The Evolution of the Central Valley

Franco, Josh

Dr. Gregg Herken

HIST 100

15 December 2005

The Evolution of the Central Valley

“It is a valley so big that it doesn’t seem like a valley. It is stacks of statistics so impressive and large that they quickly lose meaning. It is also a land whose anonymity is cause for concern, because what goes on here is not usually made of high drama, but for long-term change and consequences that are easy to miss, and possibly devastating” (Dawson, Haslam and Johnson viii). The size of the Central Valley hereinafter referred to as the Valley, can be daunting for anyone to analyze; however, it is critical that I do so because it is not just some area on the map, but it is a place I want to truly call home. I intend to return meaning to the statistics; to identify those things which remain anonymous; and to hopefully limit, and ultimately, prevent the devastating consequences of our actions to the Valley by drawing attention to its past.

Population drives change. The Valley, considered to be California’s heartland, has experienced an incredible population surge over the past half century and it is poised to continue this upward trend for at least the next several decades. This is no surprise to locals who, through constant vigilance, have witnessed and accounted for the metamorphosis that has occurred right in front of their very eyes. From an incredible inland lake and murky bog, to an irrigated flatland and the enormous agricultural center, the Valley has changed immensely, geographically speaking. But, not only has the land changed, but so has the region’s cultural, ethnic, racial and socioeconomic composition because of population growth. This “other” California, as it has been referred to, is a remarkable place and its evolution has been nothing short of that.

What is the Valley? According to the Great Valley Center, it “is a vast region – some 450 miles long, averaging 50 miles wide. Stretching from Mt. Shasta in the north to the Tehachapis in the south, the Valley encompasses 19 counties.” The 19 counties are: Butte, Colusa, El Dorado, Fresno, Glenn, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, Placer, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Shasta, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Tulare, Yolo, and Yuba. Put a more eloquent way by Stan Yogi in Highway 99, “Bathed by ground-kissing tule fog in the winter and smothered by weighty summer heat, the area from Bakersfield to Redding, bordered by the Sierra Nevada to the east and the coastal ranges to the west, is famous for its abundant crops” (Yogi xv).

As mentioned earlier, the Valley is evolving, but what is evolution? According to American Heritage Dictionary, evolution is “a gradual process in which something changes into a different and usually more complex or better form.” The gradual process that the Valley is experiencing is driven by population growth. Population increases because the number of births is greater than the number of deaths and/or the number of people arriving to a region is greater than the number of people leaving. In the case of the Valley, it has experienced both more births than deaths and more immigrants than emigrants, both domestic and foreign. Specifically, the influx of foreign immigrants has made a significant impact on the Valley. According to Dolores Lykins of the California Department of Finance, over the past century and a half, the Valley has experienced substantial population growth.

The preceding graph is based on the following data, presented in year, population format: 1850, 51,061; 1860, 124,596; 1870, 143,754; 1880, 203,268; 1890, 260,251; 1900, 299,925; 1910, 458,168; 1920, 655,978; 1930, 850,733; 1940, 1,117,950; 1950, 1,709,594; 1960, 2,332,738; 1970, 2,796,182; 1980, 3,582,492; 1990, 4,765,599, 2000, 5,706,521.

While overall population has increased in the Valley since the 1850, there has been three periods of time were population growth declined relative to the previous decade: 1880 to 1900, 1920 to 1930 and again 1960 to 1970. From 1880 to 1900, there was a significant reduction, and actual decline from the previous decade, in population growth. This can be attributed to three pieces of legislation enacted by the United States Federal Government. First, in May 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act “suspended [the] immigration of Chinese laborers to the United States for ten years” (“Chinese…”). In August, three months after, the Immigration Act was passed and it was the “first general immigration law [that] established a system of central control of immigration through State Boards under the [jurisdiction of the] Secretary of the Treasury” (“Immigration Act of August 3, 1882…”). Then, in March 1891, another Immigration Act was passed that “directed the deportation of any alien who entered the United States unlawfully” (“Immigration Act of March 3, 1891…”). Combined, each piece of legislation stymied population growth in the Valley as exhibited by -2,531 and -17,309 growth in the 1890 and 1900 respectively.

In May 1921, the Quota Act “limited the number of aliens of any nationality entering the United States to three percent of the foreign-born persons of that nationality who lived in the United States in 1910” (“Quota…”).  The Act had a significant impact on immigration to the United States, but as for the Valley, this meant a net decline in growth from 1920 to 1930 of 3,055.

