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Hemet Southern California Its Homes and Scenes [cover title].

Hemet, California: Hemet Land Company; Los Angeles: Press of B. R. Baumgardt & Co., 1902. Small 8vo (7.625” x 4”), printed green wrappers. 39 pp., folding map (13” x 13.25”). Purple ink stamps of the Hemet Land Co.’s Los Angeles office on inside of front wrapper and outside of rear wrapper advertising “special reduced rates to Hemet”.

An attractive booklet advertising the “homes and scenes” of the town of Hemet in California’s San Jacinto Valley, with a folding plat map of the company’s lands.

The town was developed during the first major Southern California land boom in 1887 by W. F. Whittier and E. L. Mayberry, who established the Hemet Land Company and the Lake Hemet Company. The Great Hemet Dam, completed by the Lake Hemet Company in 1895, is here advertised as “the largest piece of solid masonry in the West,” and provided irrigation to the region. By the time this booklet was published, Hemet had grown to a bustling town with a lumber and a flour mill, a newspaper, and a variety of businesses—and, accordingly, many mouths to feed. In addition to describing Hemet’s active local market for produce, the prices for acreage based on their crop suitability, and the logistics and seasonal costs of the Lake Hemet water and irrigation system, the booklet devotes substantial attention to the increasing “material wealth” of the region, with sections dedicated to “The Soil,” “Deciduous Fruits,” “Sun Dried Fruits,” “Citrus Fruits,” “The Olive,” “Alfalfa,” “Dairying,” “Stock Raising,” “Sugar Beets,” and so on. It closes with information on schools, churches, and hotels in the town.

The map, drafted by B. W. Pierce, shows a sectional view of the land plots belonging to or already sold by the Hemet Land Company. The Southern California Railroad cuts through the northwest corner of the map, and at its southern edge are the “cement canal” and “distributing reservoir.” Also indicated are the region’s pipe and flume systems.

Item #7722

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