Hatfield the Rainmaker
Every now and then procrastination leads to really cool information. Somehow, a broad JSTOR search for "Folklore, Nineteenth Century, Britain" turned into tangental browsing of the journal, Western Folklore, which lead to totally awesome local history that I'd never heard before. The crazy thing is, it's actually not a tall tale.
See, Charles Mallory Hatfield was making his name around California as a rainmaker. Apparently, he got good enough results that in 1915 the San Diego city council contracted him, agreeing to pay him $10,000 for filling the Morena reservoir by December 20, 1916. So, Hatfield builds a tower near the Morena dam and does some mysterious things with chemicals and smoke. There's a sprinkling of rain on New Years, and a couple inches in the next couple days. Hatfield says he's just beginning. Two weeks later, several inches fall. Hatfield says "That's nothing to what I'm going to do." Next thing you know, San Diego is flooding. Roads out, trains stalled, phone lines going down. Hatfield says, it's only a few showers so far. I'm going to make it really rain. People suggest paying him $10,000 to stop the rain, as after a week of hard rainfall, San Diego is cut off from the world and San Ysidro and Tijuana were hit even worse. Hatfield hadn't contracted anything with them, or with Los Angeles or Yuma, AZ. Things start drying out a bit, but on the 28th, another storm hits. Dams are overflowing; the Lower Otay dam breaks. The damage is staggering -- roads, rail and bridges washed out; mudslides all over; telephone and telegraph lines down; between eleven and fifty people dead (accounts vary and it's too much of a mess to be sure); and hundreds homeless. So, Hatfield goes to the City to collect his $10,000. The city officials refuse payment, unless he covers the $6,000,000 damage. Either it's an Act of God and Hatfield can't claim for the rain, or Hatfield is responsible for the floods and he damn well better pay out. Not to mention, they only hired him to fill the reservoir, not break dams and flood half the state. Oddly enough, Hatfield doesn't push too much harder for his payment after that argument.
More info:
(Tuthill, Barbara. "Hatfield the Rainmaker." Western Folklore. Vol. 13 No. 2/3 (1954) 107-112.)
Journal of San Diego History
See, Charles Mallory Hatfield was making his name around California as a rainmaker. Apparently, he got good enough results that in 1915 the San Diego city council contracted him, agreeing to pay him $10,000 for filling the Morena reservoir by December 20, 1916. So, Hatfield builds a tower near the Morena dam and does some mysterious things with chemicals and smoke. There's a sprinkling of rain on New Years, and a couple inches in the next couple days. Hatfield says he's just beginning. Two weeks later, several inches fall. Hatfield says "That's nothing to what I'm going to do." Next thing you know, San Diego is flooding. Roads out, trains stalled, phone lines going down. Hatfield says, it's only a few showers so far. I'm going to make it really rain. People suggest paying him $10,000 to stop the rain, as after a week of hard rainfall, San Diego is cut off from the world and San Ysidro and Tijuana were hit even worse. Hatfield hadn't contracted anything with them, or with Los Angeles or Yuma, AZ. Things start drying out a bit, but on the 28th, another storm hits. Dams are overflowing; the Lower Otay dam breaks. The damage is staggering -- roads, rail and bridges washed out; mudslides all over; telephone and telegraph lines down; between eleven and fifty people dead (accounts vary and it's too much of a mess to be sure); and hundreds homeless. So, Hatfield goes to the City to collect his $10,000. The city officials refuse payment, unless he covers the $6,000,000 damage. Either it's an Act of God and Hatfield can't claim for the rain, or Hatfield is responsible for the floods and he damn well better pay out. Not to mention, they only hired him to fill the reservoir, not break dams and flood half the state. Oddly enough, Hatfield doesn't push too much harder for his payment after that argument.
More info:
(Tuthill, Barbara. "Hatfield the Rainmaker." Western Folklore. Vol. 13 No. 2/3 (1954) 107-112.)
Journal of San Diego History