paternal white associates.
A FIRST BANTUSTAN, THE TRANSKEI
Dr. Verwoerd would have liked to affiliate the Bantu-inhabited
Basuto-, Swazi- and Bechuana-lands with his Bantustan scheme, but these
three are British protectorates on their way to full independence. Thus,
the government concentrates on the largest Bantu land within South
Africa, the Transkei, home of the Xhosas. "The Transkei was the first
Bantu homeland to enjoy the benefits of Western Civilization and has
therefore reached a higher stage of development than any other Bantu
area." 6
In November, 1 963, the Xhosas within the Transkei as well as those
who live and labor in other parts of South Africa voted for a first Trans­
keian parliament. A precedent was thus established. Even urbanized
Bantus who are several generations and hundreds of miles away from the
old tribal grounds become automatically "internal" citizens of a specific
Bantustan. They must pay taxes to it and for that they will be represented
in their residence locations by a so-called "ambassador". The supreme law
for all, of course, will remain the constitution of the republic.
Within the new black states the law of the tribes based on common
land ownership is to prevail. It requires the preservation of a strong chief­
in-council system, the traditional tribal aristocracy. Already decades ago
Negro chiefs became salaried South African civil servants. All this is now
incorporated into a new Transkeian constitution. A paramount chief is
still the highest authority in his region and his salary can not be superseded
by that of a member of his Bantustan government.
·

Tribalism also dominates the new Transkeian parliament. Of its

1 09 members 64 are uncontested chiefs and only 45 are elected. This
legislature selects the chief minister and his cabinet to whom Pretoria
turns over portfolios in stages. Education, for instance, is already in the
hands of a Bantu minister, with a white secretary in assistance. Post and
telegraph will have to wait, and defense and foreign afFairs remain
permanent domains of the Pretoria government.

6 "South African Quiz," Department of Information, Pretoria, 1962, p. 30.

41
 The economy of the Transkei is tribal-agricultural with the vast
majority of the Xhosas still living in kraals with few modern facilities. For
betterment the forementioned five-year plan offers "reclamation and reha­
bilitation." In a compromise between tribal customs and modern needs
the 70 per cent of the acreage which is still common grazing land is being
fenced in by sections. The purpose is to withdraw part after part from
usage for contouring and soil recuperation. It is claimed that the land is
so good that nature alone will restore fertility after contour plowing. On
the cultivated 30 per cent of the land the people are taught to use
fertilizer and to leave one out of four plots fallow.
The opinion of the white principal of the Transkei's one agricultural
college illustrates the persisting difficulties. After 30 years of assistance
he feels that the Xhosas are still so close to the tribal cattle-equals-prestige
concept, that they are best served with a triple purpose animal. Without
even the benefit of hayfeeding a Xhosa cow ' must yield milk and meat
and also serve as a beast of burden.
Industry in the Transkei is not even in its infancy. A scheme for
lumber and sisal production has been started and a lumbermill is com­
bined with a Bantu school furniture factory. A small spinning and
weaving mill operates more as a training school for black housewives
than as a market producer. All others including garages, trucking, car­
penter shops, small restaurants and the like are secondary industries with
a . 1 963 total gross output of $2,250,000 or $ 1 .50 per capita; In keeping
with the announced goal of an all-black economy, Pretoria does not permit
the investment of any outside, meaning white, capital in the Transkei
or in any other Bantustan. The existing embryo enterprises are financed
by a government-sponsored Bantu Investment Corporation. However, the
count1y's big industries are urged to build new plants along Bantustan
borders. The hope is that the labor can commute and yet management's
influence can be kept out of the affairs of the black state.
Of course, the Transkei has towns, which, in contrast to rural kraals,
have electricity, running water and sewerage. But they are still inhabited
by white people. Since in principle only Africans can reside i n a
Bantustan, . the government works for removal of all "white spots" in
urban as well as rural areas. White farmers are actually bought out by
the "Native Land Trust." But the townspeople are organized constituents
with a general franchise. Therefore, even in Umtata, the capital of the
Transkei, where the new black parliament and government functions,
hotel and restaurant facilities are still off limits to Negroes. Likewise,
residential areas and services such as the post office, banks and railroads
remain segregated.

BANTu TowNSHIPs
Of the roughly one-half of the Bantu people who are not inhabitants
of Bantustans, 28.7 per cent are the urbanized Negroes. Like under­
privileged peoples everywhere they occupied slums and shantytowns
until Pretoria started a rehabilitation program within the framework of
the Bantu Aid plan. For an appreciation of the need and magnitude of

42
 the job it should be remembered that in South Africa, Africans form the
majority population in all metropolitan areas.
Johannesburg, for instance, the republic's largest city, has twice as
many black as white people. Hence, the well-to-do found it necessary
to install burgar alarms, secure windows and doors with iron bars and stay
off the streets in residential areas after dark
Supported by matching funds of the central government and by
taxes levied upon employers of "native labor," the municipalities presently
are engaged in huge slum clearances. The goal is to have all Africans
living in publicly-built townships. South West Township or, for short,
Soweto, six miles outside of Johannesburg, is already South Africa's
fourth largest city with 467,000 inhabitants. The philanthropic value of
this project unfortunately is d i l u t e d by n u m erous Apartheit clauses.
Africans, even wealthy busin essmen or d o c tors, by law now are trans­
ferred to these townships as quickly as housing becomes available. There
they become tenants of the municipality with, at best, a thirty-year option
but never the right of ownership. Thus the government ends all African
private or group property rights, the so-called "freeholdings," in all areas
but the Bantustans. All real estate of black people must be sold and the
only court recourse the seller has is over the amount of compensation.
Africans who can not or do not wish to move to the tribal reservations
live now at the complete mercy of a government which is elected by
white voters only.
Residence rights in townships depend upon opportunities for employ­
ment, which is to say, on the need for African labor. All black people must
carry the hated passbook which contains a wo.rl• record. 7 This not only
requires red tape for employer and employee alike, it also makes the
passbook holder anxious to remain on the job no matter what the pay.
Cases where the loss of employment tears a family apart and sends a
member to a Bantustan are not infrequent.
Iri addition, the central government also wishes to make the townships
"projections of the Bantu homelands." They are subdivided according to
ethnical divisions. Thus, even an urban Bantu in a township does not get
away from tribal grouping. If his wife's tribal classification is different
from his, troubles are endless. The effect is containment of all black
population under tribal leadership in a liaison between townships and
Bantustans. Even as improvements over shantytowns, the native townships
remain 20th century ghettos. Between them and the "white" city must
be a no-man's land. All roads and means of transportation leading to and
through it are off-limits to white people unless the visitors have special
permits.
Houses in the towns are of a low-cost construction (from $420 up),
but clean. Rents are cheap under a government subsidy. Improvements
such as sewers and running water are available as a rule but the people
seem to be reluctant to shoulder the cost of home installation since no

7 Since the unfortunate Sharpeville incidents, police checks on passbooks have

. eased up considerably.

43
 ownership rights go with it. For the same reasons the grounds show little
landscaping. Churches, shopping areas, youth clubs and other centers of
diverson are available. Entertainment, such as movies and beergardens,
is adjusted to tribal taste. A license for a second cinema in Soweto was
refused as being discordant with tribal culture.
Foremost among the problems is that the cost of providing the barest
necessities for a township crash program is so staggering that additional
developments just have to wait. Hardly a street is paved, planned parks
remain weed lots, and a public high school has to get along without
declTicity.8
Americans will appreciate the transportation problem which is caused
by the sudden growth of towns in what only yesterday were mining dumps.
The new suburbanites are all commuting workers and only very few have
cars. "Non-white" buslines and trains are put into service and new roads
:are being built. Yet the average Bantu has to leave his house at 5 a.m.
to be at his place of work between 8 : 00 and 9 : 00 a.m. Equally time
consuming is the homeward trek with endless waiting at "2nd class" bus
stops and in "non-European railway stations. In metropolitan Johannes­
burg about 1 00,000 Negroes still lived in shantytowns in 1 964 compared
to half a million that had been already resettled.
BANTUS ON THE Jon
Another 100,000 Bantus in Johannesburg alone and equivalent
1mmbers in other cities are the live-in servants in homes, hotels and
offices. Their separate quarters must satisfy very specific ordinances and
their meals are popularly known as "boy's rations:" In South Africa's
surburbias the servants' huts are easily recognized landmarks. These
domestic helpers are such an important and also convenient segment of
the republic's economy that eventually they might be the only remaining
Negro residents of "white cities." Consequently, their permits are most
difficult to get. Employee as well as employer are reluctant to make
•changes.
For major projects industry and government recruits black m�n or
women, but never married couples or entire families, directly from tribal
·areas. For the duration of the "contract" these Bantus are housed in two
types of accommodations-the hostel or the compound.
Hostels are mass housings, a kind of labor camp, where the single
dwellers take care of their own meals but with all other facilities provided.
When hostels are located near Bantu townships, they naturally become
·sources of unrest and make increased police protection necessary. On .the
other hand, the control of 25,000 tribal people (the number of hostel
residents in the Johannesburg area) away from families and transplanted
into westernized surroundings becomes equally difficult in some isolated
·spot.
Cowtpounds are provided by South Africa's most important industries,
the mines. Here thousands of Negroes are housed, fed, clothed, treated
when sick, etc. The mining companies are pioneers in the process of

8 Morris Isaacson School, Box 10, Javoon-Soweto, Johannesburg.

44
integrating Bantus fresh from the reserves into the modern labor process.,
They offer training, scientific diets, recreation, facilities for saving and
sending money home, modern hospitals and numerous other services.
One result is that the returned miner's prestige back in the Kraal is about
as high as that of a young man who comes home with a college diploma.
The remaining 29.6 per cent of the 1 1 million Bantus are rural
dwellers. They are literally serfs, often supplied by the courts or the police
as farm labor in lieu of punishment. Their tenancy depends on their
usefulness to the white farm owner. They have the poorest conditions of
all. Their homes are imitation kraals in some proximity to the farm house.
Their clothing is a combination of tribal garments and western discards.
Their work is the same herding and plowing which their ancestors have
done for generations but they don't own the cattle or the land. Thus, they
are equally away from the advantages of tribal and western life.
In a step towards betterment the government offers financial assist­
ance to those farmers who permit the construction of schools for their
employee's children. In 1 963, 2,000 such Bantu farm schools were in
operation.

