Vol53, No3, Fall 2008.pub - Kern County Superintendent of Schools

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Volume 58, No. 3 Bakersfield, California Fall - 2008
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Banana Belt Of Kern County
By George Gilbert Lynch
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Many years before John Steinbeck had written The Grapes of Wrath and his fabled Joad family had received
their temporary respite in the US Government Weedpatch Labor Camp, Calvin Alexander and his family had
already found their Utopia on 160 acres of land in that place called "The Weed Patch".
The land lying to the south of Bakersfield was, in the mid 1800s, mostly barren plains. Wild longhorn cattle had
grazed upon the dry, sparse rangeland for years but the steers favorite pasture was a thousand acre area locally
known as "The Weed Patch", covered with giant sunflowers, carrotweeds and in springtime, tall lush grass. The
Patch had become a visual landmark, being referred to when mapping or giving directions to travelers.
Hay baling at the S.A. Hall Ranch in Weedpatch, circa 1915. Notice the hay bales at the far right-hand side of the photograph.

For hundreds of years, Caliente Creek, during heavy rains in the Tehachapi Mountains, had deposited, in its
alluvial fan, rich topsoil and seed spread over thousands of acres. This work of nature would in time become the
famous "Weed Patch". Richness of the soil in portions of this delta were legendary, reportedly sunflowers with
stalk diameters of five inches were common and tall enough to shade grazing cattle.
In the mid 1870s this land was "dry farmed" with hundreds of acres of wheat and barley which grew fine -- if
the rains came. A few pioneer farmers had succeeded in raising potatoes, grapes and some fruit trees in this area
by hauling irrigation water in wagons to nurture their crops to maturity. Irrigation by water wagon was a 24/7
job and only the most robust, dedicated farmers could succeed in realizing a profitable crop. A canal was the
only solution to bring water to this fertile area and in 1892 plans were underway to remedy the situation.
Captain John Barker owner of Rio Bravo Ranch, at the mouth of Kern River Canyon, had been granted state
permission to begin a canal project to run from his ranch to the Weedpatch area. It was illustrated on some early
maps as a "Proposed Canal", named, "The 78 Canal Project". The newspaper stories of the day stated; The
wealthy backers of Barkers project, which included mining and horse racing czar "Lucky Baldwin" along with
several prominent businessmen, backed out of the deal at the last minute. Captain Barker had completed the
headworks and the primary construction of the canal on his property. The remains of this canal can still be
viewed today at the south end of the Lake Ming overflow parking lot near Kern River Golf Course.
The next year, 1893, James Haggin, of Kern County Land Company (KCLC) and A.N. Towne, general manager
of the Southern Pacific Railroad, financed construction of the "Eastside Canal Extension", which extended the
existing canal from the Southern Pacific Railroad yards in East Bakersfield to the Towne Ranch near
Weedpatch. This project finally provided irrigation water to this fertile "Banana Belt" of the Southern San
Near the banks of Kern Lake with a view of Bear Mountain in the distance, circa 1905.

