It's December 1915, inside the chambers of the San Diego City Council.

The council has a problem, it's been a dry year, a dry few years really.

The marina reservoir, which provides water to the city, is getting lower and lower,

and it's down to just one third full.

Everyone in the room is anxious, because they really need this water.

They need it for the obvious reasons, but there's also a big opportunity in front of them.

The Panama Canal has just opened, and it could bring lots of new tourism and business

to this little port city on the Pacific.

They're even throwing a big world's fair-like exhibition to welcome the world.

But if there's no rain, then rivers of money will dry up before their very eyes.

So the council is desperate, and as they're all nervously debating what to do,

in Wauksa Man, named Charles Hadfield.

He's thin and sharply dressed.

His thick blonde hair is slicked back with oil, and he's got a bit of a dour expression on his face,

small wrinkles around his mouth.

He looks like a very serious man, and Charles Hadfield tells the city council something fantastic.

Give me one year, and the reasonable sum of just $10,000,

and I will give you all the rain you could ever want.

I'm Dolan Therese, and this is Atlas Obscura,

a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places.

And today, we meet Charles Hadfield, professional rainmaker,

or the term he preferred, moisture accelerator.

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