Then in October 1965, the Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments was passed and it “maintained the principle of numerical restriction, expanding limits to world coverage by limiting Eastern Hemisphere immigration to 170,000 and placing a ceiling on Western Hemisphere immigration (120,000) for the first time” (“Immigration and Nationality…”). In other words, this legislation ended preferential treatment of people from particular regions of the world.

As Dawson, Haslam and Johnson write in The Great Central Valley: “Walter Stein lists the general ethnic pattern of migrant labors this way: Chinese in the 1870s; Japanese in the 1890s; East Indians after the turn of the century; Mexican and Filipinos during and after World War I; Okies during the 1930s; southern blacks along with Filipinos and Mexicans again during the 1940s” (Dawson, Haslam and Johnson 47). A diversity of people came to the Valley and sought to fulfill their individual desire, but at the same time, and whether intentionally or not, they contributed to the richness of the region.

The impact of federal immigration legislation on the Valley is apparent. But, despite legislation that targeted specific immigrant populations, the region continued to experience a net increase in overall population decade after decade. While a more in-depth analysis of the impact of federal legislation is warranted, it is beyond the scope of this paper. However, the enactment of such legislation highlights the growing presence of immigrants coming and living in the United States and the Valley.

Next, I’d like to analyze the population data of the Valley on a sub-regional level. The 19 counties of the Valley are categorized into four geographical sub-regions: North Valley, Sacramento Metropolitan, North San Joaquin Valley and South San Joaquin Valley. First, the North Valley sub-region includes Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Shasta, and Tehama counties. Next, the Sacramento Metropolitan sub-region includes the following six counties: El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo, and Yuba. Right below it is the North San Joaquin Valley sub-region and it includes the counties of Merced, San Joaquin, and Stanislaus. Finally, the South San Joaquin Valley sub-region includes the following five counties: Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, and Tulare. Below is a graph of population growth by sub-regions.

By 1910, the South San Joaquin Valley (Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, and Tulare counties) surpassed the Sacramento Metropolitan (El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo, and Yuba counties) as the most populous sub-region within the Valley.

What caused the population shift from the North to the South Central Valley? A major cause of the shift was economic opportunities or lack thereof. In the mid-1800s, California became the hotspot for settlers because of the Gold Rush. People from all over the world came to California looking to quench their thirst for gold. However, by the turn of the century, most of the mines where claimed or exhausted and therefore, people were forced to look elsewhere for economic opportunity. “The development of the Valley’s other great product – petroleum – was indirectly linked to both the Gold Rush and agriculture, since many pioneer petroleum seekers were erstwhile diggers of gold mines or drillers of water wells” (Dawson, Haslam and Johnson 45). Due to the fact that the South San Joaquin Valley was spewing with oil, it attracted hordes of people to come and settle in the sub-region.

As population increased, so did the demand for food and the ability to transport it. Early settlers recognized the land’s great production capacity and farming, as an economic opportunity, took root. According to the California Farm Bureau Federation, the alluvial plain known as the Valley is the “largest irrigate agricultural area west of the Rocky Mountains.” Moreover, it is home to “nearly half of the state’s farmland, two-thirds of the cropland and almost seventy-five percent of the irrigated land” (“Facts…”).

Over time, as more people came to the Valley, not only did the demand for more economic opportunities increase, but so did the need to efficiently use the land to maximize food production in order to feed the growing population. In conjunction with the establishment of an expansive railroad system throughout Valley, production rose exponentially. With the introduction of the railroad, more people, goods and ideas could be transported faster and cheaper. To efficiently use the land, consolidation occurred. Firms with the necessary financial resources were able to buy out smaller firms and therefore establish control over massive tracts of land. Moreover, firms used their financial clout to foster political connections that would serve to further strengthen their grip on the region. The rise of agribusiness, short for agriculture business, had come by the early 1900s and continues to grow and expand today.

The centralization of land control under agribusiness, railroads corporations and oil firms lead to increased food production, better transportation and great wealth; however, it also exacerbated a divide between the haves and the have-nots, a prevalent issue in the Valley. “There remains a tragic gap between the have and have-nots here; in 1980 the New York Times announced that six of the ten metropolitan regions in the nation with the highest percentage of population on public assistance were located in the Valley” (Dawson, Haslam and Johnson 14). This “tragic gap” is tragic because the Valley is a region of incredible wealth, both in terms of resources and people, but a majority of the wealth is in the hands of the few. This lack of wealth distribution among the population can contribute to tensions between people and when the tension capacity reaches an unsustainable level, violence can break out.

