Lands of the colony extended north of Rocklin and eastwardly to Penryn, touching the Central Pacific Railroad at three points, Rocklin, Loomis and Penryn. It was bounded on the north by high Boulder Ridge, which made a sweeping half-circle and was crested with thick pine forest; on the south by the Central Pacific Railroad, although, just north of Loomis the lands extended on both sides of the railroad almost to Newcastle; on the west by the lands north of Rocklin; on the east by a point south of Penryn. The terrain was that of the rolling foothills of the Sierra Nevada. The view from the numerous vantage points in the colony was magnificent. To the north could be seen the snow-capped Sierra Nevada, to the west the Sacramento Valley; and to the south a continual series of rolling foothills.
Such lands as Whitney did not buy were admitted into the project on equal terms with his own, and to the whole was given the name Placer County Citrus Colony. The Colony, organized into a corporation with seven stockholders of ten thousand acres each, for which there was issued ten thousand shares of stock at one dollar per share. No one was eligible as a shareholder except those owning, in their own names, land within the Colony. Each stockholder was limited to one share of stock for each acre of land he held. If a land owner sold his property, his interest in the Colony had to pass to the purchaser, but he retained the absolute right to sell and quote any price for his acreage. Each owner agreed to allow the company to construct boulevards, avenues, and ditches across his land as were needed.,
Although a decade prior to the inauguration of the Colony the area was covered mostly by timber and a few scattered ranches, by the time the colony was incorporated, there were some good roads and quite an acreage in orchards. Yet, there was much to be done and Whitney’s preparations were both extensive and expensive.
Whitney placed P. W. Butler in charge of the entire proceedings. Large numbers of Chinese laborers were hired to clear the lands. Considerable money was spent building roads in to Loomis, principally Delamere and Orange Avenues, and making other improvements prior to settlement. A weekly newspaper, "The Citrus Belt" was established, a fruit shipping house with a hall on the second floor was subsidized, a granite building on one of Whitney’s properties was converted into a club house, and surveys and maps were made, showing all holdings within the Colony project.
For more on the establishment of the Citrus Colony, its members and the demise of the Colony, you may purchase this book at the Placer County Museum Gift Shop or Winston Smith Books in Auburn.
Also included in this publication is "The Origin, Growth and Development of the Hydro-Electric and Irrigation Systems in Placer County, prepared in 1914 by the Placer County Water Users’ Association.