BANTU EDUCATION

As everywhere else in Africa, mission schools were the first institutions

which offered formal education to South Africa's Bantus. A government­
sponsored survey, named after its author, Eiselen, recommended that the
government take over for better educational results. In spite of some
church resistance, Pretoria accepted the Eiselen report in 1 954 as a
policy basis. By 1 958 all personnel, curriculum matters, certification and
examination in schools for Negroes were centralized in the Department
of Bantu Education. Lay school boards have only advisory capacity.
Since then, it is claimed, so much progress has been made that in 1 963
65 per cent of all African children and 83 per cent of those between the
ages of 7 and 14 were in school.
Bantu education is not compulsory as yet. Reasons frequently
given for this status, aside from taxes and cost, are that African tradition
assigns to children certain full-time obligations such as cattle herding and
similar chores. Where this presents a conflict school enrollment should
be persuasive only.
A centralized Bantu curriculum is coordinated with that of the
compulsory white schools. Regionally adjusted programs might be more
suitable. However, officials insist, "it would be labeled inferior by Bantu
parents and therefore rejected." Thus, children from kraals and native
townships compete in subject matter and examination with their more
generously endowed distant white classmates. The one difference in
background is that Negro pupils start at the age of seven and white
students at six. An expert in Bantu education, the white rector (president)
of the Bantu University College of the North summed up the situation :
"Black students have no more or less upstairs than whites, but environ-­
mental factors require more adjustment from them."

45
 Since taxes from Bantu income would not even begin to support a
school system, money must come from the budget of the central govern­
ment. A result is that Bantu school plants are not on a par with those of
white districts. Double sessions are still frequent and the distance from
home to school is very great in some instances without the availability of
any type of transportation. All over South Africa one sees black school
children walking on the soft shoulder of highways to and from school.
More complete school facilities would probably be inconsistent with or
even clash with the pupils' home surroundings. One black high school prin­
cipal explains optimistically that, in spite of certain limitations, "V.Je have
no discipline problems and our children at the age of 1 4 accept instructions
in three languages, Bantu, English and Afrikaans." Yet only a small Bantu
minority remains in school at the end of primary education and only two
per cent of the pupils attain the two top high school grades which lead
to University entrance. For the others continuation and adult evening
programs are available, but not to the extent needed. The more capable
can attend schools for agriculture, police work, training in nursing and
similar occupations. Colleges for Bantu primary teachers, where the need
is especially great, are a combination of years of higher general education
with one or two years of special training in a subject matter major and
teaching methods.
A South African specialty are two colleges for the sons of tribal
chiefs. They illustrate the intent to perpetuate a loyal tribal aristocracy,
especially in the Bantustans. Their elite student body, coming from the
best homes of the tribal homelands,9 is served by an excellent faculty
which writes its own manuals instead of having to use prescribed text­
hooks. The curriculum combines a top selection from western and African
culture. The highest place in the Bantu school system is held by three
universtiy colleges.9 They are distributed among the Bantustans "in
accordance with the needs of the ethnical groups." Faced with the task
to provide top leadership for 1 1 million people, these academic institu­
tions must offer aU the courses which lead to a variety of bachelor's and
master's degrees. They are expanding with large government and private
endowments. The second of the three, University College of the North in ·
Turfloop, in the Transvaal's Soto region, was opened in 1960. It compares
favorably with any beginning college in the United States. With a student
body of 245, it had six graduates in 1 963. Combined enrollment for all
three schools in 1 963 was 624. To that can be added 1 ,200 Africans in
correspondence courses of the University of South Africa.
Less than 2,000 Bantus then are preparing for the high echelon posi­
tions needed for the emancipation of 1 1 million fellow Africans, and
behind them are only 3,000 high school students in the two senior grades
preparing for the difficult matriculation tests in 1964 and 1 965.

o As colleges, rather than full universities, they are under the tutelage of the
University of South Africa.

46
 Pretoria urges the many white officials in Bantu administration and
education to speed up the training of their black replacements. Also,
the three university college faculties should be the very foundation of
such a program. So far they have only two Negro professors.
"Our students have plenty of jobs waiting, but we can only guide
and not force them," explains an academic official. His expressed hope
is that the government, as a step in the right direction, will follow the
mentioned example of private industry and raise Bantu professional
salaries.

BIG, NoT LITTLE, APARTHEIT

By way of explaining inequality in earnings, the argument is ad­
vanced that South Africa's Negroes live in a subsidized world of their
o�n. They pay less rent, less fare on native busses, lower admission in
non-white cinemas. In other words, the government maintains for them
a discount living standard. ,
The Bantu's answer is that this social climate more than anything
else accounts for his general lack of ambition and his apathy towards
education. He has a "what is the use" attitude. An African teacher in a
letter to a newspaper asl<s, "Do you do good by educating black children?
Isn't it better to be dumb and black and sleep through the night?"1 0 The
Republic of South Africa does not have a single integrated beach, pool,
parkbench, public restroom, to say nothing of hotel or restaurant. Even
a small Bantu school with only one white teacher on the faculty must
maintain separate staff facilities. The "whites only" signs are still the
most obvious man-made feature in the landscape. They spell out dis­
crimination for everyone to see.
Officials in Pretoria are sensitive to the point of bitterness if they are
criticized about it. They challenge the observer to take a good look at
their long range efforts in the Bantustans, townships and compounds.
There they spend hundreds of millions of dollars on what they consider
a workable solution of the race issue. Their unchangeable philosophy
is segregation and they believe that h can be achieved with respect and
dignity for both black and white. They call it Big Apartheit in deference
to the insulting signs expressing Little Apartheit.
The future Commonwealth of South Africa, they claim, will be a
place of coexistence in . which all signs of discrimination will disappear
because there will be no need for them. Bantu leaders on the receiving
end are not quite that optimistic. They accept the economic betterment
plans of their white government for lack of an alternate. They know that
all the African summit meetings, short of an all-out war, will not make a
dent in Pretoria's determination. They hope that once a measure of
economic stability is reached for South Africa's blacl< population, social
and political freedom will become unavoidable. Most white officers in
the republic's Bantu administration agree with this prediction.

10 Johannesburg "Star" of November 1 3 , 1 963.

47
 THE FUTURE OF MANUFACTURING IN
STQCKTON, CALIFORNIA
JAMES A. RoBERTS
California State College, Los Angeles
and Meteorology Research, Inc.
Only a gifted oracle could accurately predict the structure of man­
ufacturing in Stockton for the year 1 980. The continuously evolving
nature of our society, the normal evolution of manufacturing practices,
and the vagaries of the men who manage the development and operation
of manufacturing concerns preclude all but the most tenative predictions
based on analysis of the best available information. The structure of
manufacturing in the past has experienced innumerable unpredictable
changes which have led to the industry of the present (Table 1 ) .
EMPLOYMENT I N MANUFACTURING I N STOCKTON
1 856 to 1 962

Industry 1 85 6 1 878 1 949 1 962

Food and kindred products 48 91 6,560 6,200

Paper and paper products 18 28 1 ,300 1,500
Lumber and wood products 5 7 1 , 1 30 1 , 500
Stone, clay, and glass products 10 10 585 (1)
Apparel 18 44 (1) (1)
Leather and leather products 18 85 (1) (1)
Transportation equipment 30 35 1 55' (I)
Machinery, except electrical 20 84 655 1 ,300
Metal work 45 27 655 680
Miscellaneous manufactured products 8 16 425 1 ,900
Total 220 427 1 1 ,465 1 3,000
( I ) No data available; included in figure for miscellaneous manufactured products.
Table 1

There is no reason to assume that similar unpredictable events will

not occur in the next 20 years. Furthermore, the changes which may
occur do not necessarily have to originate in Stockton to affect Stockton.
Stockton was located far from the battlefields of World War I, but the
war's effect on the Holt Manufactming Company was dramatic. Sim­
ilarly, the distant fighting of World War II had effects on the City's ship­
building industry. But lest the reader assume that the effects on man­
ufacturing of the caprices of mankind and the changes brought by evolu­
tion of raw materials and markets are limited to the catastrophic changes
wrought by world wars, let us consider the impact of the shift of wheat
raising in the California Central Valley to the Northwestern States.
The effect of this change was dramatic, because after the shift in the
location of wheat raising, Rom milling in Stockton declined to virtually
nothing. ·

49
 A number of courses of development might be postulated for the
next two decades. A study of manufacturing in Stockton, completed in
1962, indicates that not a single diagnostic parameter but rather three
trends provide bases for predicting the status of manufacturing in the
city in 1980. These trends are :
l. The continued growth of manufacturing at the rate experienced
during the 1950 to 1 960 decade,
2. The pre-eminence of the disadvantages of industrial location, and
3. The maximum utilization of the natural and cultural locational
advantages of the Stockton area.
_ Out of these diverse trends will emerge a single pattern of man­
ufacturing in 1 980.

