Folk History

This Citrus Era in San Dimas began in 1879 when Crawford Teague reportedly planted the first citrus tree in Mud Springs and ended when the local orange and lemon packing plants ceased operation in 1953. San Dimas had ideal topography for citrus: gently sloping land facing south and west and adequate access to water that flowed from the San Gabriel Mountains through San Dimas Canyon into Walnut Creek, then into the San Gabriel River, finally emptying into the Pacific Ocean. The community had the good fortune to have Crawford and Amanda Teague's family settle in the area. An earlier book, Folk History of the San Gabriel and Inland Valleys, describes their lives. This book, Folk History: The Citrus Years, begins with their three sons: Jasper, David, and Robert. By 1912, one of them, Robert Teague, operated the largest citrus nursey in the world. San Dimas, the Crown of the Citrus Belt, was blessed with a convergence of topography, resources, weather, transportation, technology, and ground-breaking pioneers. Eras of San Dimas HistorySan Gabriel and Inland Valley history can be divided into three periods: Settlement Years of 1542 to 1878-the transition from hunter-gatherer subsistence to an agricultural economyCitrus Years of 1879 to 1953-the planting of groves, the development of the regional infrastructure, and the transition from an agricultural to an industrial economySubdivision Years from 1954 to the present-the community development and with a transition from an industrial to a technological economyThis book addresses the second of those three periods, the Citrus Years. Citrus Years of 1879 to 1953The Citrus Years have been subdivided into four sections: Citrus, Community, Institutions, and Infrastructure. CitrusThe Citrus Section of the book describes choosing the best crop, the packing houses, the workers' housing, and marketing that includes history of citrus labels in general and San Dimas labels in particular. Finally, the section ends with a description of the Great Decline citrus disease that, along with the housing boom, brought the Citrus Era to an end in San Dimas. CommunityThe Community section of this book describes business and community milestones, recreational activities such as camping in the San Gabriel Mountains, Depression and World War II public service programs, and communities that have grown out of the original 1837 Rancho San Jose. InstitutionsThe Institutions Section provides a brief history of the 16 colleges, currently with more than 125,000 students enrolled, that settled in the former Rancho San Jose. Stories of individuals at Spadra School and Pomona High School and histories of the McKinley Children's Center and the many lives of the Voorhis Boys School-Cal Poly, Pacific Coast Bible College, and Tzu Chi U. S. headquarters-are included. InfrastructureThe Infrastructure Section of the book examines the local history of water acquisition and distribution, railroad development, and the Brackett Field airport. Chapters are arranged chronologically within each of the four sections of the book.