Week 38: The Origins of the Ostrich Industry in Chandler

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While most people probably know that the upcoming Ostrich Festival celebrates Chandler’s ostrich ranching history, most probably don’t know the origins of the industry here.

Chandler’s founder, Dr. Alexander J. Chandler, was among the first to bring the birds to the Arizona desert.  It is likely that he first encountered ostriches at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago.  During the Exposition, a large ostrich ranch was set up on the Midway.  The Californian Ostrich Farm, run by E. J. Johnson, boasted 28 living ostriches, ranging in age from 18 months to 9 years, heights between 7 and 10 feet, and weighing between 125 and 260 pounds.  Admission to see the ostriches was 10 cents.

Dr. Chandler visited the Exposition with his brother, Harry, and sister-in-law, Bertha.  While Chandler left no records of his experience at the Exposition, he could not have missed the large ostrich exhibition, which was located just inside the west entrance to the Midway. 

If the Californian Ostrich Farm at the Columbian Exposition had somehow failed to make an impression on Dr. Chandler, something closer to home almost certainly had an impact on his decision to bring ostriches to Arizona.  Dr. Chandler’s primary residence during the 1890s was Los Angeles.  His home was located along the line of the Pasadena and Los Angeles Electric Railway trolley, near Downtown.  Not far from his home, a few stops away via the trolley line, was the world famous Cawston Ostrich Farm in South Pasadena. 

The Farm was founded in 1886 by Edwin Cawston.  Cawston purchased 50 ostriches in South Africa and had them shipped to Galveston, Texas, before they were loaded on a train for South Pasadena.  Unfortunately, only 18 of the birds survived the journey.  But it was enough for Cawston to start his ostrich enterprise.  Cawston built his farm into a tourist attraction.  He sold eggs and feathers, as well as ostrich drawn carriage rides, and opportunities for people to sit on the large birds and get photographed.

In addition to ostriches, the Cawston Ostrich Farm drew Dr. Chandler for another reason.  Aubrey Eneas had developed a solar motor and started the world’s first solar company, the Solar Motor Company.  Cawston invited him to display one of his solar motors at the Farm.  Eneas’ invention caught the eye of Dr. Chandler, who became the first person to ever purchase a commercial solar motor when he bought one from Eneas for $2,160. 

Regardless of where, exactly, Dr. Chandler got the idea to raise ostriches, by 1905 he had a large herd on his ranch in Mesa.  Chandler’s success in raising the big birds led other ranchers to purchase their own herds.  Ostrich plumes were valuable commodities at the time, making the industry extremely profitable.  The industry was so profitable, in fact, that Chandler purchased all the ostriches he could in an attempt to secure the territory’s largest herd.  A 1906 article in the Copper Era from Clifton, Arizona, documented the effort.  Dr. Chandler was in the process of purchasing between $30,000 and $50,000 worth of ostriches from Pickerell brothers.  The newspaper reported, “That Chandler’s purchase is the forerunner of future ownership of all the ostriches in the Salt river valley under one company is persistently rumored at the capitol city…Large pens will be built and every facility offered for the successful raising of ostriches and profit-making from their valuable plumes.”

Despite Chandler’s efforts to monopolize the ostrich industry, ostriches became popular with many ranchers around the Valley, and his herd was ultimately dwarfed by the Pan American Ostrich Farm in the West Valley.  A 1908 Arizona Republican article touted ostriches as an “attractive investment.” In 1914, two years after Chandler’s founding, the Chandler Arizonan proclaimed that “Ostriches are all the rage in Chandler, and dot the landscape by the hundreds.”  Profits from the ostrich industry seemed limitless, until world events intervened.