PRESENT RATE OF GROWTH

Present progress of manufacturing is one basis for an analysis of

fu ture manufacturing. One measure of this progress is the rate of growth
during a specified period of time. Therefore, the first trend that can be
logically assumed as a basis for predicting the status of manufacturing
in Stockton in 1 980 is a continuation of the rate of expansion of the
manufacturing industry of Stockton during the last decade (Figure 1 ) .
In the period 1950 to 1 960, agriculture was the dominant aspect
of the economy of the S to c k to n metropoli tan area. Although some
industrial diversification occurred, development in the major portion of
manufacturing and most other industries paralleled the increase in
agricultural employment. Agricultural e�ployment increased approxi­
mately 2 1 per cent from an annual average of 20,783 to an average of
25,383. Employment in all industries reached a total of 1 0 1 ,3 19, a growth
of about 1 9 per cent for the decade. Manufacturing employment reached
a high of 1 2,800, which also constituted an increase of 19 per cent.
Population, which reached 249,938 in April, 1 960, a growth of 25
per cent over the 1 950 figure, and employment in the Stockton area are
likely to follow the trend established in the 1 950-1960 decade. Further­
more, the manufacturing industries are likely to continue to reflect the
importance of agriculture. Hence, as at the present time, in 1980 nearly
one-half of the annual average number of wage and salary workers in man­
ufacturing will be employed in the food and kindred products industries.
Canning and preserving of fruits and vegetables will account for one­
quarter of the average annual employment and for over half of the total
number of employees during the period of peak employment.

PRE-EMINENCE oF LocATIONAL DISADVANTAGES

The possibility exists that the disadvantages of location in Stockton

could become so great that a number of manufacturers may find it both
advantageous and necessary to leave the city. Although this occurrence
is not probable, should the companies elect to move, the effects on the
over-all structure of manufacturing would be significant. Postulating that
Stockton does not experience a major increase in the number of man-

50
 20
P R OJE C TED E M P L O Y ME N T
IN MAN U F AC T UR IN G

19

1 8, 600

18 1 8, 000

1 7 , 700

17

-"'
0
0
0

b1] 16
.s
!-<
.B
u
11!
'5 15
>::
11!
::?.
.S
'o! 14
"'
E
>-
0
a.
E 13
J:il

N OT E S

12 % o f C a lifornia T ota l

2 N o n-ba s ic E xp e r i e n c e

3 1 9 50 - 1 9 60 Expe r i e n c e
11
4 Modified 1 9 50 - 1 9 6 0
1 0, 800

10
1 9 50 1 9 60 1 9 60 1 97 0 1 9 80

Figure 1

51
ufacturing concerns nor in manufacturing employment, the decrease
caused by the departure of as few as seven companies could cause a
direct decrease in manufacturing employment of over 1,500.
Several reasons may lead manufacturing concerns to leave both their
present sites and the S tockton area; these same reasons may keep other
companies out. Lack of adequate space for expansion, comparatively high
tax rates (Table 2), waste disposal problems, untrained labor, and a
possible lack of general community interest in manufacturing may act
singly or in concert to influence the future of manufacturing in Stockton.
PROPERTY TAXES, ASSESSED VALUATION RATIOS,

AND EFFECTIVE TAXES IN SELECTED CALIFORNIA CITIES, 1 96 1 - 1 962 ( 1 )

Tax Rate Effective Tax

on $ 1,000 Assessment on $20,000
City (County) Assessed Ratio Real Value
Valuation (2) (3)
Statewide Comparison
Walnut Creek (Contra Costa) $105.90 27 % $ 5 7 1 .86
Concord (Contra Costa) 104.32 27 563.33
STOCKTON (San Joaquin) 102.48 28 573.89
Hayward (Alameda) 100.00 24. 1 482.00
Alameda (Alameda) 96.60 (4) 508.33
Central Valley Comparison
STOCKTON (San Joaquin) $102.48 28 $573.89
Fresno (Fresno) 92.76 24 ( 5 ) 464.45
Tracy (San Joaquin) 92.28 28 5 1 6.77
Modesto (Modesto) 9 1 .60 20 366.40
Merced (Merced) 86.20 (4) 479.00
Sacramento (Sacramento) 8 1.95 (6) (4) 485.75

( l ) From California Tax Reporter, Volume 3, "City Taxes; The Law; New Matters
and Case Tables," Commerce Clearing House, Inc., 196 1 .
(2) Per cent of real value used for assessment purposes.
(3) Calculated by the author from Tax Rate and Assessment Ratio assuming
$20,000 total real value of which $ 10,000 is land only.
( 4) Different city and county ratios; both used for effective tax calculations.
( 5 ) Average of ratios shown in California Tax Reporter.
(6) Average city tax rate of rates shown in California Tax Reporter.
Table 2

Each of these factors is important to manufacturing. However,

because the significance of community interest, or disinterest, is often
neglected and because of the importance of this factor to Stockton's past
and future development, the discussion of the location disadvantages is
focused on this one factor.
Farming is big business in the Stockton area. Without the abundant
supply of agricultural products and the demand for farm implements,
few, if any, manufacturing concerns presently located in Stockton would
prosper. For more than a century agriculture has been the backbone of

52
Stockton's economy. People in the area were raised as farmers, they banked
as farmers, and those who have left the farms for the city maintain their
contacts with the farming community. Indeed, agriculture is the founda­
tion on which Stockton's manufacturing industry has been built and on
which it stands at the present time.
Part of the cement that holds this foundation together is based on
personal desires to perpetuate the importance of agriculture. This desire
may serve to retard the expansion of - existing manufacturing facilities
or to prevent the development of diversified manufacturing activities
in Stockton.
To what extent the diversification of the manufacturing industry of
Stockton has been controlled by the influences of agriculture cannot be
documented without a thorough and personal understanding of the com­
munity and its leadership. Suffice it to say, either by choice or through
lack of understanding, the city's financial and political leaders may have
retarded the diversification of Stockton's manufacturing industry. The
role that the "human factor" may play in the development of manufac­
turing in a city is one of the more interesting questions for future study
in Stockton, other cities in Calfornia's inland empire, and other agricul­
tural centers throughout the United States.
No one can predict with absolute certainty that the firms which
might leave their present locations would not find adequate sites in Stock­
ton, but several basic arguments for their leaving the area altogether
cannot be overlooked. The canneries may' · :6nd it advantageous to select
locations centrally located to fruit and vegetable crop production. The
lumber products company may find a desirable location near the source
of wood. Companies located along the Stockton Channel which may lose
their sites to other land uses, may find that the virtually unlimited number
of sites on San Francisco Bay or the new facilities along the Sacramento
River, together with the large number of suppliers and ancillary man­
ufacturers that are in these locations, may be advantageous locations for
their operation.
MAxiMUM UTILIZATION oF LocATIONAL AnvANTAcEs
Another possible trend which the development of Stockton's man­
ufacturing may take during the next twenty years is toward maximum
utilization of the area's locational advantages. S tockton has a major inland
port and is the focal point of an extensive road and railroad network.
The city is well located with respect to agricultural and other raw
materials (Figure 2) and has a large and expanding market for consumer
products. Of these factors, market is possibly of greatest significance.
Stockton is in an excellent mar1<et location. The city serves a pop­
ulation of nearly 300,000 in San Joaquin County and is located at the
approximate center of California's agricultural production. Stockton is
located about sixty miles from the San Francisco Bay area and fifty miles
from Sacramento with its burgeoning population, with access to these
markets · over rail, highway and water routes. Three intercontinental
railroads and a complex of state and national highways connect Stockton
with markets in the East. Furthermore, the deep water Port of Stockton
provides a suitable avenue for direct international marketing.

53
 D . "'
. FIELDS

•
OTHEAS
AS NOTED

P R I N C I P A L SOURC E S OF
SAND, CLAY, CEMENT, ASBESTOS AND NATURAL · GAS
USED BY STOCKTON'S MANUFACTURERS

Figure 2

54
 At the present time, the local market is not as important for Stockton's
manufacturing industries as it may be in the future. As is summarized
in Table 3, over 70 per cent of the products of all but one category of
manufacturing, for which data are available, is marketed outside of the
Stockton Metropolitan Statistical Area. Based on retail sales estimates, it
would seem that the local population would support the expansion of
manufacturing of consumer goods, particularly home furnishings and
appliances, apparel, and wood produ�ts, and a wider variety of electrical
and non-electrical machinery than are now manufactured in the city.
MARKETS FOR PRODUCTS MANUFACTURED

IN STOCKTON, 1 962 (l)

Non-Local Local
Industry (3)
Markets Market

Food and kindred products 85 % 15 %

Paper and paper products 4 96
Lumber and wood products 90 10
Stone, clay, and glass products 89 11
Apparel (2) (2)
Leather and leather products (2) (2)
Transportation equipment 81 19
Machinery, except electrical 78 22
Metal work 78 22
Miscellaneous manufactured products 71 29

( 1 ) Based on information received in response to questionnaire, September 1 962.

(2) No data returned in response to questionnaire.
(3) San Joaquin County.
Table 3

From an analysis of the present manufacturing in S tockton, in which

few household appliances, furniture, and clothes are produced, it appears
that the largest expansion of manufacturing may be in the production of
consumer goods for the local market. As stated previously, during the
last decade the population of the Stockton Metropolitan Area has grown
by about 25 per cent. Based on this growth rate the projected population
in 1 980 will be 390,607. Assuming ( I ) that the expansion of employment
in the manufacturing of consumer goods for the local market will be
approximately proportionate to the population increase, (2) that the non­
basic manufacturing is that which meets the demands of the local market,
and (3) that the relative importance of each of the non-basic manufac­
turing industries will continue at about the same level as at present,
employment in manufacturing would increase by 1 ,960 in 1980. This
increase wo1_1ld occur in all segments of manufacturing. However, the
present structure of manufacturing indicates that an even greater increase
in the production of consumer goods than that derived from the above
assumptions may be. possible.

55
 D I STRI B U T I O N OF M A N U FACT U R I N G

IN S T O C K TON, 1962

\
\
r - r-'--
\
I•
'
;
50t 1,000

,
I ,_ - _I \
"'- ·
'30t - sco

I I I
\ ----.,
I _j -�I
201 - 300

\ I
(• - \ I
I 1\
-- I
/ •
.""' � ....:·
I
; '�
\ I
I
I
I
I
I
I •
•
I -� I
I •
I r. J� ."!
I
i
I 1 �I
� ,1;
"
,,
fl�;
if

••

•
- 1
••
•
•

Figure 3

56
 Stockton manufacturers also could produce goods fm cou mmers in
the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, the San Francisco Bay area,
and Nevada All of these areas are linked to Stockton by roads and rail­
•.

roads which could facilitate the delivery . of manufactured items. Hence,

production of consumer goods for export could support a substantial
increase in manufacturing. It is possil,>le that an increase in employment
in the manufacture of export consumer goods could equal the increase
in production to meet local demands.

