The strange story of the "rain Lord" Charles Hatfield, who almost drowned California
There have been people claiming to be able to cause or stop rain at all times. Over the past century, the demand for them has fallen dramatically, but even at the beginning of the 20th century, the "rain lords" were still being addressed. This did not happen from a good life, because both the lack of precipitation, as well as their overabundance, can be disastrous for both plants and animals, and for people. The strangest story of the century related to causing rain occurred in 1915 in California, USA.
In 1915, an unprecedented drought gripped the Western United States. Things were especially bad in California, where rivers, lakes and streams dried up. Farmers hired scientists and Indians, searched for underground springs and drilled wells. Unfortunately, it was not very effective and money was often thrown to the wind.
There were also those who did not rely on geology and tried to solve the problem with the help of shamans and spellcasters. Supporters of the magic of nature were also found in the San Diego City Council. When they tried all the ways to find water, someone remembered about a certain Charles Hatfield. It was a local sewing machine salesman who claimed to know a way to guarantee rain.
At that time, Hatfield was considered an authoritative expert in the field of precipitation — he had been doing this for more than 10 years. It was said that rain management brought the merchant more income than sewing machines. At the same time, Charles Hatfield claimed that in his work he relies not on any spells and rituals, but on science, more precisely, on the laws of physics and chemistry.
The rain Lord was invited to the city hall for a conversation. Hatfield agreed to help for $10,000 - a huge amount at that time. But at the same time, he confidently declared that he would take the money only if it rained and filled the local reservoir. To work, Charles needed some materials and assistants, which were immediately provided to him.
Hatfield built a 6-meter-high wooden tower in the woods, 60 miles from San Diego. At the top, he built a tank into which he poured a smelly liquid, its composition he kept secret. When everything was ready, Charles personally set fire to the contents of the tank, which turned out to be combustible. The flaming liquid filled the neighborhood with an even greater chemical stench, which lingered in the air even when everything burned down.
After the liquid in the tank burned down, a day passed, then another. There were no hints of the desired precipitation. Over Hatfield, and at the same time over the city hall, they were already beginning to laugh a little when the sky suddenly broke. The rain started three days after the sewing machine salesman's idea and soon turned into a real biblical flood.
First, the reservoir overflowed. After the San Diego River overflowed its banks, flooding the entire neighborhood. At first, fields and villages were flooded, then the water began to demolish railway bridges and roads. As a result, the elements washed away several settlements and left most of the state without electricity and communications.
The army and navy were called to help the distressed population. The elimination of the consequences of the "Hatfield flood", which is how the journalists called the cataclysm, took more than one week. The disaster took the lives of more than 50 people and caused $ 3 million in damage. Local residents quickly found the culprits — they turned out to be the city authorities who hired the "rain lord".
The San Diego City Council was bombarded with lawsuits and the mayor refused to pay Hatfield his fee. Thus, the authorities tried to absolve themselves of the blame for the natural disaster, which many did not consider natural. Of course, the rainmaker didn't like it — Charles Hatfield unsuccessfully sued the San Diego administration for more than 20 years.
But back to the flood. Heavy rains with hurricane-force winds passed along the entire Pacific coast of the United States. Any sane person will immediately understand that the sewing machine salesman with his stupid tower has absolutely nothing to do with it. It was a coincidence, or maybe the result of an accurate forecast made by an experienced self-taught meteorologist.
Most likely, Hatfield, thanks to a number of signs, knew that there would be rains when he agreed to the scam with the tower. No wonder there were legends about his ability to cause and stop rains. Farmers regularly turned to Charles for help and he did not always agree to do the work.
Obviously, having determined that the rains were on the way, the sly man immediately beat his hands and put his smelly tank on the field of another farmer. Soon it was raining, and the dollars began to rustle in Charles' pocket. He was so good at it that he almost abandoned the main business. Agree, selling sewing machines is much more troublesome than watching the sky.
In the early 20s, Hatfield became so popular that he was called to Canada and Central American countries! In 1921, he earned a record amount of 21 thousand dollars on a single rain. But soon the business on precipitation came to an end. The Great Depression, which began in 1929, deprived Hatfield of orders. Customers could no longer afford to hire a "rain lord", and the development of transport made it easier to deliver water to drought-stricken areas.
Charles Hatfield again had to pick up catalogs and sell sewing machines. He was last seen in 1956. Already a very old man, Hatfield arrived as an honorary guest at the film premiere. It was the movie "The Rain Seller" with Katharine Hepburn and Burt Lancaster. In it, the main character was an ordinary fraudster. But whether Hatfield himself was a crook, we will never know.
In California, even now, droughts are one of the worst disasters. What this state looks like without life-giving precipitation, you can see here.