In the late 1840s, gold was not the only desired commodity in southern California. California’s sudden population increase and newfound agricultural wealth led to a demand for citrus, and production of many varieties of citrus fruits took off at the turn of the twentieth century.

The first commercial orchard was planted by William Wolfskill in 1841 near what is now the center of downtown Los Angeles. Beginning in the 1870, the citrus industry expanded quickly. The completion of the transcontinental railways greatly promoted this boom. Commercial fruit production was concentrated in the three Southern Californian counties of Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and San Diego. Plantings of navel oranges, introduced in California by the USDA in 1870, contributed most to the boom. The popularity of the Valencia orange grew slowly at first, but the acreage started to increase rapidly after 1910. The lemon and grapefruit industries developed in the 1890s, with the lemon industry benefitting from low orange prices due to overproduction. In the early 20th century, the orange and lemon industries continued to grow, with Valencia oranges surpassing Navel orange acreage by the end of the 1920s. The citrus industry was centered in southern California, where 85% of the state’s citrus fruits were produced.

Given the rapid expansion of the citrus industry, Sunkist Growers Association was formed to create a cooperative platform for various growers to produce, market and sell fruit and other citrus related products. Included in this collection are three prominent growers in southern California: Claremont College Heights, Etiwanda and Covina Orange Growers Association. In 1885 the new Southern Pacific Railroad service was opened, which led to the creation of packing houses and an increase in acres dedicated to citrus production in Claremont, Covina and Etiwanda. From then on, demand for citrus continued to increase. College Heights had “between three and four thousand acres” of lemons and oranges by 1950 and Etiwanda nearly doubled their acreage and were owners of Sunkist Co. until 1947. Unfortunately, around this same time a virus spread through the orange grove in Covina, killing the trees and ending Covina’s reign as one of the prominent citrus producers in southern California. Seeing as citrus production is such an essential part of California’s history, the Claremont Heritage Association began collecting citrus labels and other citrus related items from various vendors in southern California to document the growth of the citrus gold rush. The artificial collection was created by Claremont Heritage and deaccessioned by Claremont Heritage. It was gifted to the Honnold Mudd Library of the Claremont Colleges, who accepted the collection based on its historical significance and geographical relevance to the city of Claremont.

Sources: Geissler, Daniel and William Horwath. “Citrus Production in California.” UC Davis, June 2016. Web. https://apps1.cdfa.ca.gov/FertilizerResearch/docs/Citrus_Production_CA.pdf

Lee, Ching. “The History of Citrus in California.” California Bountiful. www.californiacountry.org/features/article.aspx?arID=695. 13. Dec. 2017.

Tobey, Ronald and Charles Wetherell. “The Citrus Industry and the Revolution of Corporate Capitalism in Southern California. 1887-1944.” California History. vol. 74, no. 1, 1995. pp. 6-21. JSTOR. 13 Dec. 2017.