A PATTERN OF MANUFACTURING IN 1 980

From these diverse trends may come as many predictions as there
are predictors, but in 1 980 only one pattern of manufacturing will exist.
One pattern which appears to be a distinct possibility is based on three
assumptions :
1 . The non-basic component of Stockton's manufacturing, the pro­
ducers of goods for local consumption, will grow at a rate parallel­
ing the rate of increase in the area's population.
2. The basic component of manufacturing will continue to grow at
the rate which has prevailed during the last ten years.
3. The increase of basic component will be offset somewhat by the
movement of two wood products manufacturers, and two metal
worl<ing concerns out of the Stockton area. It is also assumed that
the possible multiplier effect of the decrease in basic employment
will not cause a reduction of non-basic employment because of
rapid expansion in the latter segment of the manufacturing
industry.
Based upon the foregoing discussion, in 1980 a total of 17,700
persons will be employed in manufacturing. The principal industry will
still be the manufacture of food and kindred products, followed by paper
and paper products, non-electrical machinery and lumber and wood prod­
ucts. Modest diversification will continue as evidenced by the increase in
the production of miscellaneous manufactured goods. As in the years pre­
ceding 1 962, the canning industry will continue to account for most of the
employees both on an annual average and during the peak fruit and
vegetable processing seasons.
The pattern of Stockton's manufacturing in 1 980 will be virtually
the same as at present (Figure 3 ) . With three exceptions, the absence
of manufacturers along the Stockton Channel, the absence of manufac­
turing at a few isolated "island" areas in the northeastern quadrant of
the city, and the intensified u<e of several outlying manufacturing areas,
the pattern of manufacturing in Stockton will be the same in 1 980 as
it was in 1 962.
Many changes have occurred in Stockton's manufacturing since
the city's early beginning as an entrepot to the Southern Mines. But the
changes which may make the present city of Stockton a manufacturing
city still appear, as they did to many of the city's inhabitants in the 1 850's,
"just about ta be."

57
I
I
 THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF THE
SAN FERNANDO VALLEY
BETvVEEN 1930 AND 1964
RICHARD E. PRESTON
San Fernando Valley State College
Peripheral expansion in tht: form of low-density living areas is a
trait commonly associated with most ci ties in the United States at the
present time. Growth of this type, often referred to as "suburbanization,"
has taken place on a large scale in the Los Angeles area since VVorld War
II, and, consequently, several locales within that vast urban region afford
excellent opportunities for the examination of various landscape sequences
which mark the change 'from rural to urban. In this inquiry an attempt
is made to consider a succession of landscapes which have developed within
the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles between 1 930 and 1 964.
During that period the valley evolved from an area of intensive field and
orchard agriculture to a functional and morphological extension of the
rapidly expanding urban-industrial nucleus of Los Angeles.
This study is based upon an analysis made from population distribu­
tion maps, developed from Federal Census and local planning statistics,
and land use maps, based mainly on air-photographs and field. observations.
Such maps were created in an attempted reconstruction of the cultural
landscape of the San Fernando Valley approximately as it was in 1 930,
1 940, 1 950, 1 95 5, and 1 960, and provide the point of departure for the
following description and analysis of changes in population and land
utilization.
BACKGROUND
An outlier of the Los Angeles lowland, the San Fernando Valley
is located 12 to 1 5 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. It is almost
completely enclosed by mountains and embraces approximately 235 square
miles. The valley floor is quite flat and is practically all suitable for inten­
sive development. Also, it is crossed by major inland and coastal con"
nections between Los Angeles and central and northern California.
Therefore, because of proximity to central Los Angeles, the inviting nature
of its physical setting, and the presence of major routeways, the San
Fernando Valley has for many years attracted the attention of man as a site
for agricultural and urban settlement. In fact, its evolution reflects every
major cultural stage in history of southern California.1 Attention, here,
however, will be given only to a segment of this development, namely,
that of the past three decades. For it was the period since 1 930 which
witnessed the valley's transformation from rural to urban.

1 Frank M. Keefer, History of San Fernando Valley (Glendale : Stillman

Printing Co., 1 934), pp. 9-I I 5.

59
 ONE DOT EQUALS 200 PERSONS

. .

: :.: .

.
· .· ·

Figure 1 . Population distribution, 1 930. Source: Map prepar<dd b y the Los Angeles City
Planning Department, January, 1 942.

�� ��������L ,
U S
VACANT OTHER

Scale:
0 I 2
'--'--'
Miles

Figure 2. Land use, 1 928. Source: Fairchild Aerial Surveys Inc. Air photographs of the San
Fernando Valley taken during, May, 1 92.8.

60
 THE 1 930's
The 1 920's marked the end of a momentous era i� valley history, an
era which began around 1 9 1 0 and included : ( 1 ) annexation of most of
the area by the city of Los Angeles; (2) initiation of intensive agriculture
based on large-scale irrigation; (3) establishment of widespread sub­
division and community building, and (4) an increase in population from
approximately 20,000 in 1 920 to 78,479 in 1 930.2 All of these events were
associated in some way with the expectation and realization of abundant
�ater, and all played major roles in shaping the present cultural landscape.
During the 1 930's the economy was overwhelmingly agricultural,
and settlements were concentrated in the east and southeast where four
towns had developed : San Fernando, Burbank, Van Nuys, and North
Hollywood (Figures 1 and 2) . Each functioned primarily as a market
center for surrounding farming areas, and was characterized by a small
commercial nucleus encircled by a limited area of subdivided land. San
Fernando and Van Nuys also served as the principal service centers for
the agrici1ltural west valley, where only scattered farming communities
existed. Even there, however, new communities were beginning to
provide services and to attract population, for example, Canoga Park,
Chatsworth, Reseda, and Tarzana.2 •

The valley's overall land use pattern had three outstanding aspects :
fleld crops, fruit and nuts, and dairy and poultry raising.1 Field crops
such as alfalfa and beans, plus miscellaneous truck products, were domi­
nant areally and were concentrated in the central and west valley. Citrus
holdings were concentrated in the north and northeast, with · lesser
plantings in the west. Most groves were situated on relatively frost-free
ground, were owner-operated,· and consisted of tracts of 1 0 to 1 5 acres.
North of San Fernando considerable acreage was devoted to olives,
deciduous fruit and�walnut trees were distributed over the valley floor,
and poultry raising and dairy farming were concentrated in the west.
Industrial activity prior to World War II may be summarized by
three terms : agricultural processing, motion pictures, and Burbank.
Agricultural processing industries developed in most of the small towns
and handled crops produced locally; centers with rail access usually

2 Population ligures cited in this study are based on the following sources:

1 920, estimate prepared by the Los Angeles City Planning Department; 1 930,
United States Bureau of the Census; 1 940, United States Bureau. of the Census;
1 945, estimate prepared by the Los Angeles Regional Planning Commission; 1 950,
United States Bureau of the Census; 1955, estimate prepared by the Research
Department of Security First National Bank; 1 960, United States Bureau of the
Census; and, 1 964, estimates prepared by the City Planning Departments of Los
Angeles, San Fernando, and Burbank.
3 Paul A. Ewing, The Agricultural Situation in San Fernando Valley, Cali·
for1tia (Washington D.C. : United States Department of Agriculture, 1 1 939), p. 25.
1 Ibid., pp. 47-48; Lewis H . Height, "Settlement Patterns in San Fernando
Valley" (unpublished Master's Thesis, University of California, Los Angeles, 1953),
pp. 92-99. ' '

61
 ONE DOT EQUALS 200 PERSONS

..··. 1 ::·
...:·.�: :
·

Figure 3. Population distribution, 1 940. Source: Map prepared by the Los Angeles City
Planning Department, January, 1 942..

PUBLIC
WATER BODIES
� COMMERCIAL
INDUSTRIAL
FIELD CROPS VACANT S OTHER
DECIDUOU � CROPS
CITRUS CROPS

Scale
0 I 2.
'--'---'
�1111

Figure 4. Land use, 1 938. Source: United States Department of Agriculture. Air photographs
of the San Fernando Valley taken during June, July, and August, 1938.

62
developed shipping facilities near the plants. With the spread of town­
building in the southeast during the 1 930's these industries began to
disappear, and their total elimination proceeded rapktly after vVorld
War II. The motion picture industry was attracted by the presence of large
tracts of cheap land, a very high proportion of sunny days, and a variety
of natural settings. This industry expanded rapidly in the southeast
between 1 9 1 5 and 1 930, and has been important ever since. By 1 917,
the outstanding activity in Burbank was manfacturing. With an emphasis
upon aircraft and motion picture production, it was the only valley town
which was industrialized prior to the Second World vVar.
The decade of the 1 930's ushered in a period of stepped-up settle­
f
ment, an era still in its he day. The increasing use of the automobile. the
construction of fairly goo( highways, and the presence of abundant land
for a reasonable price all were important factors. Such development was
especially evident in the southeast, where proximity to the Hollywood
section of Los Angeles fostered unmistakable signs of suburbanization.
The west valley, however, remained much the same as in the 1 920's as
distance proved detrimental to conditions other than agricultural. The
general significance of building during the 1 930's may be summarized
by the fact that 56 per cent of the housing present in the valley in 1 940
was constructed during the previous decade. 5
THE 1 940's
By 1 940 the population of the San Fernando Valley had increased
to 1 5 5,443, an addition of approximately 77,000 since 1 930. Even so,
the pattern of settlement and land utilization was basically the same as
in the early 1 930's (Figures 3 and 4). The greatest area of change was
the southeast, where the once-independent urban nuclei were beginning
to coalesce, and where significant development was beginning to project
westward along major streets. Although settlement thinned-out rapidly
toward the west, the new communities located there were nevertheless
attracting population, especially Canoga Park, Reseda, and Tarzana.
During World vVar II the valley's economy continued to be dom­
inated by agriculture, which was concentrated in the western section.
There, a large expanse of land stretching from the built-up east to Canoga
Park was devoted mainly to general field crops. Scattered throughout
this area were orchards, citrus and olives in the north, and walnuts
and deciduous fruit in the west and south. Livestock ranching was limited,
and generally involved breeding rather than large-scale animal production.
Ip the urbanizing southeast only truck gardens and an occasional orchard
remained in operation; however, large tracts of land once used for agri­
culture stood vacant, awaiting conversion to urban uses.
Bv the end of the Second ·world W'ar, Southern California (espe­
cially Los Angeles) was, and still is, experiencing a marked expansion in
employment, population, and real estate sales. This boom had great
impact upon the San Fernando Valley, where population increased by

5 Earl Hansen and Paul Beckett, Los Angeles: Its Pe01Jle and its Homes (Los
Angeles : Haynes Foundation, 1 944), p. 48.

63
 ONE DOT EQUALS 200 PERSONS

Figure 5. Population distribution, 1 950. Source: United States Bureau of Census, Census
Tract Statistics, April, 1 950.

