The story of the West is in many ways the story of the quest for water. Faced with widespread droughts in the late nineteenth century, serious minded men became convinced that artificial rain would be the next great scientific breakthrough. Professional rainmaking companies sprang up, and cities and towns began hiring rainmakers to “milk the skies.” Most were glorified confidence men, but one—Charles Hatfield— appeared to be the real thing. He erected enormous towers and burned a secret mixture of chemicals atop them, and more often than not, the skies obeyed. Before long his work was celebrated—and his secret sought—on four continents. Hatfield’s career reached its zenith in January 1916, when he was hired to create rain by the booming city of San Diego. Within a month, the city suffered the worst floods in its history, with dozens of deaths and damages in excess of $4 million. Filled with firsthand research and the flair of a thriller, The Wizard of Sun City is a biography of a visionary scientist, a chronicle of a virtually unknown subculture, and ultimately the story of the tumultuous events of January 1916 that gave Charles Hatfield a reputation as the West’s most controversial rain wizard. In the early years of the twentieth century, long before Doppler radar and satellite imagery, weather forecasting was more art than science. Meteorologists relied on a wish and a prayer, and those whose livelihood depended upon their forecasts looked elsewhere for the results they needed. Enter the rainmaker, that combination snake-oil salesman and self-taught scientist, who convinced desperate people that he alone could do what Mother Nature could not. Perhaps the most noteworthy of the rainmakers was Charles Hatfield, whose fame would soon turn to infamy in light of the devastation wrought upon San Diego in January 1916. After prolonged droughts, Hatfield was hired to bring on the rains that would fill the city's reservoirs. This he did, and then some: an unheard-of 35 inches of rain fell, flooding the area and inflicting some $3.5 million in damage. As captivating as any tale of contemporary catastrophic events, Jenkins' investigation thoroughly exposes the historical tragedy surrounding a natural disaster that may have had unnatural causes. Carol Haggas Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Used Book in Good Condition