Eventually Babcock left the railroad service to engage in developing the Bell Telephone Company, which controlled a large territory extending from Evansville to New Orleans; at the same time he held sole ownership of the Eugene Ice Company, with some five large houses and a number of agencies, and was a partner in the firm of E. S. Babcock & Son.

[2] Originally Babcock came to southern California to regain his health, but when he sensed opportunity he established the Coronado Beach Company and began planning massive real estate investments.

[3] However, the economy began to struggle and Babcock summoned his good friend Charles T. Hinde to come and help him save his investments.

Through some luck John D. Spreckels decided to invest in the Santa Fe wharf in San Diego, the Hotel del Coronado, and purchase the dams.

[4] Babcock gave the William E. Ritter's "Marine Biological Association of San Diego", which later became the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the use of Hotel Del's boathouse as a summer laboratory from 1903 to 1905.