What role did agriculture play in San Fernandos history?
For about a half century between San Fernando’s 1874 founding and the 1920s, the community was considered an “agricultural gem” set in the San Fernando Valley, thanks to a double blessing. An ample and reliable water supply was coupled with a coastal valley climate, in which the community’s elevation of about 1,100 feetalong with its receiving about 12 inches of rain a yearmade it ideal for growing crops. Though cattle ranching was common in the area when missionaries arrived in the late 1700s, by a century later the landscape was dotted with wheat plantings and fruit trees, whose growth was also aided by the irrigation systems in place from the Mission’s heyday. By the 1920s, with further assistance from the waters of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, fruit and especially citrus cultivation was San Fernando’s biggest industry. The price of land for orange and lemon groves went as high as $5,000 an acreas much as eight times more than the cost of other landand the city had at least four pa