'

j
1
d:.'!1:
''
PUBLIC
: WATER BODIES
� COMMERCIAL
INDUSTRIAL
FIELD CROPS VACANT S OTHER
Lj DECIDUOUS CROPS
� CITRUS CROPS

Scale
0 I
'----'---'
Miles

Figure 6. Land use, 1 949. Source: Fairchild Aerial Surveys Inc. Air photographs of the San
Fernando Valley take1t during May and June, 1949.

64
approximately 73,000 from 1 55,443 in 1 940 to 228,734-in 1 945. Popula­
tion growth was aided by the location of industry -in�valley - towns -both
during and after the war, and by heavy utilization of the new highway
through Cahuenga Pass, which eased travel between the North Holly­
wood area and central Los Angeles. Improved access accelerated tlie
coalesence of the older communities in the southeast into a continuous
suburban sprawl, and, all along the western periphery of the contiguous
built-up area, there began a rapid retreat of agriculture before the invasion
of low-density, tract-type, residential construction.
Also, the economy was_ diversifying, with industrial growth taking
pla_c�rime1rily in the southeast adjacent to the railroads, and secondarily
along the rail line running through the west valley. Of greatest importance
were aircraft and aircraft parts manufacturing, both of which were. con­
centrated. in and around Burbank. Motion picture production continued
to be important, and General Motors provided a notable addition in the
form of an assembly plant which covered a large acreage in \lan ..Nuys.
The impact of the war was sharply illustrated by the fact . that defense
work accounted for an overwhelming proportion of the jobs in the valley
during the middle-1940's.
The decade 1 940-1950, especially the latter half, witnessed the
beginning of a new era of intensive valley-wide - settlement along highly
urban-industrial lines. During that decade, the arrival of approximately
250,000 peopJe boosted the population to 402,538 in 1950. This repre­
sented a net gain greater than that for its entire previous history. Also,
it has been estimated that the number of persons employed in the valley
increased from 29,000 to approximately 1 20,000 during the same period.6
The era of unchallenged agricultural supremacy which had endured until
during the Second World War was rapidly. coT)lingto .an end, and the San
FernandO · Valley, by becoming one of the most impressive suburban
growth areas in the United States, had begun to undergo a pattern of
overall development which was to continue at least through the 1 960's.
TI-IE 1 950's ji
By 1950 the tide of urban land use, consisting mostly of tract houses
and commercial string-development had moved westward halfway across
the valley floor (Figures 5 and 6). In addition to this westward and north­
ward spread, subdivision was taking place . actively on · the periphery of
the urban nuclei in the west. The late 1 940's and the• early 1950's· also
witnessed the first large inroads made into the best agricultural lands·
in the south-central and western sections, as well as extensive building-up
of the canyons and hillsides along the southern margin. No part of the
valley escaped some new construction, and the majority of the new homes
were mass-produced. It appears that a constantly improving highway system,
an abundance of open and relativelv cheap land, a fairly small population,
and the prolific development of dispersed communities greatly assisted
the rapid spread of an automobile-oriented, suburban landscape.

a Security First National Bank, The Growth and Economic Structure of the
San Fernando Valley, 1 960 (Los Angeles : Security First National Banlc, 1 960),
p. 26; News item in the Valley Times Today, October 1 0, 1 96 1 .

65
 ONE DOT EQUALS 200 PERSONS

Figure 7. Population distribution,

1 956. Sources: United States Bureau of the Census, Census

�-�-·
Tract Statistics from Special Census of Feb., 1 956; Population statistics for the
balance of the Valley estimated by the Research Department of the Security First

�
National Bank.

·. , PUBLIC COMMERCIAL
� WATER BODIES INDUSTRIAL
:;:,.\,) :• FIELD CROPS VACANT S OTHER
iiiiim
........ DECIDUOUS CROPS
CITRUS CROPS

Scal6
0 I
�
Miles

Figure 8. Land use, 1 954. Sources: "Land Use Map of San Fernando Valley in 1 954/' in
Los Angeles City Planning Commission. San Fernando Valley, 1 955: Master Plan
Restudy, reprinted from Los Angeles City Planning Commission, "Accomplishment•
- 1 955"; United States Department of Agriculture, Air photographs of San Fer­
nando Valley taken during November, 1 954.

66
 By 1955, population had risen to 633,076, an increase of approxi­
mately 230,000 over 1950, and tract homes were successfully invading
the walnut and citrus orchards (Figures 7 and 8). Agriculture had become
vestigial throughout most of the area, but where concentrations remained
citrus was the chief crop in acreage. The variety of field crops found in
the early 1 940's were also present but their acreages were drastically
reduced. It has been pointed out that by the late 1950's four agricultural­
type areas were to be found on the valley margins : namely, the area of
truck and field crops in the southwestern-central portion; the area of
mixed truck, field, and orchard crops in the western section; the area of
orchard "hold-out" and large private holdings in the northwestern region;
and the area of specialty crops and residential agriculture in the north­
eastern part of the valley.7 Only in the extreme southwest and northwest
was agriculture practiced on anything that approached large-scale.
Until the late 1 950's, commercial development (aside from tpe
commuter-oriented buildup along Ventura Boulevard) w as c o n fi n e d
mainly t o concentrations a t the major intersections o f each valley com­
munity. The principal function of the individual centers was to meet
the immediate needs of local residents. Only in the southeast, with its
concentrated population, was there a more intensive commercial pattern
including both nuclear and ribbon-like forms. Such development was
especially pronounced in the larger commercial centers of Burbank, North
Hollywood, San Fernando, and Van Nuys.
General mushrooming of tract housing, the rapid invasion of agri­
cultural land, and the growth of industry were, therefore, the most
notable aspects of settlement during the late 1950's. The end of that
decade marked the finish of the valley as a significant agricultural area,
and despite considerable commercial and industrial development, it was
clearly established as suburban-residential. Three new trends, however,
appeared during the latter part of the decade; namely, the expansion of
employment in the valley, the construction of an increasing number of
multi-unit dwellings in the southeast, and the development of the first
segments of a freeway system paralleling the southern foothills.

THE 1 960's
, Valley population was 840,500 in 1 960, an increase of approximately
438,000 over 1 950. During the same period the overall population density
rose from 2.7 per acre to 5.6.8 Highest densities were associated with the
older built-up areas in the southeast where extensive apartment construc­
tion was taking place. In general, however, home-building was continuing
to spread like a wave from east to west, cutting into the remaining agri-

7 Herbert W. Eder, "Some Aspects of the Persistence of Agriculture in the

San Fernando Valley" (unpublished Master's Thesis, University of California, Los
Angeles, 1 960), p. 123.
8 Security First National Bank, op. cit., p. 58.

67
 ONE DOT EQUALS 200 PERSONS
FREEWAYS -

Figure 9. Population distribution, 1 960. Source: United States Bureau of the Census, Census
Tract Statistics, April, 1 960.

�
I
P U B LIC COMMERCIAL
WATER BODIES INDUSTRIAL
VACANT S OTHER
����� ; ;�
FIELD CROPS
ou ops
RO

Scale
o 1 a
'--'----'

Miles

figure 10. Land use, 1 960. Source: Fairchild Aerial Surveys Inc. Air photographs of San
Fernanclo Valley taken during May and June, 1 960.

68
cultural and vacant lands on the periphery, into the hills, and · into the
vacant enclaves (Figures 9 and 10).
Traditionally there have been more workers than jobs in the San
Fernando Valley, and therefore, a consequent outflow of commuters in
the morning and inflow in the evening. This condition was extreme in
1 940 when approximately 47 per cent of the employed people living in the
valley worked there;9 however, the proportion of jobs available in the
valley has greatly increased. In 1 960 the California Department of Employ­
ment estimated that about 300,000 gainfully employed persons lived in
the valley, and that employment theye was about 240,000, or approximately
80 per cent.1 0 Obviously, this is not the entire story; the San Fernando
Valley is but one part of a vast metropolitan complex, and not only do
many of its residents work in other sections of the city, workers from other
sections are also employed in the valley.
Industry, as in the past, is largely dependent upon defense and space
contracts. The missile-aircraft industry is the largest single employer,
with the associated nelds of electronics, atomic energy, rocketry, and
research and development also being important. In general however,
the valley's employment pronle has begun to take on a mature look, and
may be approximated on a percentage basis as follows : manufacturing,
35 per cent; services, 26 per cent; wholesale and retail trade, 20 per cent;
and contract construction, 8 per cent. The remaining I I per cent is
divided among agriculture, mining, nnance, insurance, real estate, and
government.1 1 On the basis of 1 960 employment ngures, the. leading
industrial centers in the valley were, and probably still are, Burbank,
Van Nuys, Canoga Park, and North Hollywood.
With only a few notable exceptions, factories are located along the
principal rail lines or in industrial parks. Future industrial expansion will
probably exhibit a greater orientation to planned-industrial districts; in
fact, it has been strongly suggested that full utilization of the three large
industrial tracts which currently exist in the west valley (covering
787,400, and 1 ,000 acres, respectively) will be necessary if a substantial
percentage of the area's growing labor force is to be employed in t�e
valley in the futureY
The p:�pulation of the San Fernando Valley in the 1 960's is literally
"on wheels," that is, there are at least 1 .4 automobiles per household, and
approximately 45 per cent of the households have two cars or more. This·
situation is a response to several conditions, at least some of whidi are :
affiuence; a dispersed pattern of jobs, shopping, and cultural opportunities;
and lack of efficient public transportation :facilities. Also, valley residents
are still dependent upon central Los Angeles for numerous specialized
commercial and cultural needs. To accommodate this mobile population,

9 Valley Times Toclay, op. cit.,

1 0 Security First National Bank, op. cit., p. 26.
11 Valley Times Toclay, op. cit.,
1 2 Dave Siddon, "Industry Sites Demand Rises," Valley Times Toclay, October,

10, 1 961 .

