Page 111 - James Rodger Fleming - Fixing the sky

wiry, bordering on downright skinny . . . the greyhound narrowness of his face . . .
exaggerated by a long, aquiline nose . . . yet . . . possessed of a quiet charisma, a
patina of self-confidence that belied his unimpressive physiognomy. on occa-
sion, when he was in full flow, his piercing blue eyes could take on the glaze of
the evangelist.” 31
Hatfield is remembered largely because his rainmaking activities in January
1916 coincided with a severe flood in San Diego. According to city water depart-
ment records, more than 28 inches of rain fell that month, the Morena Reser-
voir overflowed, and the Lower otay Dam burst, sending a wall of water into
downtown San Diego that killed dozens of people, left many others homeless,
and destroyed all but 2 of the city’s 112 bridges. Seeking to avoid lawsuits, the city
of San Diego denied its connection to Hatfield, who had a vague contract for
rain enhancement, and never paid him the $10,000 he claimed was due to him.
Hatfield pursued the suit against the city for two decades before it was finally
dismissed, without payment, in 1938. 32
But Hatfield was not ready to cease his practice, and his services were sought
across the country. In 1920 he took a contract in Washington State under the
sponsorship of the Commercial Club of Ephrata. Hundreds of curiosity seek-
ers gazed from afar at his strange tower on the shore of Moses Lake, from which
mysterious gases were said to emanate. Nothing happened immediately, but
soon after his departure the skies opened up, releasing a deluge. Skeptics saw no
connection between the cloudburst and Hatfield’s earlier efforts, but the mir-
acle man claimed the rain as his own, bearing his private brand—although he
did admit that it arrived somewhat late. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported:
“The wonder worker himself must admit that his process is somewhat crude and
unfinished when his storms wander all over the state, washing out orchards and
bursting canals. Possibly some legislation may be necessary to compel the rain-
33
maker to hog-tie his storms in the future.” He was back in Washington State a
year later at $3,000 an inch, and collected $4,000 an inch from the United Agri-
cultural Association of Alberta, Canada, until, after 2 inches of rain fell, he was
asked to “turn off the faucets.” 34
In 1922 he took his equipment to drought-stricken Naples, Italy. American
papers reported that after the rains came, he was received as a hero, and the Ital-
ian government tried, unsuccessfully, to offer him 1 million lire for his secret.
Two years later, the authoritative Monthly Weather Review informed its techni-
cally oriented readers that the rainmaker had failed in California and had folded
his tower and silently left the Bakersfield area after falling well short of his goal of
producing 1.5 inches of rain in a month. 35

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