For example, in The Other California, Gerald Haslam writes about a rumble that broke out in the town of Taft, located in west Kern County of the South San Joaquin Valley sub-region. Incorporated in 1910, the town of Taft “has been closely linked with the social history of California’s oil industry, for oil companies owned not only much of the surrounding land but a good chunk of the community as well. Both the town and its immediate area have a long history of absentee ownership, thus many locals have a brooding sense of distant, often faceless big shots controlling their destiny” (Haslam 125). In the 1960s, when demands for equality and the recognition and protection of civil rights by African American and other minority organizations reached their height, the federal government was compelled to mandate the integration of blacks and other minorities with whites. Taft was one of the many localities in the country were integration occurred. As Haslam describes, the introduction of black students into Taft’s college and community didn’t go over so well with some of the locals. Unfounded fears and false beliefs regarding African Americans ran largely unimpeded throughout the town. In particular, groups of young, less educated, white males lashed out against the blacks, causing harm to some and fear to all. Haslam writes “they [the white youths] were frustrated, perhaps uncomprehending products of an upwardly mobile society in which they failed to rise; like men stuck in quicksand, they flailed in desperation, and their actions harmed not only their community but their nation as well” (Haslam 130). The event scarred Taft and, to a lesser extent, the image of the people in the Valley. In spite of this unfortunate and condemnable occurrence, it fueled a dialogue on race relations in the nation and generated a call for tolerance throughout the region.

“This valley has become a place where for the first time in many families’ histories, members of younger generations are free to ask how and why and at what cost, free to pursue those questions as well as the meanderings of their unique imaginations” (Dawson, Haslam and Johnson 15). Frankly, it is the people who have transformed the Valley: the baby, the oil driller, the barber, the social worker, the child, the meat packer, the rancher, the migrant worker, the politician, the adult, the elder, the storyteller, and the list can go on and on. People from all walks of life, from all different backgrounds and socioeconomic classes, live, breathe and eat the Valley. And not only do they live, breathe and eat the Valley, but they share their unique experiences of the Valley with others.

The region is home to millions of stories from the people who are transforming area. The only things that surpass the awe-inspiring geography, vast agricultural landscapes and “only in the Valley” features are the stories of its denizens. With all this talk of population, analysis of statistics, legislative history and so on, it is important to uncover the anonymous population for what is it: distinctive people with distinctive stories. People drive change not only through their actions, but through their words as well.

In “from Up and Down California,” William Henry Brewer describes his journeys in the North Valley sub-region. “Chico is a thriving little place. We camped in the private yard of Major Bidwell, the principal citizen of the place, and while there ate at his house. We had a pleasant time” (Brewer 23). Further along in the passage, he writes how the Major Bidwell is a “very public spirited” man and his spirit contributed to the vitality of Chico. While Brewer doesn’t go into a tremendous amount of detail, his journal highlights the commonness of the Central Valley. Nothing spectacular, just people, living life: this is a recurring theme throughout the writings of other Valley writers.

“I was fortunate enough to find an empty boxcar. I sat in the corner and tried to sleep, but Claro’s words kept coming back to me. He wanted me to go back to fight for our people when I was ready” (Bulosan 115) writes Carlos Bulosan in “from America is in the Heart.” In his story, he writes about his adventure through the South and North San Joaquin Valley during the 1930s. In it, he remarks on his encounters with Chinese, Japanese and others in whorehouses and other interesting locations. What he comes to discover is his identity: that he is a Filipino and that he must help his fellow Filipino. After a spending some time in Bakersfield, he returns to Stockton during a strike and recognizes that much has changed, but the thought that he needed to help is fellow man remained on the forefront of his mind. Bulosan’s story reflects the fortitude of the Valley people to make a difference.

Joan Didion writes in Notes from a Native Daughter about Sacramento Metropolitan sub-region: “I said that Sacramento was the least typical of the Valley towns, and it is – but only because it is bigger and more diverse, only because it has had the rivers and the legislature; its true character remains that Valley character” (Didion 104). Even though Sacramento is apart of the Valley, it is different. But why differentiate? She goes on to write that “they [, the children,] will have lost the real past and gained a manufactured one, and there will be no way for them to know, no way at all, why a house trailer should stand alone on seven thousands acres outside town” (Didion 105). Her passion for the future is remarkable. Reading this, one gets the sense that there is more to the Central Valley that what was or what is.

