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23
Chapter 5: Creating Water Companies
Rainmaking tower
of Charles Hatfield, 1916
The San Diego Historical
Society
R
a
inmakers were held in great esteem by the Kumeyaay in the days before the Spaniards. At the beginning
of the 1900s, they still
were called upon in desperate ti
mes. In spite of all the magnificent new dams in the
county, the county was held hostage by a 10-year drought. Along came Charles M. Hatfield, the rain-
maker. He mixed two dozen secret chemicals (in a formula he took to his grave), aged it, poured it into pans and
placed it on top of towers. There, the formula evaporated and brought rain
—
according to Hatfield. The
odors from this concoction were said to resemble li
mburger cheese. Skeptics said the stink was so bad
that it rained in self-defense. In December of 1915, the city of San Diego hired Hatfield for $10,000 on a
"no rain, no pay" basis with the promise that he would fill
Morena Reservoir. He placed his potion in the
mountains around the reservoir. From January 15 to 20, 1916, it rained throughout the county, with more
than 17 inches falling in the mountains. The San Diego River rose six feet and covered Mission Valley
under a mile-wide raging flood from cliff to cliff. The Tijuana River washed away a colony at Little Landers,
just north of the Mexican border. Roads and bridges were wiped out throughout the county.
People wanted Hatfield to stop making rain, but the City Council refused to pay hi
m because Morena was
not full. The
San Diego Union
wrote that the value of the water in the reservoirs offset hundred-fold the
damage to property. "[T]he runoff into reservoirs will also continue giving the city and the county a wealth
of
water for future use and bringing with it the happiness and prosperity that is only possible through such a boun-
tiful
water supply."
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Hatfield vowed to earn his pay and fill the reservoir, so he continued his rainmaking activity.
From January 25 to the 30, it rained another 14 inches in the mountains. The flooding damaged the Sweetwater
Dam by breaking new abutments to the original dam, and utterly swept away Lower Otay Dam, demolishing every-
thing below. Bridges, railroads and highways were gone and 14 people died. The Fallbrook rail
way station and
station master’s house were carried away down the Santa Margarita River. In the San Luis Rey Valley, a historic
adobe bell tower fell off the Pala Mission church. The
San Diego Union
lamented that the telephone line was
washed out before Hatfield could be ordered to turn off his rainmaking plant.
Hatfield never collected his fee, because he refused to sign a contract assuming responsibility for the damage.
Historian Thomas Patterson wrote, "Scars permanently changed the contour of the hills … Springs previously
unknown to the backcountry flowed for years afterwards."
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The county has never recorded a wetter two-week
period before or since. Perhaps Hatfield really did make it rain, or perhaps this was just a great coincidence.
Because his secret formula was buried with hi
m, no one will ever know for sure.
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HATFIELD THE RAINMAKER AND
THE
1916
FLOOD
The county has
never recorded
a wetter two-
week period
before or since.