Sarah Lim: Exploring El Nido’s interesting past

El Nido, which nests on the plains of Merced County, has a rich history that goes back to the land grant days.

But in the comprehensive “History of Merced County” published in 1925, historian John Outcalt described El Nido in just two sentences. He wrote, “El Nido, about twelve miles south of Merced, has no map of record. A store and post office adjoining the district schoolhouse serve a thickly settled farming community largely devoted to dairying.”

El Nido might have a small spot in a written history like Outcalt’s, and might be unassumingly quiet as it lies away from the political and economic centers of Merced County, but it is a place with an interesting past.

From the 1930s to 1950s, El Nido made local and national news for being a potential site for oil and gas development and for capturing a national contest title by producing the biggest sugar beet. El Nido was also involved in a case that changed the course of Merced County legal history.

There was oil exploration in El Nido during the Great Depression. It created such an excitement in the area that some land speculators started to advertise oil land in local newspapers even before the oil was found.

In late spring 1934, Pure Oil Co. of Chicago purchased and leased land in El Nido to explore oil. By November, an oil-well rigging was set up, a boiler room was built, and a test well was drilled to 8,800 feet. After months of rumors about El Nido “striking oil” and in anticipation of the oil test, petroleum gas roared from a standpipe by the oil well on the night of Nov. 13. Hundreds of spectators flocked to the site the next day and expected to see oil coming out of the pipe, but witnessed a geyser of mud and gas instead.

As oil testing continued, there were battles over the title to the land where the El Nido oil testing well was located. For example, the title of the 42,000-acre Chowchilla Ranch was awarded to Chowchilla Farms Inc. over the Western Meat Co. by Merced Superior Court Judge E. N. Rector in December 1934. The action, along with the revelation of the recent successful natural gas testing, paved the way for further development of oil and gas lands in the El Nido area as the Pure Oil Co. planned to drill two more wells before the court decision.

The oil exploration continued into 1935, but the coverage of this venture gradually decreased in the local news. Although oil was never produced commercially in El Nido, the excitement of striking “black gold” was uplifting in an era when hope and opportunity were desperately sought.

Also during the Great Depression, El Nido became a center of cotton farming and had a large cotton gin. Many African Americans came to El Nido to pick cotton and lived in labor camps like the one on Cleveland Road near El Nido.

An unfortunate incident in a cotton picking labor camp in El Nido led to a historic legal change in the county. On Nov. 21, 1937, Abraham Banks, an African American, was allegedly killed by a black man named Luther Hines after an argument at a party at the labor camp on Clayton Ranch. Hines fled to Mississippi and was extradited back to Merced to face murder charges.

Hines was tried before an all-white jury in the courtroom of Judge Hal Shaffer on May 6, 1938, and was found guilty of second-degree murder despite his plea of self-defense. His defense attorney, Stephen P. Galvin, appealed to the 3rd District Court of Appeal. He argued that the exclusion of blacks from jury duty in Merced County for the 32 years prior was unconstitutional and contrary to the 14th Amendment. The appellate court sided with the defendant and the California Supreme Court agreed in the case known as People v. Hines, 12 Cal.2d 535 (1939).

People v. Hines ended the practice of excluding African Americans from jury service in Merced County. Merced Superior Court implemented the ruling when the first two black jurors were selected in a criminal case in February 1939. The outcome of the El Nido labor camp tragedy unintentionally resulted in a major step toward racial equality in the Merced County criminal justice system.

While this incident put El Nido on the map in the region, it was the winning of the biggest sugar beet by the Newhall Land and Farming Co. that brought El Nido national fame. In December 1955, Idaho Farm Bureau Federation sponsored a nationwide sugar beet contest and Newhall sent in its contestant, “monster beet.” Weighing 34 pounds, 4 ounces, it was declared the winner. It was said that Newhall’s second best, “turkey beet” which weighed 32 pounds, 6 ounces, could have beaten all the competitors as well.

For this victory, Ken Groefsema, the El Nido ranch superintendent for Newhall, was awarded by the company a 10-day, expenses-paid trip to Hawaii with his wife. While the Groefsemas were in Hawaii , the “monster beet” was in “protective custody” of policewoman Donna Hill in Caldwell, Idaho. There was even a picture in the Dec. 27, 1955, issues of the Desert Sun and the Hoosier State Chronicles to prove that. After all, the biggest sugar beet was from a quiet little town named El Nido, “The Nest.”

For more information, please visit our current exhibit, “Centennial Celebrations: El Nido School and Gustine City.” The exhibit closes Sunday. Our next exhibit, opening Oct. 15, is “UC Merced: A Decade of Building, Growing, and Learning.”

This story was originally published September 25, 2015 at 2:51 PM with the headline "Sarah Lim: Exploring El Nido’s interesting past."