“Santa Barbara and San Diego have become, within two years, favorite winter resorts for invalids from the colder eastern states. The climate of both places is remarkably equal and warm all winter…..”

That passage is from a book published in 1873 by Charles Nordhoff, a prominent journalist of the day. The book was entitled California: For Health, Pleasure and Residence, and the healthfulness of California’s climate was an important feature of Nordhoff’s pitch. A whole chapter of the book was called, “Southern California for Invalids,” and began with an anecdote about a personal friend from back east who had been near death from tuberculosis when he moved to southern California. On seeing his friend three months later, Nordhoff discovered “a changed man” who had driven sixty miles in a wagon to meet Nordhoff in Los Angeles and was able to “walk with me several miles in the evening we met….”

Nordhoff was picking up on a trend. In November 1874 the San Diego Union published a letter picked up from a Detroit paper that saluted San Diego County for its agriculture and mineral wealth, but also stated that “As a national sanitarium San Diego is unsurpassed. Hundreds of invalids coming here have been restored to health or greatly benefitted.”

A year later the Union quoted a Pennsylvania newspaper proclaiming San Diego “that paradise of invalids,” and also carried an excerpt from a San Bernardino paper noting that “those who have traveled to Europe and wintered in such famous resorts as Nice, Naples, etc., after having spent the winter here, declare our climate much more balmy and invigorating  than in the former places, and as a consequence instead of seeking Italy, Southern California is chosen for their winter home. We know of one family who have spent their winter months in San Diego for the past three years, and now we notice their arrival at the Horton House for the fourth season.”

Seeking better health, physically and mentally, as well as land and wealth, were key ingredients in attracting visitors and settlers to California in the mid to late nineteenth century. I’m researching this phenomenon for a talk I’ll be giving for San Diego Oasis in September, and it’s sure to be a continuing topic for future talks and blog posts to come.

In addition to the aforementioned Nordhoff book, sources for this post included historic San Diego County newspapers and The Journal of San Diego History.

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