heckler73
Well-Known Member
The climate was bone dry.... There was no moisture and our cattle died off in very great numbers ... Before the year 1864 had passed away, there was perfect devastation. Such a thing was never before known in California. --Juan Forster, Rancho Santa Margarita Droughts are common in California, always have been. Long before scientists suggested a "greenhouse effect" and the possibility of permanent climatic change, pioneers coped with erratic and disastrous wet/dry cycles.I bet there were snow capped peaks in the background then too.
The drought of 1862-65 was a catastrophe for the state of California--a bitter dry period, preceded by unusually heavy rains and accompanied by an untimely epidemic of smallpox.
The decade of the 1860s began with little hint of the natural catastrophes ahead. For several years in succession, gentle autumn and winter rains had fallen with consistency, supporting vast grasslands that fed immense herds of cattle.
But in the winter of 1861-62, rains of biblical proportions came to California.
http://articles.latimes.com/1991-06-13/news/nc-780_1_cattle-industry