Gin Chow
Encyclopedia
Gin Chow was a Chinese
immigrant who gained fame in California
as a prophet
and fortune teller able to predict the weather
and other natural events
. Chow is credited with successfully predicting the 1925 Santa Barbara
Earthquake
. Chow was also the main plaintiff
in the California Supreme Court case Gin Chow v. City of Santa Barbara which still ranks as one of the most important water rights cases in the state.
as the son of teachers, Chow immigrated to California at the age of 16 in 1873 arriving in San Francisco
he worked as a dish washer in a French restaurant, went into domestic service for six years and later became a gardener. It was while living in Northern California
that he met his wife with whom he had three chrildren. By 1890 Chow had moved south
to the Lompoc
Valley
where he owned a small farm
and grew strawberries and casaba melons which he then sold on the streets of Santa Barbara.
Chow gain regional reputation with accounts of his prediction of the 1925 earthquake which hit the Santa Barbara area retold in articles by Los Angeles Times
columnist
Harry Carr and in books by Santa Barbara News-Press
publisher Thomas More Stroke. Greater recognition came when Chow himself produced Gin Chow's First Annual Almanac in 1932 with the encouragement of Carr. The book included details on some of his past predictions as well as future pronostications. Chow's popularity remained thanks in part to daily weather forecasts from Chow featured in Carr's Times columns and read by Chow over the radio on station KHJ. The income provided by his book enabled Chow to save his farm from bankruptcy
.
It was to save his farm that Chow also filed suit against the Cities of Santa Barbara
and Montecito
in 1928. The case reached the California Supreme Court in 1930 and was decided in favor of the cities.
Gin Chow died in 1933 at the age of 76 after being struck by a truck while walking.
letting it be known that an earthquake would flatten the city on June 29, 1925. The earthquake struck on the date noted and leveled 70 building
s in the city's commercial
district.
Earthquake
and a 1932 prediction of a United States
war
with Japan
that would end in 1946 (World War II
ended in 1945).
Chow made weather predictions he broadcast on KHJ, a local radio station of the time, and which Harry Carr included in his daily column in the L.A. Times. His weather prognostications came to be seen as being more accurate than those of the U.S. Weather Bureau.
Chow's last prediction came in 1932. He had been seriously gored by a bull
and doctors believed him to be on his deathbed. Yet, Chow assured them that he would die one year later in 1933.
that his earthquake predictions are anything but claims made after the events took place. Critic
s also called Chows's assertion that he used a mystic
key
handed down from his ancestors to make his calculations, magic
hidden as science
and pointed to an increasingly erratic record in predicting the weather as a sign that his predictions were based on random guessing.
by having previously dammed it and planning to construct another dam, Chow filed a lawsuit against the Cities of Santa Barbara
and Montecito
for injunctive relief to obtain entitlement to water being diverted. Chow believed that his water rights, as an owner of land through which the Santa Ynez passed, were being violated.
The case reached the California Supreme Court (217 Cal. 673, 22 Pac. 5). The court ruled that no waters captured by the cities could have passed into Chow's holdings because the water taken by the cities constituted "... extraordinary storm waters of the river...." meaning that cities were entitled to take the excess flood
waters from river
s "... where no use is made of such waters on the riparian land and no benefit accrues to riparian land from their passage over the bed of the stream, and no damage is caused to the riparian land from the proposed diversion."
The case is seen as having set a precedent for the state to build more dams.
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
immigrant who gained fame in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
as a prophet
Prophet
In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...
and fortune teller able to predict the weather
Weather
Weather is the state of the atmosphere, to the degree that it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. Most weather phenomena occur in the troposphere, just below the stratosphere. Weather refers, generally, to day-to-day temperature and precipitation activity, whereas climate...
and other natural events
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...
. Chow is credited with successfully predicting the 1925 Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
Earthquake
Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...
. Chow was also the main plaintiff
Plaintiff
A plaintiff , also known as a claimant or complainant, is the term used in some jurisdictions for the party who initiates a lawsuit before a court...
in the California Supreme Court case Gin Chow v. City of Santa Barbara which still ranks as one of the most important water rights cases in the state.
Biography
Born in GuangzhouGuangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
as the son of teachers, Chow immigrated to California at the age of 16 in 1873 arriving in San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
he worked as a dish washer in a French restaurant, went into domestic service for six years and later became a gardener. It was while living in Northern California
Northern California
Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...
that he met his wife with whom he had three chrildren. By 1890 Chow had moved south
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
to the Lompoc
Lompoc, California
Lompoc is a city in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. The city was incorporated in 1888. The population was 42,434 at the 2010 census, up from 41,103 at the 2000 census....
Valley
Valley
In geology, a valley or dale is a depression with predominant extent in one direction. A very deep river valley may be called a canyon or gorge.The terms U-shaped and V-shaped are descriptive terms of geography to characterize the form of valleys...
where he owned a small farm
Farm
A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single...
and grew strawberries and casaba melons which he then sold on the streets of Santa Barbara.
