Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-05-25
BAJA CALIFORNIA.
THE SOUTHWESTERN CORNER OF
OUR CONTINENT.
An Overland Journey From San
Diego to Ensenada-How the
Country Looks.

Especial Correspondence of the REcoRD-UN1oN.
BAJA CALIFORNIA, fMexico),(
May IA, 1889.
Nowadays most people who visit the
Californian peninsula go down by steamer
from San Diego to E~nsenada-the former
being the last town Of consequence on the
American side of the border, and the latter
the first on the Mexican side. The dis
lance between the " points is only sixty
five miles-an easy journey between sup
per and breakfast; but after the three
thousand miles and more of water transit
which your correspondent has lately un
dergone, attended with "perils by sea" in
the shape Of equinoxial storms and spring
gales and such an excess of ma de mer that
ever since the sight of a ship or the sound
of a whistle brings back the old feeling of
nausea, we viii make this little Journey
overland.
First a few words about San Diego, that
ambitious city whose name Spanish for
Saint James was first conferred upon its
famous bay by Sebastian Vizarno, who
surveyed 1t III the year 1902. Vizcarno
was not the original discoverer, however,
for that distinction belongs to Juan Roder-
iguez Cabrillo and some other Portuguese
navigators, who came in 1912.
The modern history of the town dates
back TO the days of Father Francis Juni-
pero Sierra, the good friar who founded the
chain of missions that afterwards extended
away up into Northern California.
THE MISSION OF SAN DIEGO
Was established in what is now known as
"Old Town" and the present pueblo WIS
organized Just 81 years ago, making it the
oldest Municipality in the State.
Since 1915, when California passed from
Mexican control to that of the American
Government, the little burg has braveIy
held its own, though away down in the
EXTREMIST corner of the Republic, with no
nelghhors anywhere, and no back country
to boast of. About four years ago the
Santa Fe railway made this point its
western terminus, and then an era Of phe-
nomenal development began. In half a
year the population increasea from 5000
TO 10000; electric lights illuminate it;
street railway lines cross it in all direc-
tons; motor and horse-cars connect it with
progressive suburbs; a magnificent park of
1000 acres occupies the heart Of the town
and vessels Of largest tonnage can enter
the land-locked harbor at low tide in per-
feet safety.
The f%avorite boast of all loyal San
Diegans is the beautiful bay and the per-
feet weather that belongs to the latitude.
and so much has been said about it by the
boomers that irreverent persons from
farther up the coast have, out of sheer
Jealousy, abbreviated it into a bv-word-
"Bayandclimate." Occupying a command
ing position, with the sheltering hills be-
hind 1t, and the lovely bay in front, the
climate is certainly all that could be de-
sired, scarcely varying ten degrees from
year to year, with neither the excessive
heats OF Los Angeles, the chilly winds and
fogs OF San francisco, or the malaria of
the adjoining country. 1t is popularity
supposed in the north that a city so far
south as this must be intolerable in summer
time; but such is by no means the case
with San Diego, where light blankets are
needed at night the whole year through,
and which-with its ocean breezes and
nearby islands, covered with hotels and
cottages-is eminently
FITTED FOR A SUMMER
Great things are prophesied for the flu
ture of this city, it having the only harbor
of consequence on the California coast ex-
cept that at San Francisco, being nearest
the Mexican border the Southern terminus
of all the Pacific railways, and with a
good deal of fertile back country not vet
thickly settled. Just now the civ is
struggling under that deadly reaction
which always follows an overdone "boom,"
and business is comparatively dull. But
affairs are not so bad with San Diego as
with most Of her neighhors, and her
" healthy growth" about which we hear
SO much, is slowly but surely progressing.
The fact Is that injudicious booming has
been the bane of all Southern California.
There are towns Of which the world heard
a great deal a year or two ago-each one,
according to real-estate advertisers, bound
TO become the metropolis of the coast
that are now practically dead, nearly every
other house placarded to let" and prop
erty for sale at half its original cost. They
were doomed to death, and those unfor-
innate citizens who have not money
enough left TO get away, stand around idly
with their hands in their pockets waiting
for another boom to come along and make
them rich without the necessity of ignoble
labor.
STARTING SOUTHWARK
From San Diego by private conveyance
1.-THE stage-eoach no longer makes regular
trips) it is a pleasant afternoons Journey
to Tia Juana-a funny little town situated
exactly OIL the dividing line between the
two republics. At first there are fowery
fields on one side and salt marshes on the
other, a~lternated by dazzling glimpses of
the Pacific, a strong cool breeze bringing
the smell and almost the sound of the sea.
By the way, it is a popularity of this sec
ton that the "northers" blow generally
from the south, and the rivers are said to
flow bottom Notwithstanding that the
water sinks quickly into the ground, leav-
ing a few feet Of sand on top.
Beyond National City, which is almost
near enough TO be a suburb of San Diego.
and is connected Herewith by a motor
railway, the road gradually leaves the
coast and neas the foothills. A few hours
easy riding through fertile farming lands
brings us to Tia Juana. How this border
town came by its cognomen Tia, Aunt"
Juana, "Jane,") history saith not; but
probably some influential Mexican had. a
female relative of that name who once re-
sided here, and his frequent visits to
"Aunt James" are thus commemorated.
Unromantie people insist that the real
name of the valley is not Tia Juana at all,
but Tijuan little %turtle), bestowed at an
early day because Of the numbers of small
turtles that used to abound in it. How
ever, it is tia Juana" to-day, and doubt
less will remain so.
1t is not much OF a town, more Mexican
than American, struggling half a mile or
more along both sides of the line. There
are two hotels, one named after the town,
which may have been the identical abode
of
HISTORIC AUS JANE;
The other, big, square, wooden, implanted,
looking like IN immense dry goods box