Charles Mallory Hatfield (c. 1875 – January 12, 1958) was an American "rainmaker". He was born in Fort Scott, Kansas in 1875 or 1876. His family moved to southern California in the 1880s. As an adult, he became a salesman for the New Home Sewing Machine Company. In 1904 he moved to Glendale, California.
In his free time he read about "pluviculture" and began to develop his own methods for producing rain. By 1902 he had created a secret mixture of 23 chemicals in large galvanized evaporating tanks that, he claimed, attracted rain. Hatfield called himself a "moisture accelerator".
Source: World Press
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In 1904, promoter Fred Binney began a public relations campaign for Hatfield. A number of Los Angeles ranchers saw his ads in newspapers and promised Hatfield $50 to produce rain. In April, Hatfield and his brother Paul climbed to Mount Lowe and built a tower where Hatfield stood and released his mixture into the air. Hatfield's apparent attempt was successful, so the ranchers paid him $100.
Source: San Diego history
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Contemporary Weather Bureau reports stated that the rain had been a small part of a storm that was already coming but Hatfield's supporters disregarded this. He began to receive more job offers. He promised Los Angeles 18 inches of rain, apparently succeeded, and collected a fee of $1000. For this effort, Hatfield had built his tower on the grounds of the Esperanza Sanitarium in Altadena, near Rubio Canyon.
Source: LAPL
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In 1915 the San Diego city council, pressured by the San Diego Wide Awake Improvement Club, approached Hatfield to produce rain to fill the Morena Dam reservoir. Hatfield offered to produce rain for free, then charge $1,000 per inch for between forty to fifty inches and free again over fifty inches. The council voted four to one for a $10,000 fee, payable when the reservoir was filled.
Councilman Walter P. Moore is to have commented, “If he fills Morena, he will have put 10 billion gallons into it, which would cost the city one tenth of a cent per gallon; if he fails to fulfill his contract, the city isn’t out anything. Its heads the city wins, tails Hatfield loses.”
Hatfield headed for Lake Moreno with his youngest brother Joel, not waiting for a written agreement. By Jan. 1, he built a large tower where he sent chemicals into the air via evaporation from a large shallow pan.
The Hatfield tower at lake Morena
Source: San Diego History
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On January 5, 1916 heavy rain began - and grew gradually heavier day by day.
Between the 15th and the 19th, the mountains east of San Diego received more than 17 inches of rain. Near Old Town, the San Diego River wiped out the concrete bridge and the Santa Fe Railroad bridge, which was weighted down with freight cars.
Flooding in the Tijuana River Valley wiped out a small community known as “Little Landers” killing two and leaving 100 people without homes.
The Sweetwater Dam in southeast San Diego County, built in January 1888, had overflowed safely during storms in 1895. But this time the spillway was not large enough to contain the water, and two sections of the abutments were destroyed.
The Lower Otay Dam, where water level rose more than 27 feet in 10 days, gave way on Jan. 27th. Thirteen million gallons of water were released, sending a wall 20-40 feet high toward the Tijuana River Valley. Farms, citrus groves and homes were swept downstream.
The tide is starting to rise at lower otay dam
Source: San Diego History
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Lake Morena filled to the brim
Source: San Diego History
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The remains of the sweetwater dam
Source: San Diego History
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The remains of the concrete bridge in old town
Source: San Diego History
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The next morning, the city treasurer and Naval Reserve officer Don Stewart, surveyed the damage where the river met the ocean. He found a delta several hundred yards wide. Debris from the dam 12 miles inland lay on the beach. He saw many Japanese residents who lived in the valley looking for their dead from small boats. Estimates of deaths varied from 18-65 in the aftermath.
Lake Morena received more than 35 inches of rain, enough to rise 18 inches above the crest of the dam. Hatfield had completed his part of the deal.
Downtown San Diego after the deluge
Source: San Diego News Network
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Hatfield talked to the press on February 4 and said that the damage was not his fault and that the city should have taken adequate precautions. Hatfield had fulfilled the requirements of his contract - filling the reservoir - but the city council refused to pay the money unless Hatfield would accept liability for damages; there were already claims worth $3.5 million.Hatfield tried to settle for $4000 and then sued the council. In two trials, the rain was ruled an act of God but Hatfield continued the suit until 1938 when the court threw the case out.
Source: San Diego History
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Hatfield with his brother
Source: LAPL
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By the end of the 20's, hatfield's rainmaking career in southern california was coming to an end. The Colorado River and the Boulder Dam Act of 1928 created water for a thirsty California, the Great Depression came, and scientists eventually learned to squeeze water from rain clouds by sprinkling them with silver iodide crystals. Hatfield’s career as a rainmaker had dried up. He settled in Eagle Rock, and once again began selling sewing machines as he had many long years before.
Charles Hatfield was offered large sums for his rainmaking process on several occasions. Hatfield decided the formula was "too devastating a force to unleash to any one individual, or to a group of bureaucrats who might misuse it. When Hatfield died in 1958, he took his secret to the grave
Charles Hatfield attends the opening of the Burt Lancaster movie, "The Rainmaker" in 1956
Source: LAPL
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