Imperial County, California: History
The indigenous peoples of the area were the Quechan along the Colorado River, the Kamia-Kumeyaay west of the Quechan, and the Cahuilla to the north.
Spanish explorer Melchor Díaz was one of the first Europeans to visit the area of the Imperial Valley in 1540. The explorer Juan Bautista de Anza also explored the area in 1776. The indigenous peoples in the county were also engaged in an armed regional conflict, with the Quechan leading a coalition with the Kumeyaay against the Maricopa-led coalition with the Cahuilla, Cocopah, and other tribes in modern-day Arizona. Constant warfare would deny the Spanish explorers any overland access to Alta California, despite Spanish attempts to mediate the conflict.
Decades later, after the Mexican–American War, the northern half of the valley was annexed in 1848 by the U.S., while the southern half remained under Mexican rule.
Following the war, another war would consume the region in 1850 after the Glanton Gang sabotaged Quechan ferry operators and mugged a local Quechan chief. This would lead toward the start of the Yuma War, with a Quechan-led coalition of tribes against the US army and its indigenous allies in Baja California and Sonora. In the First Yuma War, the Quechan laid siege on Fort Yuma in 1851, and forced the American garrison there to abandon the fort. The Americans returned to the area in 1852 and subdued the Quechan by destroying their villages and farmland, and killed any warriors that resisted, leading to Quechan surrender to the US. The Second Yuma War would later see neighboring tribes erode much of the military advantages that the Quechan had left.
Small-scale settlement in natural aquifer areas had occurred in the early 19th century (the present-day site of Mexicali), but most permanent settlement occurred after 1900.
In 1905, torrential rainfall in the American Southwest caused the Colorado River (the only drainage for the region) to flood, including canals that had been built to irrigate the Imperial Valley. Since the valley is partially below sea level, the waters never fully receded, but collected in the Salton Sink in what is now called the Salton Sea.
Imperial County was formed in 1907 from the eastern portion of San Diego County. The county was named for Imperial Valley. This had been named for the Imperial Land Company, a subsidiary of the California Development Company, which at the turn of the 20th century had claimed the southern portion of the Colorado Desert for agriculture. The Imperial Land Company also owned extensive lands in Mexico (Baja California). Its objective was to develop commercial crop farming.
By 1910, the land company had managed to settle and develop thousands of farms on both sides of the border. The Mexican Revolution soon after severely disrupted the company's plans. Rival Mexican armies killed nearly 10,000 farmers and their families in northern Mexico. Many Mexicans did not feel it was safe to return until the 1920s; some chose to stay and establish roots in newly developed communities in the valley.
During the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, the county attracted migrating "Okies" from drought-ridden farms on the plains by the need of migrant labor. More prosperous job-seekers also arrived from across the U.S. in the 1930s and 1940s. …