Solomon Carvalho (1815-1897) holds a unique place in the history of the West. Carvalho was a Sephardic Jew of Portuguese descent from Philadelphia, an accomplished painter, and a daguerreotypist who documented the lives of Native Americans and Mormons as a member of explorer John C. Frémont’s 1853 survey team.
In June of 1854,
Carvalho stumbled into Los Angeles, suffering from the effects of his grueling cross-country
journey. Here he found solace and hospitality at the home of Manuel Domínguez and
his family. During the several weeks he spent in the Southland, Carvalho met
many of the Californio families; painted
portraits of Manuel and Maria Engracia Domínguez, Pío Pico, the last Mexican
governor of Alta California, and others; conferred with the few Jewish citizens
of the pueblo; did a little paleontology; and took in the sights. He assured
his place in history by leaving behind a detailed journal of his travels at a
time when the West was still pretty wild.[i]
Wonders to behold
In his journal, Carvalho
demonstrates a keen interest in the geography and geology of the Los Angeles
basin. While the Domínguez Rancho covered a wide swath of the Southland, Carvalho
appears to have explored beyond the confines of the Rancho. For example, he
extolls the virtues of the hot springs near “the mission of San Juan de Capestrano
[sic]”:
“These hot springs … excel all others in the
neighborhood (and there are many), in regard to their medicinal virtues, both
from their chemical combinations and the results obtained by their healing
qualities in all those diseases for which the chalybeates [iron salts] are reported
to cure.”
The springs still
flow hot in the Santa Ana Mountains, but are no longer open to the public.
Carvalho does not
mention it, but it is possible he visited the hot springs for his own health.
For much of his stay in California, he suffered a “brain fever.” The term might
be appropriate to describe a brain inflammation, such as meningitis or
encephalitis, but, more likely, in this case, it refers to a physical and
nervous breakdown resulting from Carvalho’s long, arduous journey westward with
Colonel Frémont. He credits the wife of Manuel Domínguez with
nursing him back to health:
“I was prostrated at this gentleman’s house by a severe attack of brain fever, superinduced by exposure in travelling over the hot deserts of sand, between Salt Lake and San Bernardino. His good, kind-hearted wife, Donna [sic] Gracia, paid me all the attentions and devotion of a mother. For ten days I was delirious, during that time she hardly left my bedside. Doctor Brinkerhoff who resided with them, volunteered his medical advice. To their combined skills and care I owe my recovery.”
The Redondo Salt Works. Image courtesy of University of Southern California Libraries and the California Historical Society via Calisphere.
Among the
geological wonders Carvalho witnessed was a salt lake – not exactly like the
Great Salt Lake he had experienced during his sojourn among the Mormons of
Utah, but salt nonetheless:
“On this rancho, towards San Pedro, is a salt
lake, which was being worked by a company of gentlemen. The salt is of superior
quality, and brings a good price in Los Angeles.”
The salt lake he
describes is one that existed on the extreme western edge of the Rancho lands,
in Redondo Beach. (Carvalho’s geography is somewhat suspect, since Redondo
Beach is nowhere near San Pedro.) The site of the “Old Salt Lake” is now
California State Historical Landmark No. 373. According to local historians, Manuel
Domínguez
sold 215 acres of his property to two merchants, Henry Allanson and William
Johnson, for approximately $500 in December, 1854, the same year that Carvalho
was a guest at the Rancho. No doubt he heard talk of the negotiations. The
property contained a spring-fed natural salt lake about 25 acres in size. Allanson
and Johnson established the Pacific Salt Works, which remained in operation
until approximately 1881.
We must also
suspect Carvalho’s sense of direction in describing tar pits:
“On this same place [as the salt lake], near
the shores of the Pacific Ocean, there is a lake of bitumen or asphaltum, used
almost altogether in Los Angeles, as a covering for the roofs of houses. In
winter it does very well, but the dropping of hot pitch from the eaves of the
houses in hot weather, is not agreeable ... Gentlemen’s clothing is frequently
spoiled by this material.”
The La Brea Tar
Pits, in Los Angeles’ Wilshire District, were a well-known land-mark long
before Carvalho’s arrival and it is likely he would have been taken to see them
as a tourist. Smaller seeps of tar no doubt existed at various places around
the Southland, but it seems unlikely that Carvalho would have ignored La Brea
in favor of something much less spectacular.
Finally, perhaps
inspired by the La Brea Tar Pits and the fossilized animals found therein,
Carvalho undertook to do a bit of bone-hunting himself:
“In making geological examinations on
Dominguez’ land, I had the curiosity to dig into a mound of earth raised up several
feet from the surface, and not fifty yards from the dwelling-house. I found
several pieces of large size petrified bone, too colossal for horses or oxen.
Procuring a pick-axe, I penetrated further, and was gratified in exhuming
portions of a mastodon. I collected four perfect teeth; the largest weighed six
pounds.”
In recent months,
transportation projects in both Los Angeles and San Diego have encountered a
trove of mammoth and mastodon bones. Carvalho would have loved it!
[i]
Incidents of Travel and Adventure in the
Far West: With Col. Frémont's Last Expedition Across the Rocky Mountains:
Including Three Months' Residence in Utah, and a Perilous Trip Across the Great
American Desert to the Pacific. Published by Derby & Jackson, 1860.
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