69
 �-- -��----�-� --� --
l
1
I DW E L L I N G U N ITS C O N ST R U C T E D.
I
i SAN F E R N A N D O VA L L E Y 1 9 5 1 - 63

I
20 D S i n g l e fa m i l y u n i ts
- M u l ti p l e u n its

I
I
15
I
!

0 19
51
L_-�-�----- -------
Figure 1 1 . Source: Building Departments of Los Angeles, !ian Fernando, and Burbank.

70
 RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION . 1960-64
D Single fomHy units

• M ul fi p l e units

figure 1 2. Source: los Angeles City Planning Department. Population Estimates January 1,
1 964; Building Departments of Burbank and San Fernando.

71
as well as through traffic which is present because of the major regional
highways which travers� the valley, . there now �xists withi�1 the San
Fernando Valley approximately 41 miles of a proJeCted 83-mde freeway
networkY These freeways are well integrated into the projected regional
system.
Virtually all normal shopping needs can now be met within the
valley, and commercial land use is taking on nuclear and sophisticated
proportions, often in the form of large, modern, planned shopping centers.
Also, the traditional pattern of strip-shopping districts continues to expand,
but the establishments tend to be smaller and less permanent than those
in the large shopping centers. Moreover, the strip-developments are feeling
competition from the increasing number of major planned shopping
centers, and the result is a serious vacancy problem in the strip-shopping
districts, especially the older ones. This condition is certainly related to
the estimated presence of approximately four-times as much commercial
zoning in the valley as the population can reasonably be expected to
support.14
Perhaps one of the most significant trends to appear thus far became
clearly evident in 196 1 . That was the building of apartment houses. By
1 96 1 , the construction of such units equalled that of single-family
dwellings for the first time; that is, one apartment unit was constructed
for each single dwelling. However, during 1 963, the ratio changed so
that for each single-family dwelling there were 3Yz apartment units
constructed (Figures 1 1 and 1 2).15 It appears that rising land costs,
higher construction costs, less available near-in land, and more young
married couples have combined to accelerate the building of apartment
houses rather than single�family dwcllings.10 Like the preceeding major
land use changes, apartment houses are crossing the valley from the
southeast. Thus far apartment construction has taken place along primary
surface streets or on secondary streets with ready access to freeways, with
the greatest concentration being in the southeast.
Population growth has not abated; people have poured into the
valley at a rate of approximately 30,000 per year since 1960Y There is
no foreseeable letup; on the contrary, it is estimated that there will be
approximately 1 , 600,000 persons in the San Fernando Valley in 1980.18
By this time, the transformation from a scene of intensive field and orchard
agdttilture tJ a rapidly maturing urb::n1�industi:ial landscape sl1ould be
'·
quite complete.

1 3 Estimate by the Freeway Department of the State Division of Highways,

April, 1 964.
1 4 Haig Keropian, "Program of Survival Outlined to Retailers at Valley Confer­
ence," Valley News and Valley Greens/wet, May 14, 1964.
1 5 Gordon Grant, "Recent Growth to Continue : Valley Construction Sets Fast
Pace During 1 963," Los Angeles Times, December 29, 1 963; Building Departments
of the Cities of Los Angeles, Burbank, and San Fernando, Spring, 1964. ·

1 '1 City of Los Angeles, Department of City Planning, Population Estimates

(Los Angeles : Research Section of Department of City Planning, January I, 1964).

J < Population estimates provided by the City Planning Departments of Los
Angeles, Burbank, and San Fernando.
1 ' Security First National Bank, 011. cit., pp. 3 and 9.
 A SELECTED CALIFORNIA BIBLIOGMPHY :.
Exploration and Settlement­
The Spanish and Mexican Period
Robert W. Durrenberger
San Fernando Valley State College
The items in this bibliography have been selected from the abundant
literature on Hispanic America to assist those who are interested in the
geography of settlement. vVherever possible, the English translations of
publications in a foreign language have been cited. In a few cases both
the original and the translation are included. The student interested in the
Spanish and Mexican period in California should refer to the histories of
Bancroft, Caughey and Rolle for additional references.
Adamson, Maud, "The Land Grant System of Governor Juan B. Alvarado,"
unpublished master's thesis in History, UniversiJy of Southern Cali­
fornia, 193 1 .
· Allen, Alice Mayhew, Early Roads and Trails in California, San Francisco:
National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, 1 942. 39 pp.
Allen, Rutillus H., "The Spanish Land Grant System as an Influence in
the Agricultural Development of California," Agricultural History,
Vol. 9 (July, 1 935), pp. 1 27-143.
Arrillaga, Basilio Jose, Recopiladon de Leyes, Decretos, Bandos, Regla­
mentos, Circulares y Providencias de los Supremos Poderes y Otras
Autoridacles de la Republica Mexicana. Formacla de Orclen del Supre­
mo Gobierno por el Lie. Mexico : J. M. Fernandez de Lara, 1838. 8
Vols.
Atherton, Lucien, "The Early History of the San Diego Presidial District,
1 542-1 782," unpublished master's thesis in History, University of Cal­
ifornia, Berkeley, 1 930.
Avilez, Alexander, "Population Increases in Alta California in the Spanish
Period, 1 769- 1 82 1 ," unpublished master's thesis in History, University
of Southern California, 1 955.
Bandini, Jose, A Description of California in 1 828, Berkeley : Friends of
the Bancroft Library, 1 95 1 . 52 pp.
Bates, Lana, "The Historical Geography of California, 1 5 1 3-1 835," unpub­
lished master's thesis in History, University of California, Berkeley,
1 93 1 .
Baugh, Ruth E., "Geographic Factors in the Evolution o f California," The
Journal of Geography, Vol. 54 (March, 1 955), pp. 1 33-140.
Baugh, Ruth E., "Early Los Angeles," Economic Geography, Vol. 1 8, (Jan­
uary, 1942), p. 87-96. Maps.
Beattie, George W., California's Unbuilt Missions, Spanish Plans for an
Inland Chain, Los Angeles : The Author, 1 930. 47 pp. .
Beattie, George W., "Development of Travel between Southern Arizona
and Los Angeles as it Related to the San Bernardino Valley," 1-listori-

73
 cal Society of Southern California, Annual. Publication, Vol. 8 ( 1925),
pp. 228-257.
Beattie, George \iV., "Reopening the Anza Road," Pacific Historic,al Review,
Vol. 2 (March, 1933), pp. 52-7 1.
Beattie, George W. and Pruitt, Helen, Heritage of the Valley, San Bernar­
dino's first Century. Pasadena : San Pasqual Press, 1939, 459 pp.
Beattie, George W., "Spanish Plans for an Inland Chain of Missions in
California," Annual Publications of the Historical Society of Southern
California, Vol. 14 ( 1 929) , pp. 243-264.
Bernstein, Harry, "Spanish Influence in the United States : Economic
Aspects," Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 18 (February,
1938), pp. 43-65.
Blackmar, Frank W., Spanish Institutions of the Southwest. Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins Press, 1 89 1 . 353 pp.
Bolton, Herbert E., Anza's California Expeditions. Berkeley : University of
California Press, 1930. 5 Vols.
Bolton, Herbert E., Dralw's Plate of Brass, Evidence of His Visit to Califor­
nia in 1 579. Special publication of California Historical Society No.
13, San Franciso : 1937. 57 pp.
Bolton, Herbert E., Ex11edition to San Francisco Bay in 1 770; Diary of
Pedro Fages. Publication of the Academy of Pacific Coast History, Vol.
2 ( I 9 1 1 ) , pp. 1-19.
Bolton, Herbert E., Fray Juan Crespi, Missionary Explorer on the Pacific
Coast, 1 769-1 774. Berkeley : University of California Press, 1927.
402 pp.
Bolton, Herbert E., "In the San Joaquin Ahead of Garces," California
Historical Society, Quarterly, Vol. 1 0 (September, 1 963), pp. 21 0-219.
Bolton, Herbert E., "The Mission as a Frontier Institution in the Spanish­
American Colonies," American Historic.al Review, Vol. 23 (October,
1 9 1 7), pp. 42-6 1 .
Bolton, Herbert E. , Spanish Ex11loration in the Southwest, 1 542-1 706.
New York : C. Scribner's Sons, 1 9 16. 487 pp.
Boudinot, May, "The Case of the Mercury as Typical of Contraband Trade
on the Calfornia Coast, 1 790- 1820," unpublished master's thesis in
History, University of California, Berkeley, 1 9 1 5.
Brown, D. Mackenzie, China Trade Days in California: Selected Letters
from the Thompson papers, 1832-1 863. Berke1ey : University of Cali­
fornia Press, 1947. 94 pp.
Brown, Kenneth, "California Roads and Trails, 1825 to 1 848 : As Revealed
by Some Contemporary and Near-Contemporary Observers," unpub­
lished master's thesis in History, Stanford University, 1936.
California Division of Forestry, Forest Use in Spanish-Mexican California,
by Raymond C. Clar. Sacramento : 1957. 39 pp.
California Division of Mines, Fabricas, A Collection of Pictures and State­
ments on the Mineral Materials Used in Building in California Prior
to 1 850, by Elizabeth L. Egenhoff. San Francisco : 1952. 1 89 pp.

