The Making of the Golden State: Citrus in Los Angeles
This article was written by Luciné Rickey, a student in my ENVECON 141 class this semester. One of the class assignments is to write a blog on environmental, climate, or energy challenges related to agriculture. I chose my two favorite submissions to publish here (it was hard to choose only two because there were so many excellent ones among the 160 students).
Luciné is a senior studying Political Economy with a concentration in Global Development and the Environment. During her time at UC Berkeley, she served as President of Berkeley International Consulting and worked as a Lead Coach at The Practice Space. After graduation, she looks forward to joining the tech world in San Francisco and continuing to explore connections between development and business.
Tucked away in my hometown of Montrose, California is the historical Rockhaven Sanitarium, a feminist sanitarium that operated from 1923 to the early 2000s. Stories of actresses escaping the chaos of city life for the lush foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains are a defining part of Rockhaven’s history. Undeniably, the beautiful citrus groves that once sprawled here contributed to the serenity offered by Rockhaven.
As a child, my parents often brought me to benefit events for the Rockhaven Historical Society, where I heard stories about the citrus orchards that once surrounded the area and offered their supposed healing benefits. I could easily imagine these landscapes, but I rarely saw anything like them in present-day Los Angeles. Yet these orchards were more than scenery – they played a central role in shaping the city’s economy, culture, and identity.
Los Angeles’s citrus industry was born in 1841 when pioneer William Wolfskill planted the county’s first commercial orange grove in what is now present day Downtown Los Angeles. While the California Gold Rush took off, Wolfskill made his way in “citrus gold.”
Between 1909 and 1950, Los Angeles was the nation’s leading farm county, with citrus fruits growing alongside a number of agricultural products. In the San Fernando Valley, fruit production – especially citrus – was the leading industry, and land used for orange and lemon groves could sell for up to eight times the price of other land. The citrus industry was undeniably defining agriculture in Los Angeles County.
In the early 1900s, there were about a million orange trees and a quarter million lemon trees in Los Angeles County, as shown in the figure below. California Board of Equalization reports indicate a large but brief jump around 1907 followed by a decline a few years later. It is unclear what caused these changes. What is clear is that there are now only about 76 acres of citrus in Los Angeles County, or about 15,000 trees.
Beyond its economic importance, citrus also shaped the cultural identity of Los Angeles. Promotional graphics of endless citrus groves helped construct the image of “Sunny California” and the “Golden State.” Furthermore, health became associated with the golden fruits grown in the sunshine of Los Angeles, attracting consumers to purchase citrus products and move to the dreamy land of sun.
In the case of my local Rockhaven and other sanitariums alike, the bliss of citrus and agricultural fields offered a serene backdrop for healing and wellness.
However, the post-World War II era brought dramatic changes to Los Angeles’s landscape. Increasing urbanization put pressure on farmers, and acres of groves were replaced by acres of homes, a hallmark of Los Angeles’s now famous suburban sprawl. As residential areas grew, Los Angeles’s agriculture was relocated to the Central Valley, where three of its counties lead in acreage dedicated to citrus plants as of the latest available data in 2022.
Presently, Los Angeles County ranks as 31st among the list of California counties and their acreage of citrus bearing and non-bearing trees, a far fall from its glory days as the agricultural capital of the U.S. However, its history is not completely lost.
Some public institutions alongside private partners have fought to preserve the legacy of citrus production in Los Angeles. Located in the San Fernando Valley, the California State University of Northridge (CSUN) maintains a five acre orange grove with over 400 navel trees. Open to the public, the grove is an enjoyable area for picnics, scenery, and recreation. Partnering with Fruit Forward, a nonprofit dedicated to redistributing surplus produce to those facing food insecurity, CSUN harvests their oranges for consumption.
Crop Swap Los Angeles is an urban agriculture initiative that grows and sells fresh produce throughout the county. At the Asanate Microfarm, Crop Swap harvest lemons, tangerines, and oranges. Initiatives like these preserve the legacy of citrus production in Los Angeles while also addressing food deserts and gaps in fresh-food access.
While Los Angeles may never experience another agricultural “gold rush,” the legacy of its citrus industry still shapes the region’s identity – from the “Golden State” imagery to the growing movement for urban agriculture. Expanding these efforts could preserve historical knowledge while improving food access, ensuring that future generations experience Los Angeles’s citrus legacy firsthand rather than only hearing about it.