City-Makers: The Story of Southern California's First Boom

Concentrated in time (1868-87), circumscribed in locale, this tells of that decade of the seventies when the ""city makers"", by erecting a railroad center, transformed Los Angeles from an adobe pueblo into a city. From the first influx of farmers and immigrants, to the first rails, here were beginnings of the land boom which was paralleled only by the speculations in silver, as camps opened up, its traffic a source of considerable struggle. And with the expansion of rails, the bonanza of the mines, came the concomitants of lawlessness and violence, as vigilante and robber and bandido had their way.