COACHELLA

Development of Coachella and the eastern Coachella Valley

After their first test well proved successful the Rector brothers cleared 25 acres, which they planted in barley, wheat, cantaloupes, watermelons and sugar beets, later that year. As the Los Angeles Times reported at the time, "the land proved wonderfully fertile, and all of the crops did well, coming to maturity in a phenomenally short time."

The Coachella Valley was especially attractive because it was able to produce crops earlier than other regions in the Southwestern United States. By 1902 over 100 artesian wells had been drilled in the Valley as hundreds of farmers arrived there.

By 1902 Rector had organized the Coachella Valley Produce Association, which shipped the first boxcar of fruit ever raised in the valley. A packing house was later built in the town, followed shortly by an ice and pre-cooling plant.

These anglo growers initially relied on local Cahuilla Indians, whose traditional economy and way of life had been destroyed by smallpox, reservations and land allotments, to grow and pack their crops. When these farmers' need for labor outstripped that supply they recruited farmworkers from Japan.

Many of these Mexican immigrants were driven out, either by formal deportation proceedings or informal coercion, during the Great Depression. Later, during World War II, the United States government entered into agreement with the Mexican government to bring back thousands of Mexican farmworkers under the Bracero Program.

Japanese immigrants and their American-born families were also removed from the Coachella Valley when the United States government interned them during World War II. Many of these internees returned to the Coachella Valley, where they received a warmer reception than in other parts of California.

African-Americans also moved to the Coachella Valley during the Great Migration beginning in the 1910s. Smaller numbers of migrants came from places such as Turkey and Portugal.

Post-War changes

Coachella became a city in 1946. During the incorporation voting process, the first city council was tentatively elected.

In the 1950s Coachella begin to expand its range, about 32 square miles (83 km2), an area which contained large year-round agricultural corporate farms and fruit groves, particularly of citrus (lemons, oranges, grapefruit) and date palms.

The Coachella Valley proved to be a key site in the United Farm Workers's efforts to organize farmworkers. The union reached its first collective bargaining agreement with a table grape grower in 1970, when David Freedman & Co. broke with other grape growers and signed with the UFW. The rest of the industry soon followed suit.

Political and economic developments in Coachella

By the 1980 census, Coachella's population had reached at least 10,000 due to relatively slow population growth. Due to a high percentage of Hispanics in the city, Coachella was a scene of Chicano political activism.

In 1995, state and federal officials designated Coachella as part of the Coachella Valley Enterprise Zone to boost economic activity and entice businesses to relocate to this rural city which was once home to several fruit shipping plants.

In 2010, a Coca-Cola bottling facility (a LEED certified building) was added to the city's new light industry facilities, a boon in the rapid-growth community which has a currently troubled economy.