History of Calfornia’s Second Gold Rush

The Citrus Rush Built Communities…

California has 58 counties; and the citrus dollars, directly or indirectly, provided the means in building 30 or more of these 58 counties! From the beginning of the 1900s the citrus industry was California’s second largest industry; oil was #1. This position continued through to the mid 1930s. By 1940 the citrus industry was still in the top five of California’s top industries – #1 oil, #2 tourism, #3 aviation, #4 movies, and #5 citrus. Yes…the California citrus industry built Communities, and from this activity this spearheaded the “second gold rush”… The Citrus Rush!

The Place

Below are the places where the citrus groves made California citrus history.

The Big Three

Leading counties in total citrus acreage in California by varieties (1941)

Navel & Misc. Oranges

  1. San Bernardino | 27,836
  2. Tulare | 25,670
  3. Los Angeles | 14,727

Valencia Oranges

  1. Orange | 65,503
  2. Los Angeles | 30,398
  3. Ventura | 16,332

Grapefruit

  1. San Bernardino | 4,374
  2. Riverside | 4,029
  3. Imperial | 4,018

Lemons

  1. Ventura | 19,004
  2. Los Angeles | 12,736
  3. San Diego | 8,680

Limes

  1. San Diego | 455
  2. Orange | 133
  3. Los Angeles | 111

All Varieties

  1. Orange | 75,909
  2. Los Angeles | 59,242
  3. San Bernardino | 51,687
Read about our resources

Citrus Roots, Preserving Citrus Heritage Foundation strives to bring about a higher awareness of the role citrus played in the development of California. We are not in the business of selling photos or photocopies of citrus crate labels. Relative to the latter we do sell ORIGINAL labels as a means of partly sustaining our operation.

If you are interested in a specific photo, we will attempt to direct you to the right source. Over a duration of 70 years, this collection has been attained so in many situations we cannot provide a means of procurement.