Oxnard Sugar Beets: Ventura County's Lost Cash Crop - Softcover

Maulhardt, Jeffrey Wayne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1467136794 ISBN 13: 9781467136792

Publisher: The History Press, 2016

Synopsis

In the early 1890s, farmers Albert Maulhardt and John Edward Borchard discovered Ventura County's favorable conditions for a highly profitable new cash crop: the sugar beet. Not long after inviting sugar mogul Henry T. Oxnard to the area, construction began on a $2 million sugar factory capable of processing two thousand tons of beets daily. The facility brought jobs, wealth and the Southern Pacific rail line. It became one of the country's largest producers of sugar, and just like that, a town was born. Despite the industry's demise, the city of Oxnard still owes its name to the man who delivered prosperity. A fifth-generation descendant, local author and historian Jeffrey Wayne Maulhardt details the rise and fall of a powerful enterprise and the entrepreneurial laborers who helped create a city.

About this title

About the Author:

Jeffrey Wayne Maulhardt is a fifth-generation native of Oxnard. He graduated from Ventura College and California University Chico with degrees in philosophy and liberal studies. He taught a variety of grade levels in the Oxnard Elementary School District before retiring as an eighth-grade social studies teacher. Jeff has written numerous local history books and has been working on opening a museum, the Oxnard Historic Farm Park, on an acre of land once farmed by his ancestors.

Review:

"From the late 1890s to the late 1950s, sugar beets were the crop that brought fame and a name -- and jobs, the railroad and numerous other businesses -- to what is today Ventura County's largest city.

The story of the rise and fall of Oxnard's sugar beet industry is told comprehensively by, logically, local historian Jeffrey Wayne Maulhardt in 'Oxnard Sugar Beets: Ventura County's Lost Cash Crop.'" Ventura County Star

About this edition

• Publisher: The History Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1467136794
• ISBN 13: 9781467136792
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128