The pneumonic plague epidemic of 1924 in Los Angeles.

In 1924, Los Angeles was the largest city in the West, the largest in land area and the fifth largest city in the United States. Tourism, a land boom, emerging industries, and a new harbor had made Los Angeles prosper. There were one million residents in Los Angeles and, whether native born or migrants seeking a fortune or retirement haven, all enjoyed and extolled Los Angeles' one unchanging asset, its climate. With an average mean temperature in the mid-60's, an average mean rainfall of less than 15 inches per year, and a smog free atmosphere, despite the fact that there were more automobiles per capita in Los Angeles than in any other city, Los Angeles was truly "the climatic capital of the world," or so claimed its Chamber of Commerce. Nineteen percent of the residents in Los Angeles were foreign born. There were approximately 2,000 Chinese, 12,000 Japanese, and 22,000 Mexicans in Los Angeles in 1924; each group settling in different locations. Chinese residents settled in the Northeast section of the city; Japanese chose the Western part of town; and most of the Mexicans lived in an area which straddled the Eastern boundary of the City of Los Angeles and the unincorporated territory of Los Angeles County. One Mexican community, bounded on the North by Alhambra Avenue, on the West by Alameda Street, on the South by Macy Street, and on the East by the Southern Pacific Railroad, may be found today located adjacent to the famous tourist attraction, Olvera Street. It was in this area that 28 Mexicans and two Caucasians succumbed to pneumonic plague during a two-week outbreak from October to November, in 1924. In accordance with California statute, Dr. Walter Dickie, Secretary of the State Board of Health, transmitted a biennial report to Governor Friend W. Richardson in which he noted in the preamble that the "management" of this particular outbreak had represented "the most outstanding accomplishment" of California's health officers in the biennial period beginning 1924. Certainly pneumonic plague is one of the most frightening epidemics known to man. Virulent and swift moving,