[p. 141] Chapter II Laying the Foundations. 1870-1880.
Up to 1870 the Santa Monica bay region had scarcely felt the stirrings of the new spirit brought into the country by the American occupation. The original ranchos were still intact and occupied chiefly as grazing land, and very few Americans had obtained land holdings. Santa Monica Cañon was ont of the attractions of the entire coast at that time. Here a few American families each year camped under the sycamores. In 1871 Mr. B, L. Peel erected a large tent "to accomodate 25 to 30 families" and over 300 visitors are reported for one Sunday in August, drawn by a dance that "lasted all night." With 1872, Santa Monica Cañon suddenly became famous. The Express found it of enough importance to publish the following: "Santa Monica, the Long Branch of California, or Camp Haywood. Seventeen years ago Santa Monica was selected as a summer resort by Dr. Hayward and until the last five years he and his family were the only ones who availed themselves of its delights and benefits. Santa Monica proper is a farm house located on the ridge one and a half miles from where the camp is located. At this lone house the road descends into a deep ravine or cañon, at the foot of which, near the confluence with the ocean, is a thick growth of old sycamores. Here is the camp. Beyond stretches the Malaga ranch the rendezvous of horse thieves. The beach between the camp and the point affords a magnificient drive as does the shore in a southerly direction toward "Shoo Fly Landing," a mile or better distant. It is at the latter place that the greater part of the asphaltum sent to San Francisco from La Brea rancho is shipped. "
In the summer of 1872 a hotel was opened at the cañon and the proprietor advertises, "Come and enjoy yourself. A week at the beach will add ten years to your life." Mr. John Reynolds announces in July that he will "dispatch coaches to Santa Monica every Wednesday and Saturday a.m." A small skiff was brought round from San Pedro this summer and added to the attractions of surf bathing, drives and picnics along the beach and up the many beautiful cañons and dancing in the "big tent." Among the diversions was the excitement of prospecting, as it was rumored that a rich ledge of quartz rock existed on the beach, at a point only exposed for a few moments at low tide. The belief was founded on the fact that some of the native Californians of the district exhibited rich rock which they claimed to have obtained from the ledge.
[p. 142] In September, 1872 an event took place which marks a new era in the history of this vicinity. This was the sale of the San Vicente and Santa Monica y San Vicente ranchos by José del Carmen Sepulveda, and others, to Robert S. Baker. The first sale included 38,409 acres of land and the price was reported as $54,000.
[p. 142] Col. Robert S. Baker [ -1894], who thus became an important factor in the history of Santa Monica, was a descendent of an old and well-known family of Rhode Island. He came to California in 1849 and engaged in business in San Francisco, being a member of the firm of Cooke and Baker, who dealt largely in mining supplies. Later he became associated with General Beale in the cattle and sheep business in the northern part of the state and in the Tejon country. With his purchase of the San Vicente, he located to Los Angeles and in 1874 married Mrs. Arcadia Bandini de Stearns, widow of Don Abel Stearns, one of th earliest American settlers of Southern California, and daughter of Juan Bandini, one of the wealthiest and most distinguished of the early Californians. In 1878 he built the Baker block in Los Angeles, at the time the finest business block in the city. He owned through his wife, the Puente and Laguna ranchos and had other large business interests. He was most genial in character and he and his beautiful wife were noted for their lavish entertainments of guests, and they at one time and another were hosts to many distinguished people.
Colonel Baker died March 11th, 1894. His wife still survives him and is now a resident of Santa Monica, passing a beautiful old age in a modern cottage on Ocean avenue, although she is rated as one of the wealthiest woment in California and certainly none of the living daughters of California have had a more romantic or interesting history than Señora Arcadia de Baker.
Colonel Baker at once proceeded to perfect his title to all the Sepulveda holdings by subsequent purchases, thus obtaining possession of a magnificent tract of land, with a mile and a half of ocean frontage and including the San Vicente and numerous other springs, as well as several small mountain streams. With characteristic enterprise he began efforts to utilize his domain for something beside a sheep pasture. He interested his friend, General E.F. Beale, who was one of the earliest and most successful promoters known in California history-so successful that President Lincoln remarked of him when he was surveyor-general of the state in 1861, that "Beale had, indeed, become monarch of all he surveyed." The Express of December 22nd, 1873, announces, "General Beale has arrived here with an eastern capitalist who contemplates the purchase of the San Vicnte ranch with the view to the construction of a wharf at Shoo Fly Landing and building a narrow-gauge road from there to the city." This eastern capitalist seems to have fallen down, however, for in 1874 it is stated, "Col. Baker has connected with himself several wealthy Englishmen [p. 143] and a well-known and distinguished Californian (Beale). They contemplate constructing a road to Los Angeles, a branch of the Southern Transcontinental line. Wharves are to be built and Pacific Mail steamships will land here. The name of this embryo metropolis at the southern coast is to be Truxton." The San Francisco Post of September, 1874, contains a glowing description of the "Truxton Scheme" which ends by saying: "Why the Los Angeles people ever adopted the Wilmington road to shoal water is one of those things no fellow can find out. At two-thirds the distance they can reach deep water at the place called Truxton, on a bay right north of Wilmington. Here, at a comparatively light expense, for wharves, they can bring ship and cars together." The plans for Truxton include beside wharf and railway, a magnificent seaside hotel and a townsite; but they never seem to have gotten beyond the paper state.