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California: The Great Exception
Chronicling California, the El Dorado that continues to produce wealth
Carey McWilliams penned one of the best histories of the Golden State in 1949. It is called California: The Great Exception. It reads as well today and is as meaningful as when the author completed the first edition. What Ms. McWilliams correctly saw was the one feature that makes California unique among the other states of the Union, indeed of all other places of the world.
In eighteen chapters, Ms. McWilliams details in lucid prose why this state is exceptional. If there were one characteristic of this state’s nature, it the rapid rate of change that occurs within its every institution of the state.
Population is only one aspect of its exceptional nature. In 1848, there were just over 10,000 who lived in the state prior to the discovery of gold. By 1849, there were 100,000 two-thirds of whom were from outside the U.S. The waves of large-scale migration continue until today.
Another example is the rapid development of government within the state. In 1849, 48 delegates assembled in Monterey to form a state government. "This was probably the youngest body of men ever assembled in a state constitutional convention: 9 were under thirty, 23 under forty, 12 between 40 and 50 years of age. Only 4 of the delegates were 50."
There was great debate in Washington over the admission of California into the Union—should it come as a slave or free state?—a debate that had held other states from statehood for long periods of time. However, on Sept. 9, 1850 California entered the Union, a scant year the gold rush that formed the state began. "The Union is an exclusive body but when a millionaire knocks on the door, you don’t keep him waiting too long; you let him in."
The other remarkable feature of California’s incredible growth was the economic engine that fueled the growth. No Eastern wealth financed the development of the state. It was entirely developed with wealth dug out of the ground. Furthermore, that wealth was, in turn, reinvested in the state, lands purchased and turned into crop producing farms to feed the exploding population, industries created to serve the exploding mining enterprise, etc.
The grab for land in California is yet again another example of California exceptional history. "In 1869 alone, according to Paul W. Gates, 1,726,794 acres were sold by the federal government in California. In a twenty-year period after 1862, over 7,000,000 acres of federally owned land was purchased either with warrants or with scrip or for cash."
Agriculture, too, reflects the state’s exceptional nature. "The diversity of California agriculture can also be measured by noting the variety or types of farming that exists in the state. Approximately 188 different and distinct types of farming can be found in California by comparison with 8 types to be found in Illinois, 12 in Kansas, 20 in Texas, and 25 in Pennsylvania which in this respect ranks second to California. Here the disparity, 118 to 25, is some index of the amazing diversity of California’s production."
No history of California would be complete without a detailed description of the state’s insatiable thirst for water. Once again, California proves the exception. Anyone who has seen the film Chinatown with Jack Nickelson, knows the story. The drier southern part of the state made its an imperialist conquest or Northern California water. "At an initial cost of $25,000,000 (the ultimate cost was to be $90,000,000), Los Angeles built a 238-mile aqueduct to Owens Valley, on the eastern slope of the Sierras, and bought 288,000,000 gallons of water a day into Southern California."
But the Southland grab for water was only getting started with that project. "Under the Colorado River Compact, which made possible the development of Boulder Dam,…the upper basin states (Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming), were allotted 7,500,000 acre-feet (of Colorado River water) a year. The lower basin consisting of California, Nevada, and Arizona, being given 8,500,000 acre-feet." As Ms. McWilliams describes in compelling detail, California managed to garner 5,362,000 acre-feet largely at the expense of Arizona. The entire tale of California water imperialism reads like a political thriller.
Ms. McWilliams’ 300-plus page book is well worth the time. It will provide insight into the ever-changing nature of this exceptional state.
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