THE VALLEY BECOMES A VAST, FERTILE CRESCENT.

Byline: Carol Bidwell Daily News Staff Writer

German-born Isaac Lankershim surveyed the once-green landscape, now littered with 40,000 decaying animal corpses. There lay his first shot at fortune.

After a hopeful beginning, there had been two years of drought. And the sheep he and his son-in-law, Isaac Van Nuys, had counted on to make their San Fernando Valley land profitable had died - painfully, one by one - from starvation and thirst in the tinder-dry pastures.

Dejected, but not defeated, the two men decided to follow the example of farmers in other California communities. They switched to growing wheat.

It was the right decision.

In 1869, with his son-in-law and his son, John, Lankershim formed the San Fernando Farm Association and planted 60,000 acres of wheat. The crop was a success, sent to markets as far away as England on sailing ships that loaded up at Santa Monica. A decade later, the rancher built the first flour mill in Los Angeles, and by 1888, produced and milled a record 510,000 bushels of wheat on land that would later become Van Nuys, Canoga Park, North Hollywood, Tarzana, Reseda, Granada Hills and Northridge.

Meanwhile, in the northern half of the Valley, Lankershim's competition, former state Sen. George K. Porter, was building his wealth with wheat as well. He had planted the grass on 56,000 acres that would later become San Fernando, Pacoima, Sun Valley, Northridge and Chatsworth.

Porter's partner, former state Sen. Charles Maclay, had a different kind of growing in mind. He wanted to plant the seeds of a town on his land. And he knew just where to locate it.

It was more than guesswork. Former Gov. Leland Stanford, president of the Southern Pacific Railroad, was a good friend. Not only did he tell Maclay where the new Los Angeles-to-San Francisco train route would bisect the Valley and where the depot would be built, he also loaned Maclay $60,000 to buy land adjacent to the depot.

Maclay busily laid out streets for San Fernando, the name chosen by 50 of his friends at an April 1874 barbecue.

While the ``haves'' made plans for a rosy future, the ``have-nots'' - members of the Land Settlers League, a group that believed any farmer should have a right to homestead unimproved land - were convinced that the land barons had no right to those vast expanses.

They wanted their share of land.

And, when they thought no one was looking, the squatters put down roots.

Porter's acreage was soon so beset by squatters that he equipped his cowboys with binoculars so they could spot trespassers and run them off. Jackson Graves, Porter's attorney, advised him: ``Grab every man who attempts to settle on your land. Haul him and his belongings to the nearest county road and there dump him.''

Maclay had a different strategy - he welcomed squatters as long as they had the price of a lot on which to build a house or a business.

In his new town - the first in the San Fernando Valley - downtown lots were sold at a premium, from $100 to $500. A family could buy a lot on the outskirts of town for as little as $20.

Maclay arranged for Southern Pacific to run excursion trains from Los Angeles so people could see the new town site; the railroad agreed to haul prospective settlers - and building supplies - to San Fernando for half the regular price.

Soon, the town began to grow: a hotel, a church, several businesses, more homes, and 17 saloons.

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Photo

PHOTO Workmen harvest grain on the old Lankershim Ranch, now North Hollywood.