Los Angeles daily herald., 1875-01-01
Wilmington.

Angeles, San Bernardino and Inyo
counties, and portions of Arizona, has
been prosperous during the past year,
aud enters upon the new year with u
certainty of increased success. 1t is
twenty-five miles from Los Angeles
by rail. Its population is about 7O0,an
increase of l50 during the year. Dur
ing the year quite number of elegant
buildings, erected by the Z. S. Gov
ernment, and for several years vacant,
has been supplied with tenants--live
men who have the means and the will
to improve the place and increase its
business. In the immediate vicinity
of the town are four large ranches,
over 1000 acres in all, held by men
who refuse to cut them up and sell to
new settlers on reasonable terms.
Thus Wilmington is hemmed in by
the ocean and these large ranches.
When these lands are parceled out
and cultivated in small tracts, great
impetus to business and trade will at
once follow. The Los Angeles and
Wilmington Railroad Company give
employment to some two hundred
men at Wilmington. Over forty men
are building lighters. Atthe machine
and car shops from thirty to forty
men are at work, building new cars
and repairing the rolling stock of the
road-they have just turned out two
elegant passenger coaches and quite a
number of fiat and box cars. Quite a
squad of men are at work on the new
railroad wharf-to be finished inside OF
three months, 1920 feet in length,
with substantial warehouses thereon.
During the year the fine wharf of the
Cooperative Association was erected,
at cost of $4,000, with commodious
warehouses. Another feature of the
years progress is the establishment
by E. N. Mcdonald & Co., of a large
wool packing house, with spacious
buildings, warerooms, etc. Over 60O,-
900 pounds of wool were packed last
Spring, and an increased trade is
promised this year. Another item OF
progress is the establishment of Will
son College, with most liberal ell
dowment.
Surrounding the city is a rich coun-
try that will grow almost everything
in luxurious abundance, and as well
watered as any section in the State.
Close to the town are fine sheep ranch
es, covered with choice stock-among
the best sheep ranches being that of
Mr.. Jas. Bixby, a leading man in
that section of the country. Gen.
Banning, another Wilmingtonian,
has an elegant family mansion on the
Chill" and has been very successful in
the cultivation of fruits and vegeta-
bles, including the almond, the banana
and the fig.
Col. B. ID. Wilson, who came to Los
Angeles county a third of a century
ago, resides atWilmington and evinces
"boom.n He has three thousand gum
trees eucalyptus in front of his resi-
dence, and as the test has been most
satisfactory, he intends to put out fif-
ty acres in this tree this Spring-400
trees to the acre. Although but ten
months from the seed, they are over
fifteen feet high, with diameter of
trunk thirteen inches, diameter at
lowest limb from tip to tip fourteen
feet. The tree makes first class timber
and is an antidote against malaria.
Col. Wilson has also a fine vineyard
near his residence; he believes the
ben ch or table lands are better than
the foot. hills for the cultivation of the
grape, and makes the prediction that
vine growing and wine making will
soon be one of the principal industries
at Wilmington.
The breakwater, erected by the U.
S. Government, is working satisfacto-
rily, and the fact is established that u
deep and permanent channel can be
dredged. So that the success of Will
mington, as the great shipping point
for our fertile valleys, and the hills
back of us rich in minerals, is certain.