The Rain Wizard: The Amazing, Mysterious, True Life of Charles Mallory Hatfield
OFFICIAL SEAL KFORNIA IC 15 THE COMPLETION O 0 OF THE AMA CA SAN D THIS Pould kee for Enos Mattoon San Diego The Panama California Exposition was meant to show off the port city of San Diego at its finest Because the exposition featured exhibits from other countries it was renamed the Panama California International Exposition in
The recent surge in growth had placed new demands on San Diego's water supply and this worried businessmen like Spreckels and Babcock therefore it worried politicians The town's future depended on water With plans to extend the exposition another year and memories of a seven year drought in the 1890s the city council seemed close to desperation A down on his luck Englishman Frederick Fred A Binney believed in science and in mankind's ability to mold and control nature He had lost his own citrus orchard a short distance east of San Diego to a winter dry spell Having followed Charles Hatfield's rainmaking career over the years he was convinced that Hatfield held the scientific key to ending drought With a keen sense of how he might make some money he appointed himself Hatfield's promoter and began taking out advertisements for Hatfield's services in newspapers throughout California Hatfield who always prided himself on his integrity and honesty accepted the help despite Binney’s shady reputation Binney was known in real estate circles for being less than honest sometimes placing his crude handmade For Sale signs on property that wasn't his to sell Expecting to receive a percentage of any deals Hatfield struck Binney contacted the city council in 1912 on behalf of the rain coaxer He was turned away His reputation had preceded him and he met with a skeptical
N A A system of aqueducts and a flume transported water from the mountains to San Diego The 35 6 mile flume shown here was an open wooden ditch that crossed ravines and canyons by means of trestles to keep the slope constant To celebrate its opening on February 22 1889 California governor R W Waterman and other dignitaries floated down the recently completed flume in flat bottomed boats City dwellers often hosted flume floating parties where they would dress up in their Sunday finest and let the flow of the water carry them downhill in small
In Eny is a LTE De Beer IT Hig TruarWAIT TERE T CC The Hotel del Coronado in 1895 The beachside hotel still stands today and boasts a supposedly haunted room under the eaves Still Binney persisted as did Hatfield and his younger brother Paul who usually acted as Hatfield's assistant in the rain coaxing business In February 1912 Paul proposed to the chamber of commerce of Escondido a small farming village in inland San Diego County that he and his older brother would bring four and one half inches of rain to the county between February 8 and May 1 When his offer wasn't accepted right away he renewed it by writing in early March promising three inches of rainfall by the end of April at 1 000 an inch My brother
