The inspiration for one of my favorite books.

One side story to the tragedy: when Frank Norris was writing the Octopus, his editor became very nervous about the subject matter and arranged for him to have an interview with C. P. Huntington about the SP and the incident. Huntington startled Norris by accussing the settlers of firing first and of political misdeeds including bribery and an attempt to pack the state railroad board with their own people. It seems that the whole thing was still a sore point for Huntington even 20 years later. Norris had originally view those settlers involved with the area's land issues as wholly innocent. Huntington's accusations and vehemance led Norris to recraft the book and make some of his settler characters involved in a similar politcal intrigue to the one Huntington described. Probably made for a much deeper story with far more angles to it.

E