As early as mid-summer of 1885, a Placer County citizen, Mr. Hoge, suggested that Northern California could in no way more forcibly demonstrate its adaptability for the production of semi-tropic fruits than by holding, at some suitable point, a Citrus Fair. He also protested that Southern California was not all of California, so far as climatic advantages were concerned. . . .Placer County was about to invade the city of Los Angeles.
A former citizen of Newcastle, who had seen fine oranges and lemons grow and ripen in the county, moved to Los Angeles. He read, with some discomfiture, Los Angeles newspaper articles chiding Placer County about having to wrap their orange trees in blankets and using stoves in their orchards. One day he received from his old friend, George D Kellogg, of Newcastle, a box of fine oranges. There was included a small limb that had six or eight fine, yellow, fully grown oranges. In a spirit of loyalty to Placer, he gave the bough to a real estate office on Spring Street. Later in the day he passed the office and saw the bough displayed in their window. Above the oranges there was a notice which, to his disgust, read: "This is a sample of Southern citrus fruit." He wrote to Mr. Kellogg telling him of the situation. When Kellogg read the letter to a group of orchardists and water-users who were holding a convention in Auburn about the middle of December, 1887, J. Parker Whitney, immediately moved that an orange exhibit from Placer County be sent to Los Angeles. . . a resident of Loomis was sent directly to Los Angeles to procure a suitable hall for the exhibit. The remainder of this committee was chosen, with P. W. Butler, appointed manager of the exhibit, assisted by E. W Maslin, W. B. Lardner, J. F. Madden, R. Jones and J. J. Morrision.
Morrison succeeded in renting a building at 37 North Spring Street. . .and was delighted to find that it was directly across the street from the offending real estate office. Twenty-five thousand oranges were placed artistically in frames and set at a forty-five degree angle. In the center, and on each side, were oranges, lemons, Japanese persimmons and a few apples. On the floor, as a black border were olives and raisins. A large ten by fifteen foot map of Placer County that showed the route of the Southern Pacific Railroad, as well as an outline of Lake Tahoe, hung on the wall to the left as one entered. One of the committee wrote a letter to the editor of the Herald he which he stated: "Some of the questions asked of the committee would make the Egyptian Sphinx weep". Here are some of them: "Which end of Placer County borders the ocean? Did these oranges grow where the snow is 10 feet deep? . . .
The citrus fair had a ironic ending, as its entire effect was wiped out by one of the worst freezes to strike the lower foothill region. On the day a committee from Los Angeles visited Placer to see if oranges displayed at the fair really came from the area so widely advertised, the region was experiencing bitterly cold weather. The temperature was sixteen degrees above zero, with four or five inches of ice and snow on the ground. The committee turned around and went home, convinced the whole affair was a big hoax.
For more of the fascinating history of Placer County fruit and the Citrus Colony, visit the Placer County Museum Gift Shop at the Placer County Museum and Courthouse or Winston Smith Books, High Street in Auburn.
(This publication also includes the Origin. Growth and Development of the Hydro-Electric and irrigation Systems in Placer County as of 1924)