74
Carpenter, Bruce R., "Rancho Encino : Its Historical Geography," unpub­
lished master's thesis in Geography, University of California at Los
Angeles, 1 948. 1 33 pp. ·

Carter, Charles F., "Duhant-Cilly's Account �f California in the Years

1827- 1 828," California Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. 8 (June­
September, 1 929), pp. 1 3 1 - 1 66, 306-336.
Carter, George F., "Man, Time, and Change in the Far Southwest,"
Supplement, Annals of the Association of _ American Geographers,
Vol. 49, (September, 1 959), pp. 8-30.
Casey, Jack, "The Indians in the Settlement of California ( 1 769-1 869),"
unpublished master's thesis in History, University of California,
Berkeley, 1 946.
Chapman, Charles E., A History of California: The Spanish Period, New
York : The Macmillan Company, 1 92 1 . 527 pp.
Cleland, Robert G., Pathfinders. Los Angeles and San Francisco : Powell
Publishing Company, 1 929. 452 pp.
Cleland, . Robert G., The Place Called Sespe. Chicago : Lakeside Press,
] 940. 120 pp.
Cook, Sherburne F., "Colonial Expeditions to the Interior of California
Central Valley, 1 800-1 820," Anthropologic.al Records. Vol. 1 6, ( 1 960),
Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 239-292.
Cook, Sherburne F., "Expeditions to the Interior of California, Central
Valley, 1 820-1 840," Anthropological Records, Vol. 20, ( 1 962), Berke­
ley : University of California Press. pp. 1 5 1-213.
Cook, Sherburne F., The Conflict Between the California Indian and
White Civilization. Berkeley : University of California Press, 1 943.
4 Vols.
Cook, Sherburne F., Population Trends Among the California Mission
Indians. Berkeley : University of California Press, 1940. 48 pp.
Corle, Edwin, The Royal Highway (El Camino Real). Indianapolis: Bobbs­
Merri11 Company, 1 949, 35 1 pp.
Cost�mso, Miguel, An Historical Journal of the Expeditions by Sea and
Land, to the North of California; in 1 768, 1 769, and 1 770: When
Spanish Establishments were First Made at San Diego and Monte
Rey. London : A. Dalrymple, 1 790. 76 pp.
Coues, Elliott, On the Trail of a Spanish Pioneer, the Diary and Itinerary
of Francisco Garces, 1 775- 1 776. New York : Francis P. Harper, 1900.
2 Vols.
Coulter, Dr. Thomas, Notes on Upper California; a Journey from 1\1onte­
rey to the Colorado River in 1 832. Los Angeles : Dawson, 195 1. 39 pp.
Cowan, Robert G., Ranchos of California: A List of the Spanish Conces-­
sions, 1 775-1822 and the Mexican Grants, 1 822- 1 846. Fresno: Acad­
emy Library Guild, 1 957. I SO pp.
Cruden, Davina, "Early Fur Trade in California," unpublished master's
thesis in History, University of California, Berkeley, 1 922.
Cunningham, Capt. William H., Log of the Courier, 1 826, 1 827, 1 828.
Los Angeles : Dawson, 1 958. 75 pp.

75
Cutter, Donald C., The Diary of Ensign Gabriel Moraga's Expedition of
Discovery in the Sacramento Valley, 1808. Los Angeles : Dawson,
1957. 36 pp.
Cutter, Donald, Malaspina in California. San Francisco : Lawton Kennedy,
1960. 96 pp.
Cutter, Donald, "Moraga of the Military : His California Services, 1 784-
1 8 1 0," unpublished master's thesis in History, University of Califor­
nia, Berkeley, 1 947.
Cutter, Donald, "Spanish Exploration of California's Central Valley," un­
published doctoral dissertation in History, University of California,
Berkeley, 1950.
Dakin, Susanna B., The Lives of William Hartnell. Stanford University
Press, 1 949. 308 pp.
Dakin, Susanna B., A Scotch Paisano: Hugo Reid's Life in California.
Berkeley : University of California Press, 1 939. 3 12 pp.
Dana, Richard H., Jr., Two Years Before the Mast. New York : Harper &
Brothers, 1 840. 483 pp.
Davidson, George, The Discovery of San Francisco Bay; The Rediscovery
of the Port of Monterey; The Establishment of the Presidio, and the
Founding of the Mission of San Francisco. San Francisco : F. F. Part·
ridge, 1947. 1 53 pp.
Davidson, George, Francis Drahe on the Northwest Coast of Am,erica in the
year 1579; the Golden Hinde did not Anchor in the Bay of San Fran­
cisco. San Francisco : F. F. Partridge, 1908. 1 14 pp.
Davis, H., "On the Likelihood of an Admixture of Japanese Blood on our
Northwest Coast," American Antiquarian Society Proceedings. No. 58
( 1872), pp. 64-82.
Davis, William H., Sixty Years in California. San Francisco : A. J. Leary,
1889. 639 pp.
Deaver, Charles, ''The Establishment and Administration of the Pueblo of
Los Angeles under Spain : Including Its Historical, Psychological, and
Political Bases," unpublished master's thesis in History, University of
Southern California, 19 16.
Donhardt, Robert M., "The Role of the Horse in the Social History of
Early California," Agricultural History, Vol. 1 4, (January, 1 940),
pp. 1 3-22.
Drake, Eugene B., ]i11w1w's and flartnell's Indexes of Land Concessions­
{1·om 1 830 to 1 846; also, To11'la De Razom, or Register of Titles, for
1 844-1 845; approvals of Land Grants, by the Territorial Deputation
and Departmental Assembly of California, 1835 to 1 846; and a list of
Unclaimed Grants. San Francisco : Kenny & Alexander, Booksellers,
Stationers and Importers, 1 86 1 . 68 pp.
Drewes, Rudolph, "Pedro Pages, California Pioneer," unpublished master's
thesis in History, University of California, Berkeley, 1927.
Duflot de Mofras, Eugene, Exploration du Territoire L'Oregon, des Cali­
fornies et de la Mer Nermeille, Paris : Libraire de la Societe de Geo­
graphie, 1 844. 2 Vols. and Atlas.

76
du Petit-Thouars, Abel, Voyage of the Venus: Sojourn in California. Los
Angeles : Dawson, 1 956. 1 1 3 pp.
Duran, Narciso. Expedition on the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers in
1 8 1 7; Diary of Fray Narc,iso Duran. Berkeley : Academy of Pacific
Coast History, 1 9 1 1 . 21 pp.
Eldredge, Zoeth Skinner, The March of Poriola and the Discovery of the
Bay of San Francisco. San Francisco : The California Promotion Com­
mittee, 1909. 71 pp.
Elliott, George H., The Presidio of San Francisco, Concepcion cle Arguello.
Washington : 1 874. 39 pp.
Engelhardt, Father Zephyrin, The Missions and Missionaries of California.
San Francisco : The James H. Barry Company, 1908- 1 9 1 5 . 4 Vols.
Engelhardt, Father Zephyrin, The Missions and Missionaries of California:
New Series-Local History. San Francisco : The James H. Barry Com­
pany, 1 920-1 934. 16 Vols. {Each volume on a different mission.)
Englebert, Omar, The Last of the Conquistadors, J�mipero Serra ( 1 7 1 3-
1784). New York : Harcourt, Brace, 1 956. 368 pp.
Farquhar, Francis P. and Walter A Starr, "Drake in California : a Review
of the Evidence and the Testimony of the Plate of Brass," California
Historical Society QHarterly, Vol. 36 (March, 1957), pp. 21-34.
Farnham, Thomas J., Life, Adventures and Travels in California. New
York : Saxton & Miles, 1844. 4 1 6 pp.
Forbes, Alexander, California: A History of Upper and Lower California
from the First Discovery to the Present Time, Comprising an Account
of the Climate, A Full View of the Missionary est. and Conditions.
London : Smith, Elder & Company, 1 839. 352 pp.
Francis, Jessie, "An Economic and Social History of Mexican California
( 1 822-1 846) Volume 1 ," unpublished doctoral dissertation in History,
University of California, Berkeley, 1 936.
Galbraith, Edith C:, "Malaspina's Voyage Around the World," California
Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. 3 (October, 1 924), pp. 21 5-237.
Gardner, Frances T., Early California Navigators and Their Maps. San
Francisco : National Society of Colonial Dames of America, 1 94 1 .
1 9 pp.
Geary, Gerald Joseph, "The Secularization of the California Missions
( 1 8 10-1846)," unpublished doctoral dissertation in Religion, Washing-
· ·

ton : Catholic University of America, 1 934. 204 pp.

Geiger, Father Maynard J., The Life and Times of Fray Junipero Serra.
Washington : Academy of American Franciscan History, 1959. 2 Vols.
Geiger, Father Maynard J., A Pictorial History of the Physical Develop­
ment of Mission Santa Barbara from Brush 1-htt to Institutional
Greatness, 1 786-1963. San Francisco: Franciscan Fathers of Califor­
nia, 1963. 1 80 pp.
Geiger, Father Maynard J., The Serra Tmil in Pict�tre and Story. Santa
Barbara : Santa Barbara Mission, 1 960. 222 pp.

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Gentilcore, R. Louis, "Missions and Mission Lands of Alta California,"
Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 5 1 , (March,
196 1 ) , pp. 46-72. '
Golder, Frank A., Russian Ex12ansion on the Paci(rc, 1 641-1850. Cleveland:
The Arthur H. Clark Comp:my, 1914. 368 pp. ·
.