Joaquin Valley. This southern farming area, Weedpatch, Arvin,
Lamont and Kern Lake, were favored because the crops matured
two to four weeks earlier than most other valley regions and
bringing produce to the Los Angeles market early paid bonus
prices. Farmers immediately recognized the great potential of this
area and began to purchase the land while prices were still
reasonable.
Calvin B. Alexander and his family came to California from
Indiana in 1893 and purchased their 160 acres in 1898. It was
located 16 miles south west of Bakersfield where Fairfax Road
(State Highway 184) and Buena Vista Road now intersect. Calvin
and his oldest son John were highly respected in the community as
devoted and industrious farmers and experts in draft horse
breeding. Percheron-Norman blooded stallions were their specialty.
These are large hooved work horses of great size and strength. The
ownership of a matched team of these beautiful animals, in those
days before tractors, was a valued asset to farmers for moving
heavy wagons and large gang plows.
Henry Jastro
The Alexanders were successful in raising a variety of crops, but alfalfa, (then the equivalent of today's
Gasoline), was always in demand and Calvin was one of the first to commercially raise it in this district. The
Alexanders were one of the first successful cotton growers in Kern County and a cotton gin was built in the
growing Weedpatch settlement to shorten the hauling distance from the nearby fields.
The little town of Weedpatch was founded in 1922. Over the years a village had grown up around Calvin's
home and was commonly known as "Alexander's Corner", in time it featured a post office, general store,
restaurant, church , garage, cotton gin and a blacksmith shop. It had become the trading center of that area. The
land for the church was donated by the Alexander family. Today, a humble little lane dedicated to this family is
named "Alexander Street", in the small town of Weedpatch, California. The street post displays the names;
Alexander and Parish streets. Judge Frank Parish, in 1920, owned the Weedpatch Market and presided over the
15th Township Justice Court which was located in a back room of the store at "Alexander’s Corner", Judge
Parish's son Oral succeeded him as judge in 1939.
Electricity came to the Weedpatch-Kern Lake area in 1911. The expensive transmission wires and transformers
were installed primarily to operate irrigation pumps for KCLC farming operations in that area but it also
afforded power to all the outlying farm communities south of Bakersfield. The dim, smelly kerosene lamps used
for home lighting were on their way out and crops were never lost due to droughts now that electric pumps
could provide ample water from deep wells.
Five miles west of Weedpatch was an area known as Kern Lake. It was quite a large body of water and when
full it measured about 5 by 4 miles in area. This lake originally received the waters of the Old South Fork of the
Kern River combined with a score of meandering sloughs. Levees were built to prevent the lake from filling but
occasionally, when the river flooded, a levy would wash out and Kern Lake would refill. When this occurred,
the families, which lived nearby, had a great swimming, boating and fishing hole for recreation, until the hot
sun dried it back into dry land again. Kern County Land Company, the owner, leveled the lake bottom area to
conform to incline irrigation from the "Kern Island Canal" which entered the area from the north. Later, when
electricity became available from the new Kern Canyon Power Plant, wells were dug and irrigation pumps
installed for use when river water ceased to flow in the dry summer months. This fertile lake bed district proved
excellent for growing cotton. The First World War created a great demand for long staple cotton, used for the

strong fabric covering of aircraft. This plus increasing domestic use of cotton caused many more thousands of
acres of cotton to be raised in Kern County.
Kern County Land Company, in 1890, had attempted to create colonies as a means of selling their land in 40
and 60 acre parcels. Their "showcase" colony, Rosedale, failed because the East Coast and European farmers
who bought the land had never attempted to manage a large, irrigated farm and in time most immigrants who
bought the acreage were bankrupt and couldn't make the payments, consequently the land reverted back to the
Kern County Land Company by default. Henry Jastro became the new manager of the Land Company and
greatly restricted land sales, heading the company into large scale cattle operations exclusively.
By 1910, under Jastro's leadership, the Kern County Land Company was the largest cattle company in
America, twice the size of the King Ranch in Texas. It owned more than 2,000,000 acres in four states and the
owners were content to remain exclusively in cattle raising but gradually began to place Kern acreage into
leasing to farmers but only those who had proven themselves proficient at large scale farming in this area. The
Land Company had learned its lesson about inept farmers during the colonizing experiment of 1890.
Kern Lake and Paloma were the scenes of the first attempt by KCLC to get into the tenant farming business.
Initial influx came in 1925 when 5,400 acres were leased by the Alexander, Rudrum, Banducci, Fanucci, Pieri,
Simoni, Hill and Frick families. This was increased to 8,000 acres by 1936, with cotton and barley evenly
divided among the acreage. These farmers had a few good years until the cotton crop of 1931 and 32 was
marketed at such a low price, everyone suffered a total loss. The Great Depression was hitting hard on everyone
at that time and many farmers were forced to
mortgage their homes just to get by.
The next year, 1933, saw a good market price and
most farmers recovered their losses but the farmers
good fortune sparked a Valley-wide cotton strike,
(only 20 percent of the cotton pickers favored
striking for higher wages), the strikers wanted
$1.00 to pick a hundred pounds of cotton, the
farmers were paying $.60 per hundred which was a
20% raise in wages over the previous year. Armed
conflict and rioting took place in the Weedpatch-
Kern Lake area on Oct. 10, 1933 when 150
picketing agitators arrived in a caravan of trucks.
Within a few hours violence erupted between the
strikers and Sheriff and Highway Patrol officers on
the E.O. Mitchell Ranch east of Kern Lake. As the
police and ranchers tried to protect field workers
from harm, 13 people were seriously injured and
one striker was killed during the two hour battle.
The man killed was Pedro Subia of Arvin, a striker,
suffering a bullet wound to his chest. Witnesses
stated the shot came from the strikers ranks.
Merced Velos, a striker, had his arm blown off
from a shotgun blast. Receiving severe head
injuries from repeated blows by strikers, wielding
clubs, were prominent local residents, Hugh S.
Jewett chairman of the Kern County Water
Development Commission and Lloyd Frick
J.T. Phillips in a Weedpatch cotton field, September 1, 1925.

