California Goes Boom!

In the 1880s there was a California land boom - long after Sutter's Farm was just a piece of history.  Los Angeles was a place of "pure air" as one brochure boasted.  It was remote from civilized disease,, and the perfect place to recover from tuberculosis.  According to the brochure, the number of persons "killed by snakes, poisonous reptiles, and dangerous animals was less that the number of persons killed by lightning in the eastern states."

That's how the California land boom began.  Boom came to mean a sudden increase in prosperity and values.  Boosters referred to city builders loyal to one place.  Boomers, however were a large part speculators, risk takers, someone who sought profit in the short term.  Boomers knew it couldn't last so they "got while the getting was good" usually by separating others from their money.

The California land boom became the prototype and pattern of all other later land booms to follow.  It was the Sutter's Gold Rush of the 19th century.  Vast ranches were broken up and then broken up again into smaller farms.  The Southern Pacific Railroad created a winter resort area and brought people to places like LA, Santa Barbara and San Diego.  By the 1880s the railroad fare from Kansas City to southern California was just $1. 

Los Angeles was the center of the spreading enthusiasm.  Railroad cars arrived loaded with prospective buyers.  The auctions featured brass bands and free lunches - all to stir the people to buy desert tracts of land in 25 foot lots.  There was more than 2,000 real estate agents in Los Angeles alone.  In a single year these agents sold over $100,000 worth of real estate.  The number of new subdivisions in the years 1886-88 totaled 1700.  Real estate prices skyrocketed.  Property worth $11,000 one year sold for $80,000 the next year. 

The year 1887 was the climax year for the boom with 80,000 new residents and over $100,000 worth of land sold in just six months.  The California boom reached to the Pacific Ocean, north to Santa Barbara, south to San Diego and inland along the railroad lines.  Everyone wanted to get rich off of California. 

Next time...Successful "boom towns"
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On September 2, 1969, the first ATM (Automatic Teller Machine) made its public debut at the Chemical Bank in Rockville Center, New York.  ATMs went on to revolutionize the banking industry and became a part of our daily lives.