Kings County has been known throughout the ages for its natural abundance, and perhaps nowhere is that more evident than in the agricultural community that has evolved and flourished here.
The people and events that shaped the lands and crops are as abundant as the crops themselves.
First, the Tachi Yokut harvested the native plants of their nuts, berries and rhizomes, hunted the valley’s verdant pastures and fished the vast waters of Tulare Lake. Spanish explorers would discover its natural riches and mountain men from the north would travel here for hunting and trapping before any modern farming settled in.
Settlers like the Rhoads family brought with them cattle which grazed the banks of the Kings River and meadows of the valley floor. Portuguese from the Azores discovered the bounty, then called back to the islands for backup, bringing family and friends and generations of farming experience. The Japanese, Danish, Basque, Mexican, and Black Okies also found their way here in leadership and support roles.
King’s County has been molded by farmers and auctioneers, dairymen and cattlemen: J.G. Boswell, three generations of Giacomazzis, Hoak Evans, Art Martella, W.M. “Cy” Esrey, Hoke Evetts, Everette “Fuzzy” Feaver, Tony Olivera, Fred Martella, Case Droogh, Mary Cameron, Craig Pedersen, Ted Sheely, Jack Draxler. Countless others were key to the development of farming and its related industries while also serving their communities through leadership rolls and philanthropy.
The railroads of the 19th Century brought with them not only transportation for the goods grown and produced here, but to the growing population. As word of the fertile soil spread, so too did demand for the parcels of land released for sale by the railroads. Lemoore’s initial offerings were sold out in a single day.
While the area was known for grains, new farmers brought with them the idea of planting fruit cultivars. Their experiment successful, the territory quickly turned from grains to fruit. Dairy would later come to the fore.
Hanford followed, laid out as a townsite by Southern Pacific Railroad in 1877, and the line quickly became an important trading center for the surrounding farming communities.
Corcoran was the Santa Fe Railroad junction point adjacent to Tulare Lake delta land. That grain belt soon diversified into pioneering cotton in the state. Hogs, cattle, sheep, dairy and alfalfa were also primary sectors. Through here would pass the special express refrigerated cars carrying 1,500 gallons of sweet cream and other dairy products daily from Kings County to Los Angeles to supply city kitchens.
In 1880, Armona was established along another Southern Pacific branch line junction. It became a prime fruit shipping company. Proximity to the line midway down the state was prime real estate for J.K. Armsby Company, a pioneering fruit company that established a packing house here, giving it early importance.
During fruit packing season, workers flocked to the town from throughout the state, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas to pack peaches, apricots, muscat and Thompson grapes among principal crops.
Stratford was the newest community, established in 1900 when the Empire Land Company was subdivided and marketed as a townsite. Originally named for ranch foreman William Stratton, the name was already taken just across the valley, so the name was changed to Stratford.
Dairy was the lead industry in the new community with alfalfa, grain and corn as principal crops stabilized with the irrigation from deep wells in the Tulare Lake section.
“Agriculture is a big connection in this county and families intermarried. The Dutch families married the Portuguese families married the Hispanic families married the Asian families,” Kings County Historical Society Media Liaison Patty Briney said.
While family farms carved the way, it was the massive commercial production of the 20th Century that placed Kings County on the national map. Ceil Howe, Sr., who began farming with his father on 320 acres in 1929, would grow the family business into the 65,000-acre Westlake Farms.
Howe prided himself on innovation on one of the largest and most successful cotton farms in the region. As most would, the farm evolved from hand picking to machine picking through spindle picking and on to stripper cotton.
But Howe, always a step ahead, developed machinery that improved the ginning speed and efficiency by pre-cleaning cotton to help free the gin of foreign matter — leaves, stems and bolls — that previously slowed process and damaged the fiber.
Jack Stone, of Stratford, joined the farming game in the 1940s and through his years produced melons, squash and cotton backed by his college-educated wife, Helen Stone. She served as business partner and bookkeeper on the ranch, which would also become known for countless benefit, fundraising, and social gatherings.
By the 1970s, high-intensity farming on the old lakebed proved to be a resource hog, Westlake Farms did what it could to mitigate its impact. Among those efforts was bringing in secondary water from Lemoore’s wastewater treatment facility for recycling onto crops.
By the early 1980s, Clarence Salyer and Boswell initiated plans to drain the remaining 81,600 acres of Tulare Lake to expose and farm its fertile bottom soil. The plan called for diverting water to the North Fork of the Kings River via the Kings River Channel and the Crescent Bypass Canal.
Source: hanfordsentinel.com
Photo Credit: Getty-grafvision
Categories: Kentucky, Business