president of the California Cotton Growers Association, both taken, unconscious, to Kern General Hospital,
shortly thereafter both recovered from injuries. Miraculously, it rained the two following days which cooled
tempers and within a week workers returned to the cotton fields. On October 25, California Governor James
Rolph, Jr. negotiated a compromise wage of $.75 per hundredweight for the pickers, peace and quiet once again
returned to the Kern cotton fields.
Oil was discovered on KCLC holdings about 1936 and they decided to list 15% of the company’s stock on the
New York Stock Exchange. The stock brought $33 per share and within 5 years had rocketed to a worth of
$1,240.00 per share. The company began vast land reclamation projects and crop sharing lease agreements as a
use for the excess income from oil dollars in order to lighten the corporation’s federal tax burden. This was a
boon to the County of Kern, the lessee farmers and KCLC. By the late 1930s the Land Company was a tribusiness
corporation, agriculture, oil and cattle. Oil was the real cash cow, with over 800 wells on KCLC
property.
The thousands of dollars in costs to transform native soil into a fertile productive farm is enormous. Leveling,
grading and ditching for irrigation, sinking wells and providing pumps, living quarters, out buildings and
equipment to maintain. Development such as this is beyond the average farmer’s means but could be done
easily by the KCLC. They owned thousands of acres in the Kern Lake district and their management had
devised a plan of leasing, that over the years proved to be highly beneficial to hundreds of farmers. A man, with
limited capitol, could contract with KCLC to lease 100, 400 and even more acres if he was a proven proficient
farmer.
Their land leasing system was operated by crop sharing partnerships. The Land Company cleared and leveled
the ground with their heavy equipment, dug deep wells and installed irrigation pumps, put in stand pipes and
ditches and if required, three alfalfa crops would be pre-grown to improve the soil fertility before the lessee
took possession. If the farmer who leased the land successfully brought the crop to harvest, he paid a share of it
to KCLC, usually 1/4 to 1/3. If his crop failed, he owed no rent for that growing season. This left the farmer free
to use all his capitol and credit on equipment, seed, fertilizer and labor costs. Tracts were leased in units large
enough to encourage the use of machinery and give the tenant a chance to make profits on large scale
operations. This partnership plan, over the years, allowed scores of ranchers to operate at a good profit and to
eventually purchase ranches of their own. Scores of famous Kern County farming operations began by using
this system of land leasing.
The pioneer families who lived on these farm leases at Kern Lake were 15 or more miles from town and getting
to and from high school in Bakersfield was a tough situation for farm kids because they had their farm chores to
perform as well as school to attend. Before automobiles, for many, it was a long daily trip by saddle or buggy.
In 1917, that all changed when our progressive County provided school buses from their fleet of 87, which was
the largest in the state at that time.
To protect their crops from the hoards of wild rabbits, the whole community would frequently gather at the
local school or church for a big rabbit drive. The enormous rabbit population, if not controlled, could eat the
farmers into ruin in a short time. These events became major weekend social affairs featuring, barbeques,
dances and games, everyone joined in herding hundreds of the crop munchers into fenced areas where they were
captured and thereafter became stew, chili or Southern fried.
Today, much of the Weedpatch-Kern Lake district is still used to grow marvelous Acala cotton crops and barley
fields wave in the breeze resembling the waves of old Kern Lake of the past, but as one tours the lush, green,
fields it is apparent "Baby Carrots" now dominate the scene. Kern County has emerged from being the Cotton
King to the Carrot King of America. The millions of rabbits that plagued farmers in the early years would
decimate a field of carrots in a matter of days but now the rodents are rarely seen. I wonder if the pioneers could

have ever imagined the lowly carrot becoming a major cash crop of "The Banana Belt Of The San Joaquin
Valley".
© George Gilbert Lynch
Marjorie (Marje) Ellen Rump 1919-2008
Marjorie Ellen Rump (89) passed away after a long illness on December 23, 2008, at
Glenwood Gardens, where she has resided the last two years in Bakersfield. She was born
Marjorie Gummig in St. Joseph, Missouri on January 19, 1919. Her parents, Dr. Edward
August Gummig and Adeline Boller Gummig, moved with daughter Marjorie and son
Dwight to Pasadena, California in the late 1920s. As a young teen, Marjorie worked in her
father's medical office during high school summers and was taught to drive by an ambulance
driver. She graduated from Pasadena Junior College in a class of over 1,000 students. Marjorie attended the
University of Redlands, graduating in 1941 and was honored with an alumna Jubilee Heritage Award in 1983.
She was a member of Beta Lambda sorority and has maintained contact with members over the years through
round-robin newsletter. She earned a teaching credential and taught speech and drama at Beaumont High
School.
During the Second World War, she started corresponding with a young Colorado School of Mines engineering
grad named "Jack", for whom his Auntie Myra played the matchmaker. They were married on July 25, 1943 at
the Church of the Redeemer in Biloxi, Mississippi, where Jack was working for the U.S. Bureau of Ships. At
war's end, her husband was transferred to San Pedro, California, where their son Jack Edward was born.