Greenhaw, Robert, The History of Oregon and California, and the Other
Territories -on the Northwest Coast of North America; Accompanied
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Griffin, George Butler, "Documents from the Sutro Collection," Pu.blica­
tions of the Historical Society of Southern California. Los Angeles :
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Gwinn, Herbert, "The History of Sutter's Fort, 1839- 193 1 ," unpublished
master's thesis in History, University of the Pacific, 193 1 .
Haase, Ynez, "The Russian American Company i n California," unpublish­
ed master's thesis in History, University of California, Berkeley, 1952.
Hafen, Le Roy, Old Spanish Trail: Santa Fe to Los Angeles. Glendale :
A. H. Clark Company, 1954. 377 pp.
Hammond, 9eorge P., "German Interest in California Before 1850," un­
published master's thesis in History, University of California, Berke­
ley, 192 1 .
Hammond, George P . , O n the Am.bitious Project;s of Russia in Regard to
North West Americ,a with Particular Reference to New Albion and
New California. San Francisco : The Book Club of California, 1955.
79 PP·
Hammond, George P., The Larhin Papers. Berkeley : University of Cali-
fornia Press, 19 59-1 964. lO Vols. ·

Hammond, George P., Noticias de California, First Report of the Occupa­

tion by the Portola Ex12edition, 1 770. San Fl:ancisco : BQok Club of
California, 1958. 53 pp.
Heustis, Capt. Daniel D., Remarlfflble Adventures, California 1 845. Los
Angeles : Glen Dawson, 1 957. 22 pp.
Hill, Joseph J., "The Old Spanish Trail, A Study of Spanish and Mexican
Trade and Exploration Northwest from New Mexico to the Great
Basin and California," The Hispanic Am.erican Historical Review,
Vol. 4 (August, 192 1 ) , pp. 444-473.
Holmes, Maurice G., From, New Spain by Sea to the Californias, 1 5 1 9-
. 1 668 . Glendale : A. H. Clark, 1963. 307 pp.
Huff, Boyd, El Puerto de los Balleneros, Annals of the Sausalito Vlhaling
Anchorage, Los Angeles : Daws:m, 1959. 47 pp;
Hussey, John A., The Voyage of the Raccoon. San Francisco : The Book
Club of California, 1958. 36 pp.
Jackson, Eric P., "The Early Historical Geography of San Francisco," The
Journal of Geography, Vol. 26, (January, 1 927), pp. 12-22.

78
Kell, Elmer, "Early Travel and Communication in Southern California,"
unpublished master's thesis in History, University of Southern Cali­
fornia, 1 940.
La Perouse, Jean , Francois Galaup de, A Voyage Round the vVorld, in the
Years 1 785, 1 786, 1 787 and 1 788. London : 1798, J. Johnson, 3 Vols.
Lawrence, Eleanor, ''The Old Spanish Trail from Santa Fe to California,"
unpublished master's thesis, in History, University of California,
Berkeley, 1 930.
Leader, Herman, "The Hudson Bay Company in California," unpublished
docto�al dissertation in History, University of California, Berkeley,
1 928.
Lewis, Oscar, California in 1 846. San Francisco: Grabhorn Press, 1934.
63 pp.
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Expedition, 1 832- 1 833 for the Hudson's Bay Company. California
Historical Society Special Publication No. 1 9. San Francisco : 1 945.
1 12 pp.
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of California Bulletin, Vol. 2 ( 1 894), pp. 59-76. ,
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1955. 40 pp.
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1 797-1835. Fresno : Academy Library Guild, 1 958. 285 pp.
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Islands in the United States Sloop-of-War, Cyane, 1841-1844. San
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tion of Discovery in th_e Sacremento Valley, 1 808 . Los Angeles: Glen
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' Don Francisco, Voyage of the Sonora. San Francisco : Thomas C.
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aventure, 1 796-1823. San Francisco : John Howell Books, 1962. 175 pp.
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gencer, Los Angeles : Dawson, 1 959. 1 9 pp.
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Before 1 848," unpublished master's thesis in History, University of
California, Berkeley, 1 930.

79
Ogden, Adele, "Boston Hide Droghers Along the California Shores," Cal­
ifornia Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. 8 (December, 1929), pp.
289-305.
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 Raup, Hallock F., Transformation of Southern California to a Cultivated
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·

Press, 1939. 243 pp.

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'
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Sanchez, Nellie Van de Grift, Spanish and Indian Place Names of Cali­
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85
 BOOK REVIEW

Day Tours: Geographical Journeys in the Los Angeles Area, Los Angeles
Geographical Society Publication No. One, by Glenn Cunningham,
editor (Palo Alto, Calif., Pacific Books, 1 964. 207 pp.) .

This book, long in the making, fulfills one of the early objectives of
the Los Angeles Geographical Society. From its inception the Society has
served as a link between professional geographers and the lay public inter­
ested in a more sophisticated look at the wo:dd than that normally afforded
by career travelogists. This role, always · dangerously ambiguous, has been
both a strength and a weakness. Certainly the efforts of the Society in pro­
moting geography are unique in Southern California, and the Society has
come very close to succeeding in the best traditions of its European models.
Days Tours is an important contribution. It is a masterful elaboration
of the walk-about books associated with such places as New Yorl{ and
Australia. There is a problem, of course, in that there is no walking tradi­
tion in Southern California. The book thus is designed for a motorized
public used to the trauma of Los Angeles traffic.
The book describes fourteen journeys of one day's duration each, orig­
inating from the Civic Center, and spilling out in all directions through
the diversity of conditions for which Los Angeles is famous. The adven­
turer bent on seeing all that is described will log at least 2199 miles at an
average of 1 57 miles per trip. He will observe many of the salient features
of the larger Los Angeles lowland as well as the nearby mountains and
deserts. With the exception of getting to and out of the Civic Center, he
will not retrace his course from journey to journey.
Although the book was written by thirteen different geographers,
each charged with a specific tour, there is a remarkable uniformity in the
way in which the chapters are written. To the credit of the editor, there
is not the unevenness of style commonly associated with multiple authorship.
Each tour attempts to point out the items of concern to geographers, assum­
ing that the readers have at ]east a latent interest in every conceivable
aspect of the larger landscape. Old houses, new settlements, museums,
colleges, farms, rock types, and vegetation features are described as they
come into view. The emphasis obviously varies from tour to tour depending
on the nature of the country being traversed.
From the reviewer's point, of view it is a paradox that the strongest
chapters are those concerned ' with the non-urban areas. Perhaps geogra­
phers are more at ease in describing the works of nature than they are the
impress of urban man. In any event, the urban chapters tend to enumerate
the obvious features, whereas the mountains and deserts are treated in a
broader perspective. This is not to say that the descriptions of the city lack
information. There is something for everyone in every tour, and there are
new things to be learned no matter how long one has been a resident of
any of the tour regions.
 For the most part the integrity of the information presented is beyond
reproach-and the book is filled with information. In a few instances,
however, statements are made which are subject to question. For example,
Sunland and Tujunga can scarcely be described as having a "high ele­
vation" where snow is "not uncommon" (p. 1 53) . Hemet's buildings are
really not "uniformly modern" (p. 247). Long Beach was not necessarily
is perhaps less significant to note that Placentia means "pleasing site"
(p. 195) than it is to observe E. G. Gudde's (California Place Names)
conclusion that the community 'was probably named after a town and bay
in Newfoundland.
\iVithout question, Day Tours is an heroic effort to provide the reader
with a· special kind of tour of Los .Angeles. It is recommended for anyone
with even a passing interest in Southern California. Its weaknesses lie in
the uneasy ground it occupies between the professional world of geog­
raphy and the lay public, and the overwhelming size of the regions por- ·

trayed. Walking tours provide time for reflection which driving tours do
not. One should not attempt any of the urban tours without a detailed map
of the city and without at least one colleague to assist in locating the places
described. Passengers will appreciate the tours; but pity the driver.-\iVil­
liam G. Byron, California State College, Los Angeles

88
 EXECUTIVE BoARD
Of-hcers and Members-at-Large
CALIFORNIA CouNCIL OF GEOGRAPHY TEACHERS

PRESIDENT
Sheldon D. Ericksen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . California State College, Long Beach
vICE PRESIDENT
Arthur E. Karinen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chico State College
SECRETARY-TREASURER
Gertrude Reith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . California State College, Fullerton
MEMBERS-AT-LARGE
Homer Anderson, Los Angeles Valley College; Homer Aschmann, Univer­
sity of California, Riverside; Virgil R. Baker, Fresno State College; Rex
Brittingham, Ventura College; Delmas Bugelli, Pasadena City College;
Alfred Butz, Santa Rosa Junior College; Edvvard L. Chapin, Jr., San
Bernardino Valley College; Clinton Claxton, Fremont; Glenn Cunningham,
Los Angeles City College; Herbert M. Eder, University of California,
Berkeley; Donald Eidemiller, San Diego State College; Richard Ellefsen,
San Jose State College; Daniel Epstein, San Jose City College; John F.
Gaines, California State College, Los Angeles; Howard Gregor, Univer­
sity of California, Davis; Ladd Johnson, Chico Junior High School; Carl
L. Lutz, Claremont High School, San Diego; William D. Pattison, San
Fernando Valley State College; Duilio Peruzzi, University of California,
Los Angeles; Robert Picker, San Francisco State College; Donald Reasons,
\V'atsonville High School; Adolf Stone, Long Beach City College; Wilbur
J. Sv.ritzer, Los Altos High School, La Puente; William Wake, Bakersfield
Center, Fresno State College.

Ex-OFFICIO MEMBEH
Raymond W. Stanley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . San Jose State College
INSTITUTE CooRDINATOR
David W. Lantis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chico State College
NATIONAL CouNCIL CooRDINATOR
James N. Wilson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . California State College, Long Beach
1 965 CoNVENTION CHAIRMAN
Sheldon D. Ericksen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . California State College, Long Beach

EDITOR, Bulletin of the California Council of Geography Teachers

Stanley H. Ross . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . San Fernando Valley State College

EDITOR, The California Geographer

Robert A. Kennelly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . California State College, Long Beach