Community Corner
1911 Autumn Harvest in Los Gatos
In this 1911 photograph, prunes are drying in the sun at the Rawlings Ranch, located between Los Gatos and San Jose.
In the 1850s and 1860s, fruit growing in the Los Gatos area was purely experimental.
When 400 fruit trees were planted about 1870 around Forbes Mill, they produced abundantly and the fruit industry was born.
Of the fruits that thrived in the area, prunes proved to be the easiest to handle and market.
They were not easily bruised and could be shaken from the trees without injury.
They soon created a bonanza.
In a good year around the turn of the 20th century, the Santa Clara Valley could easily produce 135 million pounds of prunes from 4.5 million prune trees.
In this photograph, prunes are drying in the sun at the Rawlings Ranch, located between Los Gatos and San Jose.
Source: Hooked on Los Gatos, the Library and Museum History Project
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