Thereafter, Marje and Jack lived in Fellows and Taft when Jack went to work for Texaco Oil as a petroleum
engineer. Marjorie started Taft Community Theater and gave birth to daughters Susan and Marilyn
in the early fifties.
The family moved to Bakersfield in 1953. Marjorie worked as substitute teacher and as book buyer for Sierra
Book Store when her children were small. In the 1970s, she went back to school for a Master's degree in
Library Science, attending USC over four consecutive summers. She worked briefly at East High School as a
librarian, then was hired by the Kern County Library System and over the next 35 years worked several jobs
from branch manager to bookmobile supervisor to Deputy Director. Marjorie was in charge of the Beale Library
move to its current location on Truxtun Avenue. She retired in 2000 at the age of 81.
Marjorie was deeply connected in the local community with memberships in Soroptimists, PEO, AAUW,
Friends of the Library, First Presbyterian Church, and Assistance League, where she volunteered regularly at
the Bargain Box. She also served with her husband Jack on the board of Conference of California Historical
Societies (CCHS) and helped edit many local publications on early California history.
Marje was a driving force in the Kern County Historical Society having served as president from 1981-1982.
She also served on the publications committee, and until recently took care of all the Society’s book sales. She
helped to teach many of us about the importance of our heritage through her strong actions. Marje will be
deeply missed and her void in the Society cannot be expressed with words.
Two Giant Grapevines
By Gilbert Gia
In 1937 a seventy year-old grapevine grew in the back yard of Mrs. C.D. Neely's residence at 2315 Q Street in
Bakersfield. Mrs. Neely knew the age of the plant because many years earlier her grandfather M. Odell [Milan
Odell], who was a partner with Thomas Baker in a meat supply business, told her that Baker planted the vine
himself about 1867. The base was 62 inches around. In days when life was a bit simpler, Mrs. Neely said the
grapevine was the biggest one in the world. Today a communications company is at 2315 Q Street, and there
doesn’t seem to be a grapevine anywhere.
The Internet probably notes a bigger grapevine, but as late as 1954 a really huge one grew in Kern County along
the lower Mil Potrero Highway between Maricopa and Pine Mountain Club. I heard about it from Philip
Munding who was raised as a lad around that part of the county, but I never saw the vine myself. Years back the
Kern County Historical Society found it and reported that the spring-fed plant covered an entire acre of ground
(Historic Kern, March 1954). Locating the vine today is a challenge because property along Mil Potrero
Highway is mostly fenced and private, and nothing about the vine has been written in years. Can any readers
tell us about it
Giant Thank You
In keeping with the giant theme, I would like to send a giant thank you to Don Arnot. For several years, Don
who served as the society’s president from 2000-2001, has faithfully and professionally laid out this
publication. It made my job and the job of former editors much easier as I am now finding out. I would like to
thank Don for his service, expertise, and his willingness to share his knowledge with me. Jeff
Historic photos: Kern County Museum
Marje Rump photo: Susan Steinbach
If you have any ideas for articles to be published in Historic Kern, please contact Jeff Nickell, Editor by
mail at 3801 Chester Avenue, or by e-mail at jenickell@kern.org.

—Quarterly Bulletin —
The Kern County Historical Society
Post Office Box 141
Bakersfield, California 93302
Non-Profit Organization
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Book
Kern County Wayfarers (Paperback)
William Harland Boyd
Book
Price
Tax
Total
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Basques To Bakersfield Mary Paquette 15.00 1.09 16.09
Stagecoach Heyday In The San Joaquin
Valley (1853-1878) William Harland Boyd
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Kern County Pioneer Recollections 18.95 1.37 20.32
Kern County Place Names Second Edition
Curtis Darling
Historical Site Markers In Kern County
(Paperback) William Hample
Lower Kern River Country 1850-1950
William Harland Boyd
Kern County’s Desert Country—An Historical
Overview William Harland Boyd
Life On The Elk Hills Oil Field (Softcover Booklet)
Chinese In Kern County, 1857-1960 — Based on
pioneer oral histories
Curtis Darling Post Card Collection, Volume 1
(Paperback) Don Arnot & Jeff Nickell
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