During the 1930s, about half a million people traveled west on Route 66 to the agricultural valleys of California.
Most were tenant farmers who had lost their farm leases during a wave of agricultural consolidation brought on by government programs intended to raise the price of farm products.
Others left home when the drought and dust storms blew their farms away.
Why choose California for a fresh start?
Its mild climate and long growing season for many different crops meant there would be a need for farm workers for most of the year.
And these people were used to working the land.
0nce they arrived in California, they’d follow the harvest season from crop to crop.
They’d dig potatoes and onions.
Cut artichokes and pea pods from their stems.
Pick cotton.
And pick lots of fruit: grapes, oranges and peaches.
And almonds. [Did you know that you harvest almonds by shaking the tree?]
They lived in squatters’ camps alongside farm irrigation ditches to get water.
A grandmother told photographer Dorothea Lange, "Been in California fourteen months. From Oklahoma. The main thing is to get our families located and quieted down."
These people’s lives changed for the better when California became the heart of the nation’s defense industry during World War II.
But, as we’ve mentioned here many times,
war changes everything.
I’ll see you tomorrow.
— Brenda
Share this post