In Bowling to Find a Lost Father, Mee Her writes about her unique experience of trying to reconnect with her father who after moving to the Valley from Southeast Asia didn’t know how to interact with his increasingly Americanized children. She writes “He no longer knows how to be the father he used to be for us. He began to build walls around us by becoming overly protective. He did not let us play outside or go out with our friends, using concepts of hard work to keep us at home like dutiful Hmong children” (Her 395). This reflects just how difficult it can be for people who immigrant to the Valley, or any other part of the United States, to become apart of their adopted society. How does a person stay connected to their children who are going up in a different place, a different time, and with different influences? While it is certain that each immigrant parent think of such thoughts, Her is able to clearly articulate the problem and how she went about reconnecting with her father through the game of bowling. Using bowling as a way to reestablish an “emotional closeness,” her writing highlights a unique challenge facing the Valley and its residents: making a connection with people who grew up and lived in a different time and a different place.

“But suddenly, something inside me told me it was not too late to do so. I could start by not going to that night’s party even though it might kill me not to go. So I did; I chose to stay home with my grandmother. This was the turning point from childhood to adulthood” (Louangrath 393) notes Thiphavanh Louangrath in Old Maid. Again, family is central to the story. However, in this work, Louangrath emphasizes the point in her life when she came to appreciate what she had and recognize what she had lost. The reason she was living with her grandmother was that her mother had died; she lost her mother and realized her grandmother was still alive and it was her duty to make sure she lived a happy and comfortable life. But in order to do so, Louangrath had to sacrifice her wild ways of constantly partying and leaving her grandmother home alone. Throughout the Valley, a socially conservative and traditional region, family is very important and it is not lost in this work, but rather accentuated by it.

Over the past century and a half, the population has increased from a humble fifty thousand to over 5.7 million people! Examining the population growth, impact of federal legislation, the expansion of agribusiness, transportation, oil, the affect of social movements and the stories of people who grew up in the Valley, I have only scratched the surface of the Valley.

The evolution of the Central Valley is nothing short of remarkable. It has come a long way. From a murky lake, to an agricultural production powerhouse, the Central Valley has gradually changed into a better, more complex, region. But, with all things, it is ultimately the people who are driving the evolution because their understanding of the past and hope for the future. “And that hope is the intangible crop that has drawn so many people here” (Dawson, Haslam and Johnson 15).

To predict the future at this point would be ill-advised on my part for the very reason that I feel I must continue to acquire and absorb knowledge about the Valley. Knowing I can make a prediction after I have satisfied my inner benchmarks is an incentive for me to read more, learn more, write more and discover more about the Valley. As I mentioned before, I have just scratched the surface and nothing will stop me from better understanding this “vast region.” This paper is my motivation to do so because it hints that the dramatic changes the Valley has undergone in the last 150 years. The impact of the past will compound the impact of the future.

I will call this place my home, but it will take time for it to truly become my home. The evolution of the Central Valley is more than charts and graphs, its evolution is driven by the love people have for this place.


Works Cited

“Chinese Exclusion Act of May 6, 1882” United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. < http://uscis.gov/graphics/shared/aboutus/statistics/legishist/450.htm >

“Facts and Stats about California Agriculture 2002.” California Farm Bureau Federation. < http://www.cfbf.com/info/agfacts.cfm >

“Immigration Act of August 3, 1882” United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. < http://uscis.gov/graphics/shared/aboutus/statistics/legishist/451.htm >

“Immigration Act of March 3, 1891” United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. < http://uscis.gov/graphics/shared/aboutus/statistics/legishist/456.htm >

“Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of October 3, 1965.” United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. < http://uscis.gov/graphics/shared/aboutus/statistics/legishist/526.htm >

“Quota Law of May 19, 1921.” United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. < http://uscis.gov/graphics/shared/aboutus/statistics/legishist/468.htm >

Brewer, William Henry. “from Up and Down California, 1860-1864.” Yogi 18-23.

Bulosan, Carlos. “from America is in the Heart.” Yogi 113-118.

Dawson, Robert, Gerald Haslam and Stephen Johnson. The Great Central Valley. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.

Didion, Joan. “Notes of a Native Daughter.” Haslam and Houston 97-106.

Haslam, Gerald and James D. Houston. California Heartland. Santa Barbara: Capra Press, 1978.

Haslam, Gerald. The Other California. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1994.

Her, Mee. “Bowling to Find a Lost Father.” Yogi 394-396.

Louangrath, Thiphavanh. “Old Maid.” Yogi 390-393.

Lykins, Dolores. “Historical Census Populations of California State, Counties, Cities, Places, and Towns, 1850-2000.” California State Department of Finance. < http://www.dof.ca.gov/HTML/DEMOGRAP/Histtext.htm >

Yogi, Stan. Highway 99. Berkeley: Heyday Books, 1996.