“[L]et Mr. [Jefferson] Davis have a speedy trial and if found guilty let him be suspended between the heavens and the earth, and it makes very little difference whether God Almighty has mercy on his soul or not.”

-Phineas Banning, 1865

In San Pedro, you see the Pacific Ocean for the first time.  At the waterfront, you see a handful of wood-framed buildings — the first you’ve seen in California — and a long, empty pier.

At pier’s end you see a small inn, and you step inside and pull up a chair at the bar.

The only other patron turns to look at you, and you recognize him immediately: a tall, large man in shirtsleeves with a booming voice.  You remember him from the stagecoach ride outside of Council Grove.

PHINEAS BANNING

“Phineas Banning!” you say.  “What are you doing in San Pedro?”

“I’m impressed that you remembered my name,” he laughs.

Banning explains that he chose southern California not just for the weather, but for the business opportunity.  He makes a compelling argument — San Pedro is a perfect natural harbor, one that could supply the growing city of Los Angeles by rail.

You follow Banning’s lead, building a framed home and claiming a small farmstead in Wilmington.  By day, you are Banning’s bookkeeper at the harbor and one of his trusted advisors.  You even manage the books on the construction of the San Pedro Railway, a 21-mile track connecting Los Angeles with the harbor.

When the Civil War breaks out, you join Banning in selling some of your land to the federal government for Camp Drum, which trains soldiers charged with protecting all of Southern California from a Confederate attack that never comes.

After the war you move to Santa Catalina Island, which you had helped to survey during the war as a possible Indian reservation.  You build a grand home and live out your days as a cattle rancher, watching the population swell from a few thousand in 1849 to half a million in 1910.

You never did find the mother lode, but your life’s journey brought you to a comfortable retirement in one of the most beautiful places in America.

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