The Colville examiner. [volume] (Colville, Wash.) 1907-1948, 1922-05-06
John B.SIater Tells
About California
Tells Some of the Interest
ing Facts of City which
is His Home

| outline in its touch with the sea,
San Diego, in the very nature of
| it's situation, is doubtless one of the
most attractive places in the west if
not in America. The spacious bay
which is separated by narrow
strand from the ocean, and guarded
by the high promontory of Point
Iona on the north, has ancorage
sufficient for the commerce of all
America Situated as it is in the
southwest corner of the United
States, it is the first Pacific Ameri
can port of call north of the Panama
canal. Under the warm sun and
azure skies, caressed by the waters
of the broad Pacific, like finished
jewel sparkling in the golden light,
here rests the "Harbor Of the Sum-"
Historically, San Diego is entitled
to the distinction of being the first
in point of discovery and settlement
by adventurers from the Old World;
for it was Juan Roderique Cabrillo,
Spanish navigator, who, in Sep
tember, 1912, on a voyage up the
coast, cast anchor outside. His two
ships, the San Salvador and Victoria,
stood in the offing for six days
while he explored and charted the
harbor. This was exactly so years
after the first landing by Columbus
in the West Indies. Cabrillo con-
tinued his explorations northward
and died four months later and some
say his remains occupy grave on
one of the Santa Barbara islands
| which he also discovered. 1t seems
| that the records of Cabrilo's observa-
tions indicated the location of San
| Diego harbor at a point two degrees
| farther north which misled other
navigators, and it was not until 1902,
go years later, when the next eX-
| plorer, Don Sebastian Viscaino, like
| wise sailing under a Spanish com
mission, sailed into the harbor,
raised the Spanish flag and took
possession in the name of his ma
| tive country.
Upon this second discovery the
| three religious Carmelites in the ex-
pedition celebrated mass on the
shores near the mouth of the river
| and named it San Diego, which is
! the Spanish Interpretation of st.
James. After the departure of this
expedition nothing was done in col
onization until 1869 when FIR. Juni-
pero Sierra, a Catholic missionary,
established at the mouth of the San
Diego river, the first of the missions
| in what was then Spanish America.
| He was man of superior resolution,
but his support was meager and he
found the tanning of the Indians a
hazardous undertaking. In l775 his
| mission was destroyed by the natives,
| and two years later he rebuilt 1t at
point six miles farther up the
| river. The new mission was 10 years
| in construction. In 1921 the country
passed from Spanish to Mexican
rule, and it came under American
dominion in 1847.
From the beginning of American
rule the progress of San Diego has
been remarkable in the change OF
customs. The Spanish don and the
| matador who once reigned in the so
| cial whirl as the ideal to the eye
| and in the heart of the Mexican
senorita, reluctantly gave way to the
| approach of the lady and the gentle
man of American caste. From the
| adobe buildings at the old preside
| near Old Town where a few hundred
people found little outside the local
trade in native products to interest
| them, to the building of a modern
American city with 125,00O people
actively engaged in the arts, the
trades, business and commerce, has
been a period of wonderful interest
| to the world.
Little, however, can be said OF
San Diego that does not apply to
most any place along the coast OF
southern California. By the sea 1t
has great stretch of shore line and
fine beaches. In the mountains which
draw in a little closer here to the
coast before reaching into Mexico,
there are many fine resorts and the
distances are eliminated by the con-
crete road system that nets the m
terror. The mountain brooks so
famous in the higher elevations sink
when they reach the sands OF the
lower valleys, and the rivers, so
called, flow underground to the sea.
At one time the water supply OF the
city was secured by pumping
system following the fashion OF the
wells at the old mission. NO"