When Oranges Ruled the Inland Empire | KCET
Title
When Oranges Ruled the Inland Empire
Its throne may sit vacant today, but for roughly a century the Inland Empire paid fealty to a powerful emperor: the orange.
Excursion trains whisked tourists through the scented orchards of Southern California’s inland valleys. Citrus colonies from Pomona to Redlands functioned as genteel outposts of East Coast high society, complete with colleges and opera houses. Riverside, where Eliza Tibbets supposedly nurtured California’s first navel orange trees with her dishwater, became by 1895 the wealthiest city per capita in the nation. The Mission Inn guestbook boasted the names of presidents and plutocrats from Roosevelt to Rockefeller.
Is it any wonder that, by the early 1900s, the area had earned a colorful moniker: the Orange Empire?
Civic boosters embraced the imperial name, but for some the orange was anything but benevolent. Growers made fortunes, but immigrant pickers and packers from China, Japan, and Mexico generally shared in little of the profits. They labored under a hostile racial climate that subjected them to discriminatory policies and occasional mob violence. Citriculture also menaced the general population, regardless of background; though orange groves perfumed the air in warm weather, in cold smudge pots belched dark, oily smoke into the atmosphere in an effort to protect the valuable fruit from frost.
Nevertheless, the orange’s reign extended well into the 20th century. San Bernardino prospered; the town, once abandoned by Mormon colonists in 1857, reinvented itself as a citrus capital in 1911 when it inaugurated its annual National Orange Show. Riverside also grew in stature; in 1907, the University of California opened a citrus experiment station, planting a seed that in 1959 sprouted into a full-fledged university.
And its imperial borders ranged far and wide. Definitions varied, but according to some the Orange Empire encompassed not just the Pomona, Riverside, and San Bernardino valleys, but also the San Gabriel Valley’s foothill citrus belt and Orange County’s sprawling Valencia groves.
So how did the Orange Empire become the Inland Empire?
More Citrus History
Local usage of “Inland Empire” – borrowed from Washington State’s inland agriculture heartland, where the name was in circulation since the 1860s – dates to at least 1907, when the Los Angeles Herald referred to “the inland empire which embraces such cities as Redlands, Riverside, Corona, San Bernardino, San Jacinto, Santa Ana, and others tributary to the coast.”
But the name didn’t gain widespread currency until the late 1970s – not coincidentally, around the same time rapid suburbanization dethroned the orange in San Bernardino and Riverside counties. With residential subdivisions and shipping warehouses squeezing out the once-extensive orange groves, a new generation of boosters – real-estate developers – adopted a new name for their sales pitch.
All images appear courtesy of the David Boulé California Orange Collection.
Further Reading
Boule, David. The Orange and the Dream of California. Los Angeles: Angel City Press, 2013.
Farmer, Jared. Trees in Paradise: A California History. New York: W. W. Norton, 2013.
Patterson, Thomas C. From Acorns to Warehouses: Historical Political Economy of Southern California's Inland Empire. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2015.
Sackman, Douglas Cazaux. Orange Empire: California and the Fruits of Eden. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.
Support the Articles you Love
We are dedicated to providing you with articles like this one. Show your support with a tax-deductible contribution to KCET. After all, public media is meant for the public. It belongs to all of us.
Keep Reading
-
In honor of Black History Month, KCET and PBS SoCal will showcase a curated lineup of enlightening programs to bolster awareness and understanding of racial history in America.
-
"Sleep No More" theater director Mikhael Tara Garver unearths the L.A. River's 8-mile deep stories and histories in an ongoing work of experimental theater called "Rio Reveals."
-
Joseph Rodriguez’s photographs of the LAPD in 1994 is a deeply personal, political act that still resonates in today’s political climate.
-
Tom LaBonge, a larger-than-life character in city hall meetings and effusive champion of Los Angeles, has passed away suddenly.
- 1 of 415
- next ›
Full Episodes
-
Lost LA
Lost LA
S4 E1: Griffith Park - The Untold History
Season 4, Episode 1
Griffith Park is one of the largest municipal parks in the United States. Its founder, Griffith J. Griffith, donated the land to the city as a public recreation ground for all the people — an ideal that has been challenged over the years.
-
Lost LA
Lost LA
S4 E2: Three Views of Manzanar - Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange and Toyo Miyatake
Season 4, Episode 2
During World War II, three renowned photographers captured scenes from the Japanese incarceration: outsiders Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams and incarceree Tōyō Miyatake who boldly smuggled in a camera lens to document life from within the camp.
-
Lost LA
Lost LA
S4 E3: Bootlegger Tunnels - A Journey Through LA’s Prohibition Lore
Season 4, Episode 3
Prohibition may have outlawed liquor, but that didn’t mean the booze stopped flowing. Explore the myths of subterranean Los Angeles, crawl through prohibition-era tunnels, and visit some of the city’s oldest speakeasies.
-
Lost LA
Lost LA
S4 E4: Paul Revere Williams - An African-American Architect in Jet-Age L.A.
Season 4, Episode 4
Although best known for designing the homes of celebrities like Lucille Ball and Frank Sinatra, the pioneering African-American architect Paul Revere Williams also contributed to some of the city’ s most recognizable civic structures.
-
Lost LA
Lost LA
S4 E5: Discovering the Universe - Exploring the Cosmos Atop Mount Wilson
Season 4, Episode 5
As recently as a century ago, scientists doubted whether the universe extended beyond our own Milky Way — until astronomer Edwin Hubble, working with the world’s most powerful telescope discovered just how vast the universe is.
- 1 of 5
- next ›
Comments