right|thumb|George Chaffey

George Chaffey (28 January 1848 – 1 March 1932) was a Canadian engineer, inventor and entrepreneur who with his brother William developed large parts of Southern California, including what became the community of Etiwanda and the cities of Ontario, and Upland. They undertook similar developments in Australia, which became the city of Mildura, and the town of Renmark and Paringa.

Biography

Chaffey was born in Brockville, Canada West and attended Kingston Grammar School on Lake Ontario. Chaffey's family was of Scottish heritage. Although not interested in schoolroom instruction, he read engineering books from the local library. Chaffey left school at 13 years of age, was fascinated by the shipbuilding yard of his father, and became an apprentice marine engineer in May 1862. they were financial failures, and George Chaffey returned to California. William remained in Mildura, which eventually became successful. Later, George joined the California Development Company as chief engineer and undertook a project to irrigate the Colorado Desert. The Colorado Desert was renamed by the Canadian party and is now known as the Imperial Valley. Chaffey along with the other pioneers believed this name would bring more people to this southeastern part of California.

In 1905, Chaffey purchased the ranch of John Shepherd at Manzanar, California, located in California's Owens Valley. Chaffey subdivided the ranch, along with other adjacent ranches, and founded the town of Manzanar in 1910. Chaffey's Owens Valley Improvement Company built an irrigation system and planted thousands of fruit trees,

In 1912, Chaffey moved to Whittier, California, joining his son John, where he lived for a number of years while tending to his invalid wife Ann. Chaffey later retired to San Diego, California. He died in Ontario, California, on 1 March 1932 at age 84, and was buried at Bellevue Memorial Park in Ontario. A mural in his honor is featured inside terminal 4 at Ontario International Airport.

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Image:George-Chaffey.png|Statue of George Chaffey in front of the Upland civic center

Image:ChaffeyBridgeMildura.jpg|George Chaffey Bridge over Murray River, Mildura

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See also

  • Alamo Canal
  • California Development Company
  • Imperial Land Company
  • Salton Sea
  • Ben Chaffey, his son

Sources

  • www.chaffey.org, article by Robert E. Ellingwood and Marie Boyd
  • Ontario Heritage Foundation
  • Government of Canada digital collections

References

Further reading

  • Alexander, J. A. (1928) The life of George Chaffey; a story of irrigation beginnings in California and Australia. Melbourne: Macmillan & co. ltd.
  • Tyrrell, Ian. (1999) True gardens of the Gods : Californian-Australian environmental reform, 1860-1930. Berkeley: University of California Press.