Chow gain regional reputation with accounts of his prediction of the 1925 earthquake which hit the Santa Barbara area retold in articles by Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
columnist
Columnist
A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
Harry Carr and in books by Santa Barbara News-Press
Santa Barbara News-Press
The Santa Barbara News-Press is a broadsheet newspaper based in Santa Barbara, California.-History:The News-Press asserts it is the oldest daily newspaper in Southern California, publishing since 1855...
publisher Thomas More Stroke. Greater recognition came when Chow himself produced Gin Chow's First Annual Almanac in 1932 with the encouragement of Carr. The book included details on some of his past predictions as well as future pronostications. Chow's popularity remained thanks in part to daily weather forecasts from Chow featured in Carr's Times columns and read by Chow over the radio on station KHJ. The income provided by his book enabled Chow to save his farm from bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
.
It was to save his farm that Chow also filed suit against the Cities of Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
and Montecito
Montecito, California
Montecito is an unincorporated community in Santa Barbara County, California. As a census-designated place, it had a population of 8,965 in 2010. This does not include areas such as Coast Village Road, that, while usually considered part of Montecito, are actually within the city limits of Santa...
in 1928. The case reached the California Supreme Court in 1930 and was decided in favor of the cities.
Gin Chow died in 1933 at the age of 76 after being struck by a truck while walking.
Santa Barbara Earthquake prediction
Chow's main claim to fame, the prediction of the Santa Barbara Earthquake was described best in Gin Chow's First Annual Almanac published in 1932. In the book Chow states that on December 23, 1920 he posted a notice in the Santa Barbara post officePost office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
letting it be known that an earthquake would flatten the city on June 29, 1925. The earthquake struck on the date noted and leveled 70 building
Building
In architecture, construction, engineering, real estate development and technology the word building may refer to one of the following:...
s in the city's commercial
Commerce
While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...
district.
Other predictions
Other predictions by Chow cited by Thomas Stroke in his 1958 book California Editor include a prediction of the 1923 YokohamaYokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
Earthquake
Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...
and a 1932 prediction of a United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
war
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...
with Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
that would end in 1946 (World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
ended in 1945).
Chow made weather predictions he broadcast on KHJ, a local radio station of the time, and which Harry Carr included in his daily column in the L.A. Times. His weather prognostications came to be seen as being more accurate than those of the U.S. Weather Bureau.
Chow's last prediction came in 1932. He had been seriously gored by a bull
Bull
Bull usually refers to an uncastrated adult male bovine.Bull may also refer to:-Entertainment:* Bull , an original show on the TNT Network* "Bull" , an episode of television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation...
and doctors believed him to be on his deathbed. Yet, Chow assured them that he would die one year later in 1933.
Skepticism
Skeptics of Chow point to there being no evidenceScientific evidence
Scientific evidence has no universally accepted definition but generally refers to evidence which serves to either support or counter a scientific theory or hypothesis. Such evidence is generally expected to be empirical and properly documented in accordance with scientific method such as is...
that his earthquake predictions are anything but claims made after the events took place. Critic
Critic
A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...
s also called Chows's assertion that he used a mystic
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
key
Key (cryptography)
In cryptography, a key is a piece of information that determines the functional output of a cryptographic algorithm or cipher. Without a key, the algorithm would produce no useful result. In encryption, a key specifies the particular transformation of plaintext into ciphertext, or vice versa...
handed down from his ancestors to make his calculations, magic
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
hidden as science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
and pointed to an increasingly erratic record in predicting the weather as a sign that his predictions were based on random guessing.
Gin Chow v. City of Santa Barbara
Alleging that Santa Barbara and Montecito were unlawfully diverting water for domestic use from the Santa Ynez RiverSanta Ynez River
The Santa Ynez River is one of the largest rivers on the Central Coast of California. It is long, flowing from east to west through the Santa Ynez Valley, reaching the Pacific Ocean at Surf, near Vandenberg Air Force Base and the city of Lompoc....
by having previously dammed it and planning to construct another dam, Chow filed a lawsuit against the Cities of Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
and Montecito
Montecito, California
Montecito is an unincorporated community in Santa Barbara County, California. As a census-designated place, it had a population of 8,965 in 2010. This does not include areas such as Coast Village Road, that, while usually considered part of Montecito, are actually within the city limits of Santa...
for injunctive relief to obtain entitlement to water being diverted. Chow believed that his water rights, as an owner of land through which the Santa Ynez passed, were being violated.
The case reached the California Supreme Court (217 Cal. 673, 22 Pac. 5). The court ruled that no waters captured by the cities could have passed into Chow's holdings because the water taken by the cities constituted "... extraordinary storm waters of the river...." meaning that cities were entitled to take the excess flood
Flood
A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water...
waters from river
River
A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...
s "... where no use is made of such waters on the riparian land and no benefit accrues to riparian land from their passage over the bed of the stream, and no damage is caused to the riparian land from the proposed diversion."
The case is seen as having set a precedent for the state to build more dams.