A look back at when Merced County was known as ‘Home of the Fig’

How would you like to try some big, sugary “Merced Sweets” or sample a red, juicy “Merced Beauty?”

They tasted as good as they looked; they were the sweet potatoes from Buhach Colony and the tomatoes packed by Merced Produce and Packing Company.

Marketing agricultural products with a catchy label or slogan like these was how Merced County became known as the “Home of the Fig’‘ in the early part of the 20th Century. Our county’s reputation for delicious figs traveled as far as Tijuana when a special Santa Fe train advertising this phrase took a delegation of Merced promoters to Southern California in 1923.

On the early morning of April 2, 1923, there were 125 Merced County boosters who boarded the Merced Fig Special train traveling down south on the Santa Fe for a promotional excursion. Among these esteemed boosters was photographer Frank Robinson whose work captured the spirit of the day and the slogan of the time.

As the boosters traveled through the San Joaquin Valley, they stopped briefly in Fresno, Visalia, and Tulare before arriving in Bakersfield. They had lunch at the Harvey House and an auto tour of Bakersfield before getting back on the train in time to enjoy a rare pleasure of going over the Tehachapi Mountains by daylight.

After spending a night in Barstow, the Merced boosters boarded the Fig Special and arrived in San Bernardino around 9 a.m. where they were entertained by the San Bernardino, Riverside, and Redlands Chambers of Commerce. Their afternoon itinerary was Corona and Santa Fe Springs before reaching Los Angeles for the night.

The reception at Los Angeles the next day was by far the most entertaining and exciting from a Hollywood studio tour, luncheon at the Alexandria Hotel, to an evening party at Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre. The following morning, the group continued to Orange County for a tour in Santa Ana. After a brief stop in San Diego, the boosters arrived in Tijuana where they remained overnight.

San Diego was the last stop of the excursion. They spent most of April 6 touring the city, having lunch at the U. S. Grant Hotel, and enjoying a talk by Admiral William Sowden Sims who commanded all U.S. naval forces in Europe during WWI.

The Merced County Booster excursion solidified the county’s reputation as Home of the Fig as more than 1,000 small packages of figs were distributed to the various towns visited.

The origins of fig cultivation in Merced County can be traced back to Erastus Kelsey who planted his first orchard with some fig cuttings from an old mission in the early 1850s. Merced’s climate, soil, and irrigation systems made it a natural home for growing figs, but the boom of the fig industry did not take off until the early 20th Century when fig growers, shippers, packers, farm advisors, and promoters worked together.

The University of California played a leading role in educating and organizing the fig growers, beginning in 1917 when it held the first annual statewide Fig Growers’ Institute in Fresno. Merced orchardists who attended the institute brought back great enthusiasm over the fig industry and were energized by the new information they received, including about a little-known variety: Kadota Fig.

Also at this institute, the California fig growers took the initial step of organizing a fig association with an exploratory committee in which Merced’s Fred W. Yokum was a member. When the California Fig Growers’ Association was finally organized in 1918, Yokum was elected vice president. Two years later, the Fig Association merged with the Peach Association and became California Peach and Fig Growers’ Association. In 1921, the Association built a packing plant in Merced on the Santa Fe Railroad reservation between N and O Streets and employed over 100 workers.

The fig industry enjoyed a great deal of publicity and support from the Merced community; among its ardent boosters was the Merced Chamber of Commerce. Shortly after its reorganization in December 1919, the Chamber dedicated significant resources to assist and promote the fig industry. It campaigned vigorously for the merger of the Fig and Peach associations, raised funds for the construction of Merced’s packing plant, worked hard in bringing the annual Fig Growers’ Institute to Merced in 1923, and organized the very first and successful excursion to Southern California.

By 1924, Merced County was truly living up to its reputation as the Home of the Fig. Just within a 25-mile radius of Merced, there were more than 12,200 acres of figs being grown by over 500 orchardists. The center of the Merced Fig Belt was the Tuttle-Planada area, just east of Merced along the Santa Fe Railroad and the Yosemite Highway. The popular varieties of figs grown in the area were Mission, Adriatic, Calimyrna, and Kadota.

Today, although the acres of figs have been reduced significantly, Merced County remains a hub of the fig industry.

Now, you will have an opportunity to try some juicy figs from our local J. Marchini Farms and win a picture of the “Merced Fig Special” from Grey Roberts’ collection by taking part in the Merced County Historical Society’s 30th Annual Bill Kirby BBQ/Auction at Lake Yosemite on Sept. 14.

Tickets to the event are available in the Museum office and gift shop. Please call the office at (